Wintergirls

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Published in 2009 by Viking Juvenile
288 pages (7 hours audio)
Warning: This novel is NOT for the faint of heart. It contains extremely disturbing images and explicit narration throughout of self harm and negative feelings. Anderson does not hide anything. There is also explicit language in the novel.
Genre: Body Image, Friends and Society, Family, Death

Wintergirls tells the chilling details of Leah, a teenage girl dealing with the death of her friend. After her friend's death, Leah claims she is being visited by her ghostly friend who just died. The two shared one thing in common. Both had eating disorders.

Cassie called Leah over 30 times the night she died, and Leah never picked up the telephone. Full of regret, Leah leads a life of destruction and harms herself, as well as those around her.

Rather then reading the novel, I listened to it. The novel, which is already shocking, was even more intense to listen to. For those who can handle the detailed and descriptive narrated scenes, I highly recommend it. I would not have gotten the same reading if I had simply read the novel.