Review: Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

Release  date: September 2nd, 2014

Publisher: Harper TEEN

Source: ARC from publisher and from eARC from Edelweiss

Goodreads link: (click here)

What's it about?

Anika Dragomir is blunt, honest, smart, devious and she has a razor sharp wit...well, at last in her own mind. To the rest of the world, she's Anika, the third most popular girl in school. She considers herself lucky to be so close to the top of the High School popularity "food chain", so she keeps her freaky thoughts to herself. At the top of this "food chain" is a real predator...Becky Vilhauer. She's the most popular girl in school and not even a Great White Shark stands a chance against her. She will destroy anyone in her path for revenge, entertainment or just out of pure boredom. She's a horrible person, but it's better to be with her than against her, so Anika and her best friend Shelli (the second most popular girl in school), remain Becky's friends mostly to avoid becoming targets of her wrath. Shelli is nice enough, but she's weak and constantly lets Becky push her around. Anika is harder to control, but Becky keeps her in line with threats and by reminding her, not so kindly, about her Romanian heritage. Becky can make anyone a social pariah, so it's best to not give her a reason to do so.

Everything is about to change when, at the beginning of tenth grade, Logan McDonough shows up riding a moped and looking dark, dreamy and mysterious. The thing is, Logan has always been a loser. This nerd turned hottie is, unfortunately, OFF LIMITS to Anika according to Becky. Once a nerd, always a nerd is what she says. When Anika and Logan begin a secret relationship, Anika is playing with fire. If Becky finds out, they are both toast. As she gets closer to Logan, she learns that his home life is troubled, so is he. Anika may think she leans more to the dark side, but as she takes a look into the lives of others, she starts to feel bad about the way Becky treats people. In Anika's own twisted way, she tries to help, but sometimes, not everyone can be saved. Sometimes tragedy is inevitable.

What I Thought

I am blown away by Anatomy of a Misfit. Andrea Portes has blown me away. This book will stay with me for a long time. I seriously spent the first half of the book laughing my face off, then I kind of felt like something was coming and started to brace myself for it, and finally I spent the last part of the book crying my face off. I was wrecked. So basically, while this book is definitely laugh-out-loud funny, it is also emotionally poignant and brutally honest. At it's heart, it's about how wrong it is to care more about what people think than what is the right thing to do. This book is not for the faint of heart. Anika's "voice" is not PG, to say the least, but it is REAL. She curses, talks about how she thinks her friend is a slut, she steals and she drugs her boss. BUT, she is honest and makes a genuine attempt to be a better person. I would recommend this to older teens and even adults because of the language and the more mature content. It's kind of reminiscent of the movies HEATHERS and MEAN GIRLS, but with a deep, emotional punch. The end of Anatomy of a Misfit is truly heartbreaking and what makes it even more tragic, is that the author notes that this book is based on events that took place in her ninth-grade year. What can I say to that but....

Holy Sheet.

This book required actual recovery time.

You should totally read it.

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<3 Michelle