Anatomy of a Misfit

                Hey book lovers!  As you may already know I’m participating in a few challenges this year and one of them is #RockMyTBR which is pretty much perfect for me since I have decided I have way to many unread books on my shelves.  With this in mind and knowing others must feel the same way my friend Bogdana at Bogdana TheBooknerd picked out some series/titles from our shelves we’ve been meaning to read for a while and include them in our read-along group Perpetual YABooknerds.  Just last week we read Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes.  I didn’t know much going in but the cover (and under the jacket) were super bright and colorful and the title was intriguing so I was ready to roll and today I wanted to share my thoughts.

Rating: 3 Stars

                Anatomy of a Misfit follows the third most popular girl at school, Anika, who is really a misfit full of dark thoughts and fears about how things could so easily change if she isn’t perfect.  She’s half Romanian which she considers the worst thing ever as her name and her father, the vampire, could ruin her life if not for the mercy of number one most popular girl, total mean girl, Becky.  Never wanting to risk getting on Becky’s bad side and bringing down the wrath of the school in all it’s evil horrors she tows the line.  It becomes a bit harder as Becky becomes more outrageous, oh and former nerd Logan shows up hotter and cooler than before and interested in her.  Oh and so is Jared Kline the number one bad boy hottie every girl wants.  Both could bring the wrath of Becky, but which one is the best choice for Anika. 

                Anika is a seriously flawed character.  It took a while to get to a point where I liked her, or rather felt anything for her.  She is not easy to like.  She mindlessly follows even when she thinks it’s wrong even adding to it because it’s expected, she talks very negatively about everyone including herself.  Overall she is not a very nice person.  Still as the story goes on you start to see how and why she makes some of the horrible decisions she does and it’s that same self-hate/fear of herself that drives her and in time does warm you up to her somewhat.  I feel like I enjoyed Logan most of all even though we didn't get nearly as much time with his character as I would have liked.  He had such depth I would have loved to explore it further.  Becky was more the typical mean girl on steroids, seriously she was like the devil incarnate on a high school level. 

                There were a lot of strong stereotypes and things said that made me a tad uncomfortable reading them in their flippant manner.  Also it's never stated what time period this takes place in but as you read it doesn't seem possible to be from this time period given how things are spoken of and it was a bit frustrating that it was never made clear.  I feel it may had adjusted my view on a few things had it been acknowledged before I got far in.  Still while I didn't love it I still did find it to be an interesting story and at parts it was rather sweet.  The overall message of the story and the message to do the right thing and don't waste time is an important one, though some of the other things a bit misleading.  I'm glad to have read it and some aspects I enjoyed better than others.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book in the comments below. 

                Until next time…