Wintergirls

WINTERGIRLS

LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON

(Picture from http://lovelyreader.blogspot.com/2011/05/wintergirls-review.html)

Trigger warning: Eating disorders

Whoa. An actual review. Crazy.

Anyhow, so Wintergirls is about a girl (Lia), who suffers from anorexia. Her friend, Cassie, recently died, alone in a hotel room, after she called Lia 33 times. Cassie was bulimic and told Lia she was brave, strong, when Lia rapidly lost weight.

So, strange thing about this book. There was no 'getting from point A to point B'. Honestly, the plot was basically just an important snippet of life for Lia. I thought that was interesting.

Onto the actual book.

I want to say I loved this book. I mean, I really wanted to love it. I bet I could have loved it. But reading it was like swimming through corn syrup instead of water.

It was like reading a poem, minus the breaks that make it sound like a real poem. It was thick with metaphors and similes, and while they sometimes improved the mental picture, a lot of the time it made the writing muddled and confusing. It was kind of like purple prose.

The character, however, was relatable (well, as long as you're a teenaged girl, so sorry guys) and well written. I'll begrudgingly accept that some of the things she said (the book is written in the first person), which made it sound more poetic and purple, actually kind of made sense. Made a lot of sense. Whatever.

A couple of things are mentioned at one point and then forgotten for the rest of the book. Lia's little sister, Emma, has two cats, which disappear after one mention. The Cupcake Scene (as it shall be addressed) happens, and then is promptly forgotten, even though you'd think Lia would remember it and that it would be important in her records at New Seasons (a mental recovery place) later. Maybe, 'hey, look, she actually wants to/can eat, she just doesn't'. Something like that is a tad important.

The dialogue was well thought out and believable. People, unlike some stories I've read, actually spoke like people, not Shakespearean characters. So, despite the way that it was written, it's not like normal people spoke like poets.

On the other hand, a lot of parts of this book were confusing. I'm not sure if that's the metaphors and similes talking, but some parts of the book make me wonder if Lia was a psycho, because they just don't make sense. It's like the author would occasionally forget that this was supposedly a contemporary book. Trust me, if you read it, you'll know what I mean.

About halfway through the book, it actually starts sounding like a true narrative, and then it slowly falls back into the poetic, purple style. Just thought that was interesting.

Despite my complaining, this was a good book. The dialogue and emotions were both very believable, and the plot (or whatever it is) was good. So... Yeah. Also, if you like symbolism, you'll probably love this. I don't love symbolism. It's my personal opinion that probably made this book seem worse to me.