Unwell - A novel by Leslie Lipton

Stefanie Webber's perfectly crafted world is falling apart - her friends, her grades, her relationship with her parents. She's lonely, self-conscious, and panicking. At age sixteen, she is slowly killing herself in the name of losing weight.

What begins as a simple diet quickly spirals out of control, and Stefanie finds herself walking the avenues of New York City, traveling from one doctor's appointment to the next. But she just can't seem to pull herself together - or maybe she doesn't really want to. All she seems to care about anymore is losing more weight, and it seems that some will never be enough.

The only way for Stefanie's parents to stop her is to admit her to a locked unit at the Barrett Institute - one of New York City's top psychiatric hospitals. There, Stefanie sees and learns things that she could never have imagined - what a "hat" is, what constant observation means, what exactly privileges are. But it's here, too, that she meets Lizzie, Lily, Sarah, Naomi, and Abigail. On this closed unit, Stefanie learns, perhaps out of necessity, to love the other girls. And that may be what saves her.

This is the story of a young girl led astray by the allure of thinness and beauty and its potential power to change her life. It is also a story of friendship, love, hate, and hard choices. It is a story about the strength that we all have within us if only we can draw it out. Written in a perspective and voice not often encountered, it is the hope that this book will sober some, enlighten others and ultimately inspire all.