Fall’s buzzed-about, in-house favorite.
Outside, Anika Dragomir is all lip gloss and blond hair—the third most popular girl in school. Inside, she’s a freak: a mix of dark thoughts, diabolical plots, and, if local chatter is to be believed, vampire DNA (after all, her father is Romanian). But she keeps it under wraps to maintain her social position. One step out of line and Becky Vilhauer, first most popular girl in school, will make her life hell. So when former loner Logan McDonough shows up one September hotter, smarter, and more mysterious than ever, Anika knows she can’t get involved. It would be insane to throw away her social safety for a nerd. So what if that nerd is now a black-leather-jacket-wearing dreamboat, and his loner status is clearly the result of his troubled home life? Who cares if the right girl could help him with all that, maybe even save him from it? Who needs him when Jared Kline, the bad boy every girl dreams of, is asking her on dates? Who?
Anatomy of a Misfit is Mean Girls meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Anika’s hilariously deadpan delivery will appeal to readers for its honesty and depth. The so-sad-it’s-funny high school setting will pull readers in, but when the story’s dark foreboding gradually takes over, the devastating penultimate tragedy hits like a punch to the gut. Readers will ride the highs and lows alongside funny, flawed Anika — from laughter to tears, and everything in between."
Title: Anatomy of a Misfit
Genre: Contemporary YA
Series: None
Pages: 328
Ages: 15+
My Rating: 3 stars
One Word: THE Jared Kline
Fave Quote: In Review
Review
So I got this book from a friend for Christmas. She's the type of friend who hoards about a thousand books in her room...I'm not kidding. While I, on the other hand, am best friends with the library. So I probably would never have picked up this book if I saw it on the bookshelf, but I decided to read it if it meant making my friend happy (*sigh* I'm such a good friend).
This book took me by surprise. Of course I expected the high school aspect to be very unrealistic (I mean, "third most popular girl in the school" really? There's no such thing). And the classic high school drama of who is dating who, what she wore, etc. I thought this novel would have a light and cheerful plot, making me laugh once or twice, and also have a secret message within it. This did happen for the most part, and I laughed more than I expected to...and then it took a turn for the worst.
I won't give anything away about the ending, except to say that it was totally different from the rest of the book. Now I'm not saying the ending was bad, it's just that it didn't fit well into the plot. The summary doesn't really give any hint to the not-so-cheerful-ending, so I expected this book to be kind of laid-back and a fun, quick read. Portes does a great job with the quirkiness of the book, and it really entertained me, and then the "ending" happened and I wasn't really moved by it at all. It just occurred too abruptly and did not give the reader any reaction time.
Well, with that in mind, let's move on to some of the good parts of the story. The characters made the story a thousand times better, and Portes is queen at making quick, funny remarks for them.
"'You must be smart, too, then, huh?'...'What kind of question is that?' I ask him. 'There's no way to answer that without sounding like an idiot'" (106).
Oh, there were a great many funny remarks in this book, but I am way too lazy to go through them. Let's just say that I thought both Logan and Jared were 'eh', but I loved Anika and Shelli. Becky, is, of course, the worst person alive.
Great read, yet the ending took the fun and lightness away from the book, which is what I was looking for.
★★★
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