Review: Anatomy of a Boyfriend (Anatomy, #1)

Author: Daria Snadowsky
Series: Anatomy, #1
Release date: September 23rd 2008
Publisher: Ember
Paperback, 272 pages
Source: Author for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Before this all happened, the closest I'd ever come to getting physical with a guy was playing the board game Operation. Okay, so maybe that sounds pathetic, but it's not like there were any guys at my high school who I cared to share more than three words with, let alone my body.

Then I met Wes, a track star senior from across town. Maybe it was his soulful blue eyes, or maybe my hormones just started raging. Either way, I was hooked. And after a while, he was too. I couldn't believe how intense my feelings became, or the fact that I was seeing—and touching—parts of the body I'd only read about in my Gray's Anatomy textbook. You could say Wes and I experienced a lot of firsts together that spring. It was scary. It was fun. It was love.

And then came the fall.

When it comes to contemporary YA, Daria Snadowsky writes what is possibly the most honest, easily relatable prose I’ve ever read. There is nothing even remotely implausible about her characters or the events that transpire. It could all happen right next to you. To be fair, it could all happen TO you, and it probably has.

First love is always part sweet and part brutal, but it’s even harder for overachieving 17-year-olds. When you spend your life focused on the perfect college and your perfect career, that one special boy is bound to bring more turmoil than anything else. In Anatomy of a Boyfriend, Snadowsky offers a full portrayal of Dominique’s first love, from the awkward first meeting to the day she finally lets go.

There are so many great things I need to point out about this book, but above all, I enjoyed Dom’s relationship with her parents. They were exactly what they should be: paranoid, slightly neurotic and often out of date, but they were always attentive and very much involved in Dom’s everyday life. In short, they were everything healthy parents should be, and in turn, Dom was a very well balanced teen.

At the beginning, when I wrote about the honesty of Snadowsky’s prose, that included Dom’s sexual explorations. No detail is glossed over and the sexual progression of Dom and Wes’s relationship is treated openly and plainly, just like everything else. This is something we don’t often find in YA, but I personally consider it to be healthy and even necessary.

Through mature eyes, Wes is a often standoffish, typically selfish and a tiny bit unlikeable. I suspect, although I obviously can’t know for sure, that this was done on purpose, to demonstrate how young love often focuses on superficial things, such as good looks and the track star reputation and neglects flaws and immaturity as something that’s irrelevant and perhaps even expected.

After such a refreshingly straightforward read, I can honestly say I am very much looking forward to Anatomy of a Single Girl. Dom’s adventures and self-discovery are far from over, and I plan to be with her every step of the way.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the author for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced this review.