Wintergirls

Wintergirlsby Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether. (goodreads.com)

So, yes. My head is in a funny headspace and I am now on a roll reading all sorts of "issue" novels. I don't know what else to call them. Books about depression, suicide, eating disorders, mental disorders... just books about sadness. I'm strange, I find books about sadness to be rather cathartic. Sort of like therapy.How I wish there were books like these when I was growing up. I so do.Wintergirls is heartwrenchingly beautiful. There is such poetry in the flow of writing that just captivated me. I even loved the use of the strike through, like this, effect as Lia would change her thoughts from "I want all of the cake!" to "I am strong, empty, I do not need the cake."  I have only experienced this type of typography (is that the right word?) once in a novel, Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me and it bothered me so much I couldn't finish the novel. So I was worried when I saw this was the manner in which the reader would be privy to Lia's internal monologue, but thankfully I felt it worked well with the story.There's a lot more to this novel than just a story about a girl with an eating disorder. There is so much going on that draws you in and breaks your heart into a million pieces, but at the same time makes you root for the protagonist and want her to heal, get better, survive.I also love that there is a tiny hint of a mystery about the death of her (former) best friend and this also gnaws at Lia's soul and triggers more destructive behaviour.I love issue novels that don't have shiny, happy, Disney endings. If a character happens to have a breakthrough, it's one thing, but it's nice to know that they still have a long path of recovery ahead of them and you know it isn't going to be peaches and cream. Endings that make the story much more realistic are so much more effective in issue novels than stories that wrap up with a pretty bow and act like nothing was ever wrong in the first place and there will never be any more difficulty in the future.This book was very real, raw and emotional. The story has a heart and you can't help but feel everything thrown at you.This book helps exorcise demons and chaos from my brain. That's the kind of catharsis I need. Sometimes you just need to feel strong, raw emotion in orde to be able to move on to the next thing.I now want to read more by Laurie Halse Anderson, as this was my introduction to her writing. I adored it. I want more.BONUS SCORE: I picked this book up for $4.99 on the bargain racks at Chapigo and I was delighted to find that the book is SIGNED. It wasn't even noted on the cover. I don't tend to get my books signed, but it makes me happy when I find one with an author's signature in it. I don't know why, but it does. ;)