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Wintergirls

novel by Laurie Halse Anderson

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ8026455
Source-derived summary

Wintergirls (2009) is a realistic fiction novel by the American author Laurie Halse Anderson. The novel was published in 2009 by Viking. The story focuses on a girl, Lia Overbrook, who has anorexia and self-harms. Lia struggles to cope with her mental illness while balancing everything else going on in her life. Some months after a fall out with her best friend Cassie, Lia receives the news that she has died from bulimia. This complicates Lia's life even more and forces her to confront her own illness.

Plot

Lia Overbrook, an 18-year-old girl, finds out that her ex-best friend Cassie has been found dead in a motel room. Cassie had called Lia 33 times the Saturday night and early Sunday morning of her death. However, Lia never answered the phone. Cassie was killed by her illness, bulimia, an overdose on sleeping pills mixed with alcohol, and in particular, from Boerhaave's Syndrome.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Wintergirls” as novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wintergirls, novel and Laurie.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2009. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Wintergirls, novel and Laurie providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Wintergirls”, the useful work is to connect “novel by Laurie Halse Anderson” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8026455. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Wintergirls”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Wintergirls primary sources, Wintergirls archive and Wintergirls research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wintergirls”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Wintergirls” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.