Wikipedia
Wintergirls is a fiction novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. It tells the story of a girl, Lia Overbrook, who suffers from anorexia and self harm. She struggles to fight her mental illness while balancing everything else in her life. Months after a fall out with her best friend Cassie, Lia receives news that she has died from bulimia. Lia's fight for her life becomes even more difficult.
Melvin Burgess of The Guardian says, "The true nature of anorexia is made painfully clear. Lia starves herself because it is the only control she has over her disintegrating personality; anyway, why feed something so hateful? She cuts herself not to cause pain, but to let the pain – and the dirt – out. The dirt in this case is, of course, herself. As with the plotting, this fractured and utterly convincing interior monologue is intercut with the rather bored face she presents to the world around her.
And yet, throughout, there is the feeling that if somehow you could only reach in and talk to this girl, you could save her life. It's an exhausting novel to read: brilliant, intoxicating, full of drama, love and, like all the best books of this kind, hope. It would be rare to find a novel in mainstream adult fiction prepared to pull out the dramatic stops this far, and difficult to imagine one in recent years that was prepared to be so bold stylistically. It's a book that will be around for many years. It may not be an original piece, as these tricks have been pulled before in teen fiction. Yet it pulls them off with more skill and effect than anything I have ever read."
The Washington Post called the book "both painful to read and riveting". The New York Times said that "We recognize Lia, but it's sometimes hard to relate to her."