Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

First off, it is really weird reading a book about anorexia while fasting. There are parallels (and great divergences, of course) that really help you sympathize with the narrator even as you shy away from the excesses of control. I’ve never suffered from an eating disorder, tho I know people who have, but I have to say that as far as I can tell Wintergirls is a convincing, compelling look into the mind of teenage girls who do. Laurie Halse Anderson writes with sympathy and imagination, vividly navigating a hallucinatory inner world that reminds me only all too well of my own adolescence. Harrowing and sensitive, this is one of those books that I’m glad to have read because it makes me feel like I truly understand, at least a certain subset of, other people better now and can respond with more kindness and support than I might have before.