Book Review Monday - Week 15 and 16

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars

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 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.
In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

My take: This was a really interesting book. Because I have never struggled with any kind of eating disorder, there were parts I didn't quite understand, but I also think I did get a better understanding of that same perspective. The writing was a little weird, but I think that was because of the disorder and was purposely done that way. Again, another somewhat sad book throughout, but it does have a happy ending, so at least that's good.

Two Roads by Chris Crowe

My rating: 5 stars

Summary: "Jared Hills has been haunted by the car crash every night. It was thenight everything changed. It was the night Leisel died.
Now, two years later, as Jared reflects on his life, he can't help but wonderat the chain reaction of choices that led him to this: a black nametagand a calling to serve as a missionary of God.
It had been Leisel who had first sparked Jared's interest in the gospel.She and Rob had befriended Jared early on in his senior year of high school.But even as all of Rob's choices seem to be leading him away from theChurch, all of Jared's choices were drawing him closer to it--and to Leisel.And on the night of the horrible crash, Jared finally understands howlife-changing the consequences of a choice can be.

My review: Very sweet and endearing book. It was a short and fast read, but I loved it. Jared goes back and forth from his current time on his mission to back when he met Liesel and how he became a member of the church. Very good piece of LDS fiction.