Teaser Tuesday -- Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :
1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3 . Share 2 "teaser" sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser".
4. Please avoid spoilers!

Nobody here is Cassie.   I'm safe. 

~ p. 92, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Brutal, harsh, and relentless.  Laurie Halse Anderson (author of Speak) has crafted a very intense YA novel about Lia, an eighteen-year-old who is anorexic.  Lia's once best friend (the aforementioned Cassie) dies and Lia struggles to remain in "control" while deeply desiring positive connections with her mother, father, stepmother and stepsister. 

I would be curious to hear what someone who has struggled with an eating disorder (or those close to them) would have to say about the story.  The way that different people chose to respond to Lia and to her anorexia and cutting reminded me of Still Alice -- in that I'm fascinated by the variety of possible responses to a given crisis and how incredibly difficult it is to know which response is most helpful or effective in the long term. 

The Elijah character ever so slightly didn't work for me -- but it may be that Anderson just made him so real and three-dimensional that I was sad and disappointed -- You know, just like real-life with real-life people. 

I would certainly recommend this book -- Anderson really gets inside Lia's mind and helps make sense of anorexia for those who have never been there.