Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wintergirls takes readers into the mind of Lia, a teenager spiraling out of control. Lia and former best friend Cassie used to compete to see who could lose the most weight. Now Cassie has died from her eating disorder, leaving Lia to feel guilty for ignoring her phone calls and haunted by hallucinations of Cassie encouraging Lia to continue on her destructive path. Lia, who has no friends and struggles with her family relationships, is alone with her own negative thoughts and inner voices telling her she must lose more weight and cut herself. In Anderson's hands it is poetic and insightful and certainly a cut above any other "teen eating disorder" book I have ever read. However, for some reason this didn't fully capture my attention—I kept hoping for a little more of a plot or some other thread to bring me out of Lia's inner turmoil. I know teens will love this book and it will touch their lives deeply, so I do recommend it to readers mature enough to handle the difficult subjects presented.