[Review] Andrea Portes - Anatomy of a Misfit

Title: Anatomy of a Misfit
Author: Andrea Portes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: 2014
ISBN13: 9780062313669
Pages: 336
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Format: e-book
Start: 16 February 2015
Finish: 21 February 2015


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.

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 a result of his troubled home life? Who cares if the right girl could help him with all that?

Review:

I edited the original synopsis from Goodreads to avoid giving an early detail of the book. I didn't do it on my previous reviews, because I either already forgot some details about the book, or because I feel lazy to do so. But not anymore. Several weeks ago I found a blog, I think she's still in middle school, who said that she prefer to write her own synopsis rather than posting the one on Goodreads. And reading her reasons got me thinking: she got a point there. So I started to re-read and possibly change the synopsis before publishing them. (I forgot her blog's name, my apologies. If you knew, please post it on the comment box below so I can refer it back to her post.)

Up until page 70s, my original reaction to this book was: seriously? I did feel curious of how those popular (or third popular, in this case) people think. What was on their mind when they bully people (if they did) or when they decided to do something that was so-not-me. I was a nerd at school though I'm friends with most people, including the so-called popular people. But I never thought that they could be so mean like Becky, or so contradictory like Anika. Based on what I read on an article a few days ago, I'd say Anika is a passive-aggressive. And it's annoying to read her shallow POV, in my opinion.

Despite Anika's weird behavior, I like her Mom a lot. She had this way of knowing things that went wrong with Anika, despite her efforts to hide it. And Anika's siblings are fine for me, though I can't relate to her problems at all. I got mean brother, not sisters. It was a very different situation than the one Anika had.

"Never judge a man till you walk a mile in his shoes."
Beat.
"That way, you're a mile away and you've got his shoes."
She winks. My mom's kind of queer but I can't help but smile. (pg. 59)

I'm not sure whether it's because of the POV used or just the author's writing style, but I don't like it. This book writing style, I mean. I found it hard to understand, and there's so many repetitions I tend to skim this book several time. And that is the only explanation of why I can't relate to Anika throughout this book.

Originally I would like to give this book only 3 stars that it deserved. Despite the minus part that I mentioned above, there are lots of moral message in this book. How environment can shape an innocent person into something they're not. How judging people from their race are not appropriate, and sometimes their behavior is the reaction of our original judgement. Those moral messages are beautifully hidden within this book that I thought only talked about bully and shallow stuffs.

I gave the last 0.5 star for the beautiful ending *no spoiler from me, you had to read it for yourself*. So that makes this book worth 3.5 stars for me. I personally recommend this book to you who are still dealing to go through bullies in this 21st century. Let's sing the song below to them!