Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

It's another young adult novel about anorexia. Wow, I thought that they'd all been written in the seventies and eighties because I've read a lot of them!

So, I was hoping that LHA would bring something new to the anorexia story. But no. Lia is starving herself. Lia doesn't get along with her parents. Lia is a drama queen. Nothing new there.

The melodrama is heightened when Lia's longtime friend, Cassandra, dies. Cassandra was a comrade when it came to eating disorders, though she chose to binge/purge, rather than just starve herself.

So, Lia is now seeing Cassie's ghost. And starving herself. And cutting herself. No new revelations. No insights. Just melodrama.

I was disappointed by this novel. I was hoping for something new, but LHA just didn't deliver anything new.

5/12/09