Constantine's Reviews > Wintergirls

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Genre:
Contemporary + Young Adult

Synopsis:
Lia and Cassie are best friends who struggle with anorexia. One day Cassie is found dead in a motel room. She tried to contact Lia many times to say sorry after their breakup, but Lia never answered her that day for the horrible things she said to her. When Lia finds that her friend is no more she will struggle a lot to choose between life and death.

Book Structure:
The book is 278 pages. There are 65 chapters and most are short and can be read very fast. The story is told from Lia's perspective. The reader gets to understand her struggle with food, life, and death!


“Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in?”

My Thoughts:
The subject of this book is crucial and very relevant in our times. Eating disorders are everywhere around the world. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, there are 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the U.S. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, and every 62 minutes at least one person dies directly from an eating disorder! These statistics are terrifying which makes this subject a very important one and everybody should have some kind of awareness about it.

The writing style is very easy to follow. There are several quotes that I found to be beautiful. But I wish the author went a little deeper into the main theme. I know this is a young adult book but still, a little bit darker atmosphere would have made the story more interesting.


“I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughterhood. Failed mirrors and scales and phone calls. Good thing I'm stable. ”

The main character was struggling a lot with the food, calories, and the desire whether to stay alive or not. Young girls' obsession with getting thin, thinner, or thinnest is a real thing. Among the characters I find Elijah to be the one with lots of sense of humor even when everybody else was very serious. The stepmom's character was surprisingly good towards the main character for a change too!

There are trigger warnings in this book that might make some readers uncomfortable. If eating disorders or suicide make you uncomfortable in any way then you should avoid this book or at least be cautious reading it. I would normally rate Wintergirls as a 3.5 star but because of the important theme, I am going with a 4.0 out of 5.0.


“I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don't want to die. I want to eat like a normal person eats, but I need to see my bones or I will hate myself even more and I might cut my heart out or take every pill that was ever made.”