Andrea Fails to Review: The Anatomy of a Misfit (Chick Lit Week: Day 4)

Friday, May 01, 2015 0 Comments A+ a-

I don't think this is a review anymore as I have failed to actually finish the book. It's more of a rant, I suppose. If you're interested in this or the reasons behind failing to finish it, I would suggest that you keep reading.


A synopsis from Goodreads:

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?





Let me just begin by saying that this book is not for everyone. It definitely wasn't for me.

As soon as I finished Lola and the Boy Next Door, I immediately went and picked up the next on my pile because I was honestly a little disappointed on my last read. Little did I know that I was going to be even more frustrated with the books I piled up for Chick Lit Week.

I was able to read up past a hundred pages. I've been told never to pass judgement until you've finished a novel, but I just couldn't continue. The first 20 pages in, I already wanted to stop. I pushed myself to continue, but I could only go so far.

Before I could go on about the things I didn't like (let's be honest, Anna Oliphant was right, it's so much easier to talk about something you hate), let's talk about the positive things I liked about this book.

It took me inside the brain of 15-year-old Anika, besides her raging hormones, I was also given an accurate glimpse of how a completely different person saw the world. I didn't like the person I met, needless to say, but to have made me hate Anika so much, that says quite a lot.

Another positive (-ish) point is that a few social issues actually reflected reality. But there were too many that just wasn't politically correct that outweighed that positive point.

Anyway, moving on to the things I didn't particularly like.

  • Slut Shaming
This was one of the points that made me contemplate if I wanted to continue reading because right in the first 10 pages or so, Anika does it. Too many times. She calls her best friend, Shelli, a slut. Nope, no subtlety at all. She calls her a slut. Same thing applies to Anika's sisters who she claims to hate her. Well, if I was somebody's sister and that somebody calls me a slut, I wouldn't like that somebody too.
  • Weird Sense of Morality
Anika wasn't racist, which is a good thing seeing that everybody around her was, but although she wasn't attacking someone for their race, she was attacking someone for their religion. I had to go back and leaf through some pages to find a quote that perfectly sums this up:

Or maybe she can't add. She is a Christian. I don't think they believe in math.

For one, there is so much more to Christianity than what Shelli or Shelli's mom showed. I wasn't even sure if she was being sarcastic, if the whole entire book was being sarcastic, but many, many, parts of this book regarding religion was more than offensive.
  • Logan and Anika's . . . Relationship
First of all, they barely talked. He just offers her a ride to his moped, tells her that he's going to kiss her and that she's going to like it (I don't find this romantic in ANY way), and then they suddenly become this secret couple that she has to hide from the most popular girl to protect herself from being kicked out of the circle.

To avoid further hate on the book, I decided to discontinue reading. I know how much hardwork is put on publishing a book and writing it, of course. But, I just couldn't continue pushing myself to finish this. I have respect for all the authors out there and it doesn't exactly feel right to just point out whatever I didn't like in their story.

I went over to Goodreads and I saw a number of positive reviews. I read a few and they liked how genuine the story was and how honest and real Anika was. I failed to see this and for me, the negative outweighed the positive.

I would just like to say it again, this book just isn't for everybody.

The "A" in LAMP,
Andrea

P.S.
This is the first time that I actually went straight to the laptop to type this all out after reading the book. I usually give myself a day to let it all sink in, but for this I just really couldn't.

A Veterinarian in the making. She loves dogs, turtles, pastries, books, and videogames.

May the comments be ever in my favor (or not)