Forget-Me-Nots: Even If It Kills Me and The Wind Blows Backward

 

Forget-Me-Nots is a feature on my blog for highlighting books I enjoyed in childhood and the teenage years that I don't see getting much attention nowadays.

This is a Psychtember edition of Forget-Me-Nots! Both of these books I read from my sister's shelves when I was younger (I always thought her books were better than mine, so I was constantly asking if I could borrow them.)

Even If It Kills Me by Dorothy Joan Harris

From Goodreads:

"Anorexia? But - that was a disease. I wasn't sick....I just wanted to be something special..... 

Melanie Burton is quiet and good and always get the top grades in school. But that's not enough anymore. She wants to be really special, and she thinks being thin will do it. Melanie doesn't understand what all the fuss is about - after all, almost everyone diets at some time or other. She's just very good at it. So good, she lands herself in the hospital.

Dr. Leeman seems to understand - but can she be trusted?"

I think this was probably one of the first books I read with an anorexic main character. It's been quite a while since I last read it, so I'm not that sure about the accuracy, but I do remember that Melanie shows some of the classic signs of anorexia (being cold, missing her period). She ends up hospitalized, and even then she tries for a while to resist gaining weight. It takes the help of a mental health professional — and a shocking event — before Melanie starts to want to get better. 

The Wind Blows Backward by Mary Downing Hahn

 From the back of the book:

"Lauren and Spencer were best friends in junior high, but good-looking Spencer quickly becomes a popular jock in high school with no time for quiet, bookish Lauren. Now they're in senior year, and suddenly Spencer is back in her life, sharing his fears and feelings...and his deepest secrets. But it isn't long before Lauren realizes that the boy she has fallen in love with is haunted by dark moods and reckless passions — and he is counting on her to help him survive..."

I remember seeing this book on my sister's shelves and wanting to read it, but because there is some mature content (including sexual) and I was quite young, my sister told me I'd have to wait until I was older. Well, I continued to pester her every so often ("Come on, pleeeeeeaaaaase, let me read it!") to no avail, until eventually I was old enough and she handed it over to me. So this one holds some memories for me completely unrelated to the actual story, LOL. But it is an interesting look at a relationship in which one person is depressed and potentially suicidal, subject to mercurial mood swings, and the effect this has on the other individual. 

Has anyone read either of these? What did you think?