Wintergirls

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

Narrated by: Jeannie Stith

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

"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.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her stepmother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way - thin, thinner, thinnest - maybe she'll disappear altogether.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrical book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

©2009 Laurie Halse Anderson (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Haunting

Laurie Halse Anderson is a phenomenal story teller. I read her book Speak in 1 day, one of her best. This story was intriguing, disturbing, and heartwarming.

The one thing I didn't like is how they audibly handled what I assume are cross outs in the written from of the book. There are beeps and odd volume adjustments. I think I'd rather hear a vocal change rather than an "editing" change. I think Jeannie Stith could have acted the "cross outs" without the annoying beeps. I personally don't like that directorial? choice. I'm curious to see how other audio productions handle that challenge

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

adored it

Such a great, addicting novel. You become so engaged in the madness. Would definitely recommend.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Held me Captive

Beware - I had to listen to from beginning to end.
If you have read L H A, you know the power of this writer and her attention to honest detail. Wintergirls will not disappoint.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Could have been better

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The beeps were annoying as heck and crossed out sections

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

find a different way to represent that besides beeps

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

used something else or a different voice to represent those weird sections

Do you think Wintergirls needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

no because she got over her disorder

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

It's not the narrators fault

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book was hours I'll never get back, it droned on and on over the same few thoughts filled with cheap metaphors.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Elena Vanishing

Was Wintergirls worth the listening time?

No

Audio Quality Should be Better

I am distracted during this recording because you can hear a beeping noise in the background. Sometimes there is a few minutes between beeps but other times there are only a few seconds.

Amazing Book

So-so reading performance. Reader used strange "masculine" voices and accents. The story is accurate and beautiful.

Typical entitled white girl get an eating disorder

I normally love novels concerning body image issues, but I found this story to be very flat and basic. If these types of books are your thing it's definitely worth a read just to read it, but it lacks depth and character. Lia is extremely boring, entitled and just uninteresting. She comes from a loving, very wealthy family so I didn't *get* why she was so miserable. There was no trigger moment described, either. It's like she just woke up one day and was consumed with being thin.

The narrator is great, though.

A good story read by Siri

I liked the book. It's a very interesting and detailed insight of what an eating disorder really feels like. The only problem was that it was read by the most monotonous narrator I've ever heard (I had to check twice that it wasn't Siri reading). I don't know if it was intentional, to reflect how the protagonist was feeling, because it certainly got better at the end, but I struggled to keep listening at first. I almost ditched the book because of that, but I'm glad I didn't, because, as a future psychologist, it gave me a further understanding of eating disorders and depression. I truly think this will help me in the future.

The prose took some getting used to, but...

This was great. The writing style was unique and it was hard to get used to on Audible. But once I did, it was a really cool way to tell a story.

Good, but style and audio issues

This book provides a good description of the anorexic / bulimic experience. I have read other reviews which state that it is inaccurate on this front, but there is no "one" experience of any illness - every individual's experience is different and Lia's experience is certainly not inaccurate. I don't think it either glamorizes eating disorders or moralizes on the issue, and is responsible about showing consequences.

If you are reading for an insight into what it's like for these girls, then this book will do the trick. But if you are suffering from an eating disorder, or ED thinking and emotional patterns, this book will not help and may act as a trigger.

Personally, I found the style irritatingly over-written and I probably wouldn't read another Laurie Anderson book. Her writing style is chock-full of so many mixed metaphors and similes (sometimes several in the same sentence) that I think it gets in the way of the story. It draws attention to the writing, and distances you from the characters. Does anybody (let alone a teenager) truly think like this?

I found the ending wrapped up too quickly, and not entirely plausibly.

My main issues were with the audio-recording, however. The reader is good, but for some reason, certain phrases/memories are recorded with a muffled voice. Probably in the print version, these phrases are in italics or something, but the audio technique is just annoying. You find yourself reaching for your iPod to check your headphones before realizing that it's that audio effect again. In the meantime, you've been yanked out of the story and lost a few lines.

Also, and I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a sound effect or if it's just some recording noise that hasn't been scrubbed from the final version, but there's an occasional "booooop" tone every so often, playing over the narration. If it's intentional, then I am stymied as to what it's supposed to signify, because I can't make out a pattern. If it's an error, then it's just not acceptable.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

I love the book.

The book is brilliant, it has an actual story to it and is well written.
The reader for this book however, is boring and does the story no justice.
I expected a much better reader from this service.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful