Please, if you suffer or have suffered from: Any eating disorder, clinical depression, or self-harm, it's probably best you don't read this book. It's extremely triggering. Please be safe, and please be smart.

Wintergirls is incredibly hard to read but impossible to put down. This is my first Laurie Halse Anderson book and I've already fallen in love with her writing style. Anderson dives headfirst and unapologetically into the deeps and darks of a young woman who just want to be as thin as can be. It's brutal, it's hard, and it's real. So many girls (and boys for that matter) suffer with body image issue and it just eats them up inside.
There's not much I can really say. It's a brutal book, but it's important. It's brilliantly written and every character seems to slide off the pages.
Again I must reiterate, it's triggering so please be safe.
4 stars out of 5.

I absolutely LOVED this book.
WARNING: It may be triggering to others who have had eating disorders, but it was an amazing book. I give it 5 stars. It was very sad and a lot of people could relate. I highly recommend it. Very sad, but so realistic. The way Anderson writes is beyond words. It makes you feel so alive, it takes you into the book and really gets you to know the characters. This was one of the most incredible books I have ever read. I encourage you to take yourself into the book realm, and read read read read. People nowadays prefer devices and electronics more than reading and actually using your mind. READ!

“Here stands a girl clutching a knife. There is grease on the stove, blood in the air, and angry words piled in the corners. We are trained not to see it, not to see any of it. . . . Someone just ripped off my eyelids.”

-Quote from Wintergirls

“We held hands when we walked down the gingerbread path into the forest, blood dripping from our fingers. We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into wintergirls, when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.”

-Quote from Wintergirls

“Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.”

-Quote from Wintergirls

"When books are opened, we discover that we have wings"

-Helen Hayes

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an excellent depiction of the eating disordered mind. It could definitely be a trigger for those who struggle with ED.

Anderson shows clearly how a teen with an eating disorder can fool those around them into thinking they're recovering, while they continue their destructive behavior. And she shows the emotional cost to loved ones when the person they love is intent on slowly killing themselves. What I wish she had done better was to explain more clearly why a person engages in this behavior - the thought processes that lead a person to binge and purge, or cut, or commit suicide.
Overall, though, a well-written, emotionally charged book.

Excellent, realistic and heartbreaking portrayal of the struggles teens go through when dealing with self image, weight and friendships.

Wintergirls is a very intense book, the main character, Lia, she goes though so much in this book, it hard to put down the book when you start to read Lia story. Lia has problems in her life she trying yo figure out and trying to fit in. I really like this book because it connects to real life situations with people in the world, i really do suggest this book to read cause it makes you not want to put the book down. I really suggest that people who like to read real world problems to read this book, or people who understand what Lia going though.

As someone who has suffered from anorexia nervosa for about sixteen years, this book definitely helped me put a lot of things into perspective after the fact. Wintergirls is a very real, very accurate look at the damage eating disorders cause and what sort of mental jumps people make in order to justify their disorder.

This book touches on many difficult topics: loss, grief, eating disorders, and addiction. Because of this subject matter it may be disturbing to some readers. However, it is also a gripping mystery with relatable characters.

This book is extremely damaging. I am a library tech student and abhor the act of censoring books, but I wish upon the grave of my dead baby that this book would never be read by anyone, and it never have been written. As an anorexia-nervosa survivor, I actually hate this book because it helped me get sick, over and over and over again. I was down to 77 lbs more than once, and almost died on multiple occasions, including at least one official suicide attempt. Wintergirls was inspiration, it was my comfort, it gave me permission to hate myself and starve myself. It gave me a character that I could relate to, and try to beat. I've given up years and years of my life to eating disorders and I would highly recommend this book be taken out of circulation because every single person I've met who has or had an eating disorder has read this book and treats it like a bible. This book is literally killing people. Not just teenagers, I know of a mother who has spent over ten years of her life in treatment, and has battled with her eating disorder in multiple forms for over half of her life. Please, if you have a heart, take this book out of circulation. It kills.

Excellent book that documents the struggles and dangers of an eating disorder from a first-person perspective. One of my favorites; I've read it many times.