Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Available At: DCC (MS), Eagleview, Liberty, Mountain Ridge, Pine Creek, Timberview, Challenger
Added to Eagleview, Liberty, Pine Creek, Timberview, Challenger approx. Nov 2023
Categories : Cursing, Violence
Description: A teenage girl remembers her bulimic friend who died, as she nearly dies during her battles with anorexia, bulimia, and cutting.
YA Label?: Yes
Notes: This book contains self-harm including anorexia, bulimia, cutting and suicidal ideations; alcohol use; drug use; and profanity and derogatory terms.
Rating : 3
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Snippets
Page 22: The halls fill with a river of bodies and voices whispering that Cassie was murdered/no, she hung herself/no, she smoked or snorted her way to the Final Exit. She’d try anything once, did you hear about the time under the bleachers/at the mall/at summer camp? She drove herself into a speeding train/jumped without a parachute/strapped on a weight belt and dove into the ocean.
Page 52: As I step on the scale, Cassie dreams. I open my eyes. 099.00 pounds. I am officially standing on Goal Number One. …At 099.00 pounds I think clearer, look better, feel stronger. When I reach the
next goal, it will be all that, and more. Goal Number Two is 095.00 pounds, the perfect point of balance. At 095.00, I will be pure. Light enough to walk with my head up, meaty enough to fool everyone. At 095.00, I will have the strength to stay in control. …At 090.00, I will soar. That’s Goal Number Three.
Page 60: ::Stupid/ugly/stupid/bitch/stupid’s/fat/stupid/baby/stupid/loser/stupid/lost::…The box opens and the razors slide out, whisper sweet. Used to be that my whole body was my canvas- hot cuts licking my ribs, ladder rungs climbing my arms, thick milkweed stalks shooting up my thighs. When I moved to Jenniferland, my father made one condition. A daughter who forgets how to eat, well that was bad, but it was just a phase and I was over it. But a daughter who opens her own skin bag, wanting to let her shell fall to the ground so she can dance? That was just sick. No cutting, Lia Marrigan Overbrook. Not under Daddy’s roof. Bottom line. …All the badness boils under my skin, stingy gingerable bubbles fighting to
breathe. I unbutton my jeans, sliding the zipper open one tooth at a time. I twist to the right and push down the fabric band of my underpants. My left hip arches up, glowing blue in the movie light. ::Stupid/ugly/stupid/bitch/stupid/fat/stupid/baby/stupid/loser/stupid/lost:: I inscribe three lines, hush hush hush, into my skin. Ghosts trickle out. …I put the blade back in the box, and the box back in the bag and press my hand against the wet cuts until the credits roll. Just before the lights come up, I stick my fingers in my mouth. I taste like dirty quarters.
Page 129:I try to keep calorie intake under 500. anything more is unacceptable. Mucho Love! Stay strong <333 I am so disgustingly, horribly fat. Today I went for a 2 hour run and starved myself till dinner where I ate like a pig. Sometimes I feel so fucking helpless.
Page 221: Nanna Marrigan’s bond-handled knife slide out from under my mattress, slithers into the bathroom, and lies down to the left of the sink, blade facing the glass wall. The pills I took an hour ago bang through my veins like metal trash cans blowing down the street. …I use my shirt to wipe the steam off the mirror. It’s beading up on my arms, too, pealing on my lanugo fuzz, the little white hairs I’ve started growing to keep me warm. Stupid body. What’s the point of growing fur and letting the hair on my head fall out?
Additional Snippets Here