Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
From Goodreads.com:
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.
Imagine living in a world where all you do is count calories. Lia, the main character of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls, does, and no one wants to live there. When she was thirteen, she made a bet with her best friend that she would be the skinniest girl in school. While Lia succeeded, Cassie was found dead before she could reach her goal. While all of this kept my nose glued in the pages, I mostly loved it because of its organization, the dialogue between the characters, and the setting.
One thing I loved about this book was its organization. It was organized in scenes, not chapters, which I found very interesting. Some of the scenes were several pages, while others were several sentences. They were numbered in the order that they came, and were written as weight measurements, like 44.00. All of this made it easy to read and was a creative way to organize the book.
Another thing I loved about Wintergirls was the dialogue between the characters. The way they talked described their personalities, which could help the reader understand the characters better. There was a wide range of people who talked to Lia, and whatever they said was clearly stated. Any writer could use this technique to grab the reader’s attention.
The last thing I wanted to talk about was the modern setting. Lia talks a lot about her cell phone, and how Cassie called her before she died. Modern technology was like the backbone in this story, because of the computer sites Lia visited, her cell phone that she pretended to loose, and the car she was scared to wreck because she wasn’t heavy enough to hold down the gas pedal. This particular setting improved the story more than you could think.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the best novels I’ve read. The story was great, but the way it was written grabbed my attention. I liked the organization, the dialogue, and the setting because of the way it assisted this book. I would recommend this novel to all teenagers because of the theme and the quality of the story. It is truly amazing.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
From Goodreads.com:
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.
Have you ever wondered what it was like to be an outcast? Melinda, the main character of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is. This book was my favorite of our summer reading books. I mostly enjoyed this book because of the theme, setting, and the narration.
One of the things I enjoyed most was the theme. Through some reading, I concluded the theme as this: When you have a problem, tell someone. Nothing on earth is worth the greif and depression Melinda went through. She got to the point that she would cut herself to let the depression out. She didn’t feel like this after she told someone. This helped at the end of the book, and it is a very meaningful theme for a teenage book.
Another thing I loved about this book was the setting. Melinda’s home life wasn’t perfect, her friends hated her, and she could ride a bicycle to anywhere she wanted, or she could use public transportation. This made it easy for Melinda to get around in the book. She could go to the mall, or to school, or to her friend’s house. This all helped things take place in the story.
The entire book kept me enthralled by making the narration in first person. Being able to hear Melinda’s inner thoughts gave me a better view of the book. She described what she saw in her point of view, and it gave a better sense on how she thinks. Reading the book in first person made the book much better.
I enjoyed this book very much, especially because of the theme, the setting, and the narration. All of these elements made this book great. It really made me think about other people’s lives. I would recommend this book to any teenager or adult. This is a great book and I honestly enjoyed it.
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