Book Review: Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

---

Anatomy of a Misfit
Author: Andrea Portes
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary | Romance
Released: September 2nd 2014
Review Source: Harper Children's

This emotional, hilarious, devastating, and ultimately triumphant YA debut, based on actual events, recounts one girl’s rejection of her high school’s hierarchy—and her discovery of her true self in the face of tragedy.

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.

When I was sent Anatomy of a Misfit I was excited, I was hearing great things about this book. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t one of them who fell in love with it and I hate saying that.

Anatomy of a Misfit follows Anika Dragomir, a junior in high school, who she declares is the third most popular girl in high school. She has to be careful with what she does and says because the evil, most popular girl Becky will take her down and destroy her. Anika falls for two guys throughout the story and tries to decide what she wants to do about it, be with the geeky but newly hot guy Logan or the sexy older god like guy Jared. I unfortunately found Anika quite annoying throughout the book which made it hard for me to relate to her or even have compassion towards her story. Closer to the end of the story I started enjoying Anika a little more, she was righting wrongs and trying to make better of some crap situations, but by that time I was too far unconnected with her that it didn’t help. This story was definitely spoken like a true teenager when their angst, drama, slang, and a bunch of irony. There were some instances where she uses queer and retarded in her speech (like talking about her mom) and that just doesn’t fly with me, I am very reserved when it comes to using those terms.

I know this story will be loved by many, and I unfortunately wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t able to connect with the main character and that made it harder for me to enjoy the story. If you enjoy snarky teens, love triangles, and the taking down of the mean girl, this story is for you. This may not have been for me, but I know it’s going to be loved by many.