History Literature / Wintergirls

** David isn't there because he's at an early meeting, but his absence (especially during a time like this) shows that he's not a great family man.

** Lia insists that she's fine even after hearing about Cassie's death and refuses Jennifer's offers of toast or frozen waffles, instead saying she'll eat some cereal and then dumping it down the drain after Jennifer and Emma leave the house. Clearly she's troubled, but doesn't feel comfortable sharing how she feels with Jennifer.

** David isn't there because he's at an early meeting, but his absence (even during an important time like this) shows that he's not a great family man.
** Emma is a CheerfulChild who happily waves to Lia as she goes out the door. She's also having big expectations placed on her by her mother, drives her to school early four mornings a week for violin lessons and conversational French.

** Lia's mother Dr. Chloe Marrigan is a genius cardiologist and surgeon. She also had a ShotgunWedding to Lia's father and spent several years in a loveless marriage with him before finally getting a divorce. Her only daughter has a troubled relationship with her and doesn't even want to live with her. Currently, she lives alone and her house is covered in half-hearted attempts at redecoration.

** Cassie was a model student who actively participated in sports and night, but suffered from bulimia, alcoholism, self-esteem issues, and was always fighting with her parents. Until the moment of her death, she was pretending everything was fine at school, while feeling dead inside and hating herself for dumping Lia as a best friend, but not being able to apologize to her until she was in the middle of a drinking binge. When Lia didn't answer after 33 calls, Cassie continued binging, purging, and drinking until her esophagus ruptured and she died alone on the bathroom floor of her motel room.

* PercussiveTherapy: When Lia can't stop thinking about Cassie, she bakes a gingerbread cookie representing her and smashes it with the rolling pin until it's a pile of dust.

* PercussiveTherapy: When baking gingerbread cookies, Lia makes a cookie representing Cassie and smashes it with the rolling pin until it's a pile of dust.

* SelfHarm: Lia is addicted to it, viewing it as the only way to expunge all the dirt inside of her.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Lia's father, David, frequently cheated on her mother with at least four or five different women, maybe more. Lia observes about halfway through the novel that the same crop of excuses he'd given for his late nights and distant behaviour are starting to resurface, and [[TheReasonYousuckSpeech accuses him of cheating on his new wife Jennifer as well]] during a heated argument.
** When thinking about Cassie dumping her as a best friend, Lia thinks about the time that she stopped Cassie from overdosing on sleeping pills when she found out her boyfriend had cheated on her.

* GoodStepmother: Jennifer. Lia has a complex, but much better relationship with with her stepmother than she does with her biological mother.

* LastDisrespects: Some of the yearbook staff who believe the rumors that Cassie died of a heroin overdose want her memorial to be a tiny quarter panel in the back of the book, with the local hardware store, insurance agency, and florist.

* RuleOfThree: [[spoiler:Lia is admitted a total of three separate times to New Seasons, a clinic for girls with eating disorders. Her third stay is when she actually tries to get help, cooperate with the doctors, and put her life back together.]]

* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler: Cassie.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Lia's father, David, frequently cheated on her mother with at least four or five different women, maybe more. Lia observes about halfway through the novel that the same crop of excuses he'd given for his late nights and distant behaviour are starting to resurface, and [[TheReasonYousuckSpeech accuses him of cheating on his new wife Jennifer as well]] during a heated argument.

* BiTheWay: Lia twice reflects that she could see herself with either a boy or a girl, and doesn't dwell at all on how to classify her sexuality.

* DaintyLittleBalletDancers: Lia is a former ballet dancer with a small, waifish figure.

* EnmityWithAnObject: Lia hates the bathroom scale she has to weigh herself on every Tuesday to prove to her family that she's gaining weight, calling it the "Blubber-O-Meter 3000". She tampers with it to make it look like she weighs more than she actually does, while keeping track of her real weight using an undamaged scale in her room.

* ShipTease: Lia and Elijah have a little but it doesn't really amount to anything.

* ObsessedWithFood: Lia, though in her case she's obsessed with avoiding it, eating as little calories as possible, and trying to force herself to stop thinking about being constantly hungry.