Saturday, August 30, 2008

Anatomy of a Boyfriend by: Daria Snadowsky

Senior year for Dominique Baylor should be all about getting into the premed program at Stanford. It should not be all about a boy named Wes with amazing blue eyes. But it is. Along the way, Dom learns a lot about friendship, love, sex, loss, mistakes and - naturally - medicine.

Total: Four stars.

Hailed as this generation’s Forever…, Daria Snadowsky’s debut novel won’t let down readers looking for a new twist on the ‘first love’ classic - a smart, level-headed girl experiencing romance.

Over all, I thought this was a very… (I’m searching for an interesting adjective, but I can’t come up with one!) smart book. It’s interesting to read about love and sex in the frank point of view of a teenage girl who tries to use her head but is usually driven by her big heart.

My favourite part of this novel, hands down, was the main character, Dominique. Her voice is so relatable and it’s great to see a positive role model who’s not a complete prude. The background characters are fairly well-developed - I could’ve used a tad more on the stereotypical “slutty best friend,” Amy - who defies stereotypes enough to be interesting.

Although the twist at the end is easy to predict, it will still come as a surprise to some readers, if only because it’s so easy to get lost in Dominique’s world.

I’d recommend this, but I should note that it yields similar warnings as Judy Blume’s standout Forever… and other such books.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend is availible in paperback September 23rd, 2008.

1 comment:

Alea said...

I just finished this book yesterday and really enjoyed it! At the end there I definitely thought it would be Dom in that situation instead of her friend.. I don't want to say more in case people that haven't read the book see this. I'm glad it wasn't her though, that would have been a depressing ending.