“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls. “Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit. In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.
~Written to the teen audience, this book was a quick and easy read. It struck me on two different levels.
1) I've always been obsessed with my weight. Not to the point that Lia and Cassie take it, but it's always something that is in the back of my mind. However, I could never be anorexic - I love food too much, and I could never be bulimic - I'd never be able to force myself to throw up. The thoughts that are stated throughout this book are ones that I've often thought myself, though.....
2) As a parent, it's frightening to think of my own daughter in this book. At times I notice her being worried about how she looks, but I try to make sure she knows that she is perfect the way that she is. And as I read thru it I learned clues that one can look for as my own daughter gets older.
I keep my own weight issues to myself for the most part - that's not something that I want to pass on to my daughter. and this book is the shining reason why....
~~3.5 Stars~~
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