Book Review #11

Dude, it's been like two months since I read an entire book that wasn't related to school (I could've reviewed Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, but I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it). My apologies.

Today's book to be sacrificed upon the altar of Sara is:

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

As always, it will be subjected to the rigorous 5 Steps of Doom: Summary, What I Liked, What I Didn't Like, The Overall Mood Said Book Left Me In, and The Overall Rating. The Overall Rating will be based on my highly selective Sara's Scale of Suck or Soar, as follows, lowest to highest:

Level 1: This is How Not to Write a Book
Level 2: What Editor Read this and said "Hmm, Let's Publish it"?
Level 3: My Faith in Writers is Wavering Precariously
Level 4: This Doesn't Suck
Level 5: I'd Read the Sequel
And the coveted Level 6: Fan-FREAKING-tastic. Buy at All Costs.

Summary: Where to begin. Basically, it's about a girl with anorexia. But it's so much more than that. It's so big and powerful and heavy and sad and depressing and terrifying that I feel like if I summarize it at all, it will take away from it's power. So suffice to say it's about -- demons. And darkness. And finding a light in yourself. Not a strong light, not an end-all light. A light just big enough to show yourself the darkness in you.

What I Liked: I read this book in two days. It was so quick, so easy, the language flowed like natural thought. Like I was inside Lia's head, feeling all this stuff with her. I knew exactly why she wasn't eating, exactly how she saw herself. I understood why she was hurting herself and why she kept doing those things. Normally, in a book about weaknesses and addiction, I wouldn't want to sympathize with the MC. But Anderson made Lia so frighteningly real and here and now that I felt like I was listening to one of my friends tell me what was happening to her. Which is what made this book so terrifying.

What I Didn't Like: This book was so real it made me nauseous. I had to stop reading a few times because it was so, so, so real. Lia also has issues with cutting, and that's what got me the worst -- Anderson's descriptions of the knife in her skin, why she cuts, were all too moving. It's a testament to Anderson's ability to write, but it was almost too much for me.

The Overall Mood Said Book Left Me In: Very aware of my own demons. None as extreme as Lia's, thank God. But this books makes you see the darknesses in you as Lia sees the darknesses in her.

The Overall Rating: How could it be anything less? Level 6: Fan-FREAKING-tastic. Buy at All Costs.

Wait -- that's two Level 6's in a row. People will start thinking I like books or something.