Winter Girls: The Full Story

After finishing Winter Girls I now understand the meaning of the title. Lia believes herself to be a winter girl because she is not dead, but not truly alive. She is stuck somewhere in between in a frozen place...

Throughout the rest of the novel Lia struggles with seeing the ghost of her best friend Cassie. She tries not to see her and get her to go away. Lia also struggles with her internal battle between her and food. She struggles with only eating minimal amounts of food, enough to fool the world around her. She believes herself to be stronger than other because she does not eat. She constantly strives for a lower weight. Her 3rd goal is to be 90 pounds. Later she says she doesn't know if she could ever quit wanting to be less weight until she reaches zero.
Her family life feels like a war zone with constant battles going on between all the parental figures in her life. Her sister Emma is the only one who she deeply cares for. Emma is her stepsister that she treats like her own sister. Her relationship is vital to success of Lia's life.
Lia struggles in a motel room towards the end of the book. She recently almost died from cutting herself. Her sister Emma found her on the bathroom floor and was so upset by the sight. Lia was sent to the hospital and her parents kept  a much more watchful eye on her. This caused Lia to want to run away so she goes to a motel room and almost dies. Cassie is trying to pull her into crossing over with her, but Lia finds some inner strength and finally wants to get better for Emma. After that Lia is put into psychiatric care and treated the way she needs to be treated. This time is different because Lia is actually compliant with all the treatments versus fighting them.

...At the end the last line says "I am thawing." This signifies that she is no longer a winter girl and slowly becoming more alive than she was as a winter girl.

This was a great read and I recommend picking it up if you ever get the chance!

Winter Girls: Continued..

This author is very skilled in how she portrays the main character's vulnerability in dealing with such grave issues.  She crafts her work in a way that you can see what Lia wants to do and what she actually does. The author writes Lia’s wants but then crosses them out like this and then writes what Lia really does and correct herself. This especially deals with what she thinks about food. The food she actually wants to eat is crossed out and the stuff she truly eats is what happens.  Lia also faces a lot of personal conflict with herself. She struggles with her view of herself and society’s view of herself.  She thinks society’s view is wrong and tries to make it seem as though she is conforming to that image; however, she secretly pushes herself to not eat so she can stay at her ideal body type.

In addition to dealing with her battle with anorexia, she also deals with the grief of her best friend dying. She recently dissolved her friendship with Cassie. The guilt of her not picking up any one of her 33 calls from Cassie the night she died is eating her up. This guilt is slowly creeping more into her and making her think she is seeing Cassie and everyday life. I think this happens partly because she is so upset that her former best friend is dead, but she is also malnourished so her body is reacting to that.

Lia also has a very complicated family home life. She refers to her mom and stepmom as their first name. She does not like the family dynamic. Her mom and dad split when she was born and fight often. Her dad remarried pretty quickly after he was divorced and she does not like the new wife. She feels very alone when it comes to her family. Strangely enough she cares for her younger step-sister. She is the only one she cares for in the family.  Lia leads a very complicated life.

Winter Girls: 50 pages in..

After reading the first fifty pages of Winter Girls I am left slightly confused. The author has a way of revealing information through the main character’s point of view. It seems to have a slight scatter-brain quality to it. Lia is trying to avoid thinking about her friend who just recently died, but her mind keeps going back to Cassie.  In addition, she is struggling to keep up a persona of someone who is not ill, but is in fact dealing with anorexia nervosa.  She tries to show the rest of the world that she does not need to be put back in rehab. Secretly she will take certain measures to hide how she is not eating and losing but not gaining weight.

So far we as the readers have received a brief background on her interactions with her best friend, but she is continually trying to repress the memories of Cassie. They have an interesting relationship because it seems as though they have had a rough friendship. Unfortunately, six months before Cassie died she stopped being friends with Lia. Lia was very upset by this and did not answer Cassie’s 33 calls to her. The next morning she received the news that her former best friend was dead and had tried to talk to her before she did. It puts a lot of guilt on Lia. Right now she is currently trying to come to terms with the emotions she is feeling about Cassie and her own life.

Can’t wait to see what comes up next…

All is Fair in Love and War

Katniss is seen as a strong female character in this novel who prevails in the face of danger. She tackles every challenge that is thrown her way… except when it comes to her personal, romantic feelings. Peeta has strong feelings for her and has loved her since they were young, but Katniss has been ignorant to his affections until he let the world know on national television. And even at that point Katniss convinces herself that it is all an act that Haymitch set up so they could pull off the “star-crossed” lovers act. Every time she is confronted with the idea that Peeta might actually love her she just thinks it is so they can be convincing in their roles and gain more sponsors. 

For the first half of the games she suspects he is against her because he teamed up with the Careers. She sees him as just doing his job of trying to survive. She later discovers that in reality every move he made as a player of the games he did to help Katniss ultimately succeed. He put her needs above his own proving his love for her; however, she is too ignorant and unaware to notice the full meaning of his gestures. And poor Peeta is blissfully unaware of how Katniss really feels. He finds out at the very end on their way back to their district. My heart goes out to him.

                I have a love-hate relationship with Haymitch. He manipulated the situation by telling Katniss she needed to play the role of “star-crossed lovers,” but not Peeta because he actually felt that way with no need to act. Of course Haymitch did not tell Peeta he was having Katniss put on an act because then Peeta would be that much more believable. This ultimately helped in their survival of the games… together. Unfortunately, the price of their victory was Peeta’s heart that was crushed when he found out the truth behind Katniss’s actions in the games.

Make the Odds Ever in Your Favor

   

  I watched the Hunger Games when it first came out and thought it was a pretty good movie. Now, after reading the book, I have a new perspective of the story. Let's dig into the meaning behind the title, which is exactly as it states, a Hunger Game. It's all about how well one survives in such an environment without easy access to food. Besides the supplies given at the beginning, which not every tribute got a hold of, they have to find other sources of food. How can one survive without food? It isn't focused on the killing but the survival through the games. Katniss has only killed one person so far. Most of the book is focused on how she survives through the woods and uses her environment to her advantage. It's about finding food to help her survive. If anything, she avoids all types of killing unless absolutely necessary. That's true in the case of her killing the one man in return of him killing her friend and ally Rue.
      Katniss and Rue discover this concept and use this to their advantage. They come up with the idea to eliminate the most powerful group's supplies because they are not used to having to find food in the wild. This strategy is smart and are what the Hunger Games are all about. It also exemplifies how people need to survive and fight while they are at their weakest point. If they are hungry, like Katniss is occasionally, then they are weaker and have to find their inner strength to move forward. I think this encompasses the main underlying theme of The Hunger Games.