Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

"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.

Wow. wow. wow. This book was stunning and intense. It's the kind of book that you have to put down for a while before you continue reading. It was almost frightening at times to be inside Lia's head. To hear herself rationalize what she was doing. There was one line that she said over and over to herself that just shocked me,

"::Stupid/ugly/stupid/bitch/stupid/fat/

stupid/baby/stupid/loser/stupid/lost::"

This book was so real. So many girls see themselves this way and so they cut and starve their bodies. Lia never saw herself as anorexic, she saw herself as strong. Throughout the book you see examples of her controlling her thoughts around food; telling herself that she doesn't need that muffin, or that pizza makes her gag. I don't know how the author pulled this book off. It was amazing and scary at the same time. Everything about this book is so brilliant. This is, so far, my favorite book from 2009.

Waiting For You

by Susane Colasanti

I don't even know how to give a synopsis of this book without making it sound SO shallow and cheesy. But it's not. If you decide to read this book, do me a favor and don't read the synopsis that comes with it. It will make you want to throw the book in the trash. Trust me. So instead of trying to tell you the plot, I'm going to describe the way I felt about the book. 

This book is about a boy and a girl (of course) but it's also so much more than that. It's about how everyone is always waiting for something. We're waiting to grow up, waiting to find true love, waiting to discover our purpose in life. Teens especially are always waiting for things to change. This book grasps that so well. The writing is not brilliant, but the story is truly thought prevoking. It's about a girl who is struggling with an anxiety disorder. She over analyzes everything that goes on in her life and at school, and it drives her crazy. She creates this image in her mind of the "perfect guy" that she thinks she wants to be with, when in reality he's not the guy she thought she knew. I loved how the family seemed completely normal for the first half of the book, but then the parents got a divorce and ruined it. Overall this book is a very easy read, and completely worth it. You just have to be willing to look beyond the high school drama and dig for the good stuff, and I promise you it's there.