Book Review: Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

Title: Anatomy of a Misfit

Author: Andrea Portes

Pages: 336

Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance

Published: September 2nd 2014 by HarperTeen

Source:  Self Purchased

Synopsis: 

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.

Review:

I picked this book up on an ABSOLUTE whim, I was stuck in town for another few hours with nothing to read and decided I’ll just go buy a book, and I did. I chose this book, because the cover is gorgeous, but the thing that originally drew me in was the title. I think growing up and being a teenager you either think of yourself as a misfit or are labelled one.

The opening dedication/author's note, made me decide that this book was going to provide feels, and it did. But not the way I thought it was going to.

There are so many underlying factors that are bad and horrible about this book, that can't really be excused. But I guess since I have never lived nor been to Nebraska I cannot really say what it is like there. But what I now know, is that is a racist sexist state among other things.

This book follows Anika who is a 15 year old girl who is often referred to as an immigrant. Anika is the third most popular girl in school, and that is where she will stay (as she cannot become more popular than she already is, though she can always lose her popularity as is frequently mentioned throughout the novel).

The main thing, I think to keep in perspective with this book is that this is the brain of a 15 year old girl, who most likely has completely different priorities than you do/ or did. Anika is what I’d call self-prioritised, if something is going to risk her popularity she’ll either stop it, conceal it, or say her mum made her do it etc.

Back to the novel. The book opens on a short chapter that is repeated yet altered and elongated throughout the whole novel. It starts with ‘Peddling fast fast fast, this is the moment.’ And you as a reader are thinking WHAT is “this” moment, because you know that this chapter is taking place in the book’s future (a giveaway of this fact, is that the font is italicised), and as the book unfolds and you get more of this future moments snippets, you may realise the direction they are taking or maybe not. I found for me, that these chapters shaped my perception on Anika’s character, because she is clearly trying to reach for something that matters deeply to her and yet is just out of her reach.

For me I really liked the writing style because it did really sound like a fifteen year olds brain and I really appreciated all the likes in there haha. And I do like this book, but there are things that I just don’t like about this book. (Which I won’t get into, since I don’t want to spoil anything).

Personally I think this was a brilliantly chosen book title, because when you think misfit, you don’t automatically think popular. Because misfits have been stereotyped to certain groups of people and sometimes it just doesn’t click that people aren’t always their exteriors.

Anatomy of a Misfit, to me is the dissection of a girl who may seem “popular” from the outside, but contains various layers within, some not as pretty as others. I think it really embodies the fact that everyone isn’t who they seem, and if you only pay close attention or care enough to remove cleverly thought out pieces/layers you will find the actual person.

I am giving this book three and a half stars (it would be more, but alas spoilery reasons). I think it is a great book for discovering the varying types of misfits. And I just enjoyed this book.

One of my favourite parts can be found page 256 of the international edition:

He makes no sense. It’s like he switched gears in like two seconds. Without warning. Like he turned from Prince Charming into a wet noodle.

This part really highlighted to me how not nice some guys are, especially when there are other much worthy boys in the book. *cough* I am not telling you who, go read it!!

PS: My book cover is pealing, like the cover is peeling off, as if it were paint. Is it meant to do this harperteen? 

Rating: ★★★ 3.5 stars

Top 5 Wednesday (one day late, oops)

Top 5 Wednesday is created and run by Mindy and Lainey and can be found here.

This weeks topic is TERRIBLE COVERS.

Please please please remember these are my PERSONAL opinions! For this I am only going to use editions of books I own or have read! (these are also in no particular order).




1. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. I just don't understand nor like this cover, after loving the uglies cover, I was pretty shocked to pick this up next. This cover is bland, I personally don't think it matches the series very well. Plus I do not like the colour tones they used.




2. Lick by Kylie Scott. I laughed when I saw this cover. It just doesn't have that total New Adult romancey feel to me. Good thing it was on ale at Kobo otherwise I wouldn't have found my guilty pleasure NA series. But back to the cover, yeah I guess you could say this "looks" like the male character, but really it doesn't. This guy does not look like he is some highly sought over rock star to me.




3. Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles. This is just a hideous cover. After how the previous book ended, I really don't appreciate this cover ONE BIT. Plus that is not a nice shot, it makes this almost "kiss" look gross and awkward, plus I really have no clue why they used a lake as a background..




4. Sprout by Dale Peck. I get that the colour green suits the book (since the guy has like green hair). BUT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT FONT AT ALL. This cover had SO much potential from the cover. The font also looks like someone photoshopped it from somewhere else. I just think this book deserves a better cover, that is this.





5. The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo (AKA: Shadow and Bone). I firstly want to say ALINA'S HAIR IS BROWN. LET ME REPEAT. B-R-O-W-N! I understand the whole "cape" going on, but I think they should have chosen a better colour palette (personally). I actually don't mind this cover, and I believe the only reason its on this list is because of the title.


Have a lovely day :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Were Hard For Me To Read

I decided that I would start participating in these challenges (even though I am starting a day late:S)

These challenges are created by Broke and Bookish and can be found HERE. 

September 30th: Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read (because difficult of book, subject matter, because it was cringeworthy-- however you want to interpret)

LETS BEGIN! (in no particular order):

1: Dirty Little Secret - Jennifer Echols. I found this book difficult to read because of the main male love interest, and the protagonists family (who were just horrible to her). It was written well, I just did not like like the plot or the characters and this made it difficult for me to read. 

2. September Girls - Bennett Madison. I think the main thing that made this book hard to read was how females are written within it. They are all blonde, big boobs big butts skinny everywhere else, and you can't forget to mention that they are all called ho's. 

3. The Gathering - Isobelle Carmody. This was just SO HARD to read. I think it was because I was fourteen, and there was animal torture among other things. This is also the first book I remember crying over. I was so upset, and it is why I will never be able to read another of her books because this destroyed me completely (even though Isobelle is an amazing author). Sorry.

4. Stolen - Lucy Christopher. This was just a really confronting topic, it was crazy and insane but something that is 100% plausible. And that is why I found it difficult to read, because what would I have done in Gemma's shoes?

5. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho. This book is so short, but yet it took me half a year to read. Call me lazy, but I found this book difficult to read and so I would read like 5 pages and would then put it down for another month. In the end I thought it was an enlightening book, but one that was incredibly tough to read. 

6. From Ashes - Molly McAdams. This book. Just no. Read my review if you want to know more. But if there was a book i'd want to drown this would be it.

7. Such a Pretty Girl - Laura Wiess. I think this book, made me realise the police/family/etc aren't always there to help you. And that sucks, and this book sucked (because of the events that occur within it). And when you realise that, that is a pretty painful thing to know.

8. The Burn Journals - Brent Runyon. This memoir was crushing. It was a very fast read, but it was painful to read, yet important to read at the same time. 

9. Life After Death - Damien Echols. I think if I was put on death row for a crime I didn't commit, I may have taken a different route than what Damien took. This book was an eye opener, and sad because it would have been so hard to live more years on death row than you had outside of prison.

10. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger. The first time I read this, it was for school, I was 16, and me and Holden were not two peas in a pod to put it lightly. Therefore it took me a while to read this tiny book. But the older I got, Holden grew on me, and this is now a novel I can appreciate, while still thinking the protagonist complains too much, haha.


So that is it, for my first top ten tuesday, and again sorry its late. 
Have a lovely day :)