The book begins with Lia being greeted one morning with the news that her long-time friend Cassie was found dead in a hotel. What follows is Lia's struggle with anorexia. Her ability to control her eating, or lack of eating, in a world in which she has little control is emotional. Her mother is a busy doctor; her father a professor at the local university; her stepmother terribly unaware. It is this life filled with people that seem too busy to truly know Lia that first brings her and Cassie together in their attempt to be thin. They can control their weight, and in a way, control their parents. Now that Cassie is dead, Lia is haunted by her friend as she continues to fall deeper and deeper into a world with little food. She struggles to find out about Cassie's last moments to help put her ghost to rest, but what keeps you reading is to see if she is able to heal herself; whereas her friend did not.
A very dark and haunting novel to say the least. The images of the ghost of Cassie standing over Lia's bed floated through my mind as I fell asleep after reading it one night. Definitely different than anything else I have read by this author, but as expected, the narrator is believable due to great reflective thought and realistic dialogue. I couldn't put it down because I really didn't know if Lia was strong enough to admit that she had a problem and that she NEEDED help. It is really hard to do that and Anderson does a great job of developing that conflict.
Have you read this book or any of Laurie Halse Anderson's other books? Leave a comment!
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