Wintergirls 

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia and Cassie have been friends since they were little girls, now each with their own eating disorder and in competition with one another to see who can be thinner. Lia, at 18, anorexic cutter who feels guilty for not being able to save Cassie, bulimic, even though they were technically not friends anymore.  Cassie was found in a shady motel room, by herself, dead on the night that she had called Lia 33 times but Lia never answered.  Now she is left with the guilt and the voice mails her former friend left on her cell phone before she died.    Could Lia have saved Cassie had she answered her phone, and how did Cassie die?  She lets her guilt take her down a dangerous path of self-destruction, she pretends like she is ok and makes sure to make her family believe this too.  She goes as far as drinking crazy amounts of water before weighing-ins and sewing quarters into her robe so it adds weight to her own weight, which keeps going down.  Is it too late to save her life does she even want to?