Title: Anatomy of a Misfit
Author: Andrea Portes
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: September 2nd 2014
Publisher: Harper Children’s
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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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.


This book took my by surprise. I was wary of it because of all the hype that was behind it, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book. I particularly loved the main characters voice throughout the book. Anika was a great main character and narrator because she sounded so real and genuine. I loved her especially because she told it like it was with no filter and I found that to be a very interesting way to narrate a book especially when she switches topic so frequently. But I think i liked that the most about her because the narrative sounded like a conversation with a teenage girl. It is never linear and almost never makes complete sense so I found myself laughing more often than not with the things that she was saying.

I loved the struggles that Anika went through throughout the book, she was part of what most would call the "popular crowd" and what i thought was interesting was that Anika really had no real opinion on this. She really did not like them that much but still hung out with them and she even said that she really didn't know why. And I found that so refreshing to read. I also really enjoyed Anika's home life because it was not made out to be this perfect house where everyone got along. There were fights, and parents that were never around and very demanding when it came to school. So it was a very interesting to read this kind of family life and the impact it has on a teenage girl.

I wasn't very fond of the love story, well both actually. There was a love triangle and honestly I am so sick of them in YA fiction. Sometimes I think that they are used as a means for conflict and this instance I think that hypothesis is right. Anika started falling for the "geek" and therefore she hid it from her friends because she knew what that would do. They snuck around and hung out etc etc. But then she starts getting "courted" by the most popular boy in town and then she ditches said geek and all hell breaks loose. There are other, more complicated thins that happen in between all of this that I will not say because it will ruin the book for you.

Overall Anatomy of a Misfit was a great read. It was so different from all the other contemporary fictions i have read over the years. I loved how this book ended. It was sad, and heartbreaking but at the same time made so much sense to the story and and the characters. Please pick up this book you will not be disappointed!