Anatomy of a Boyfriend -- Daria Snadowsky

Dominique Baylor is about to begin her last semester of high school.  She's never had a boyfriend, never really been kissed (excluding spin-the-bottle type games), but she's always been able to live vicariously through her best friend, Amy, who hasn't Done It, but Done Everything Else*.  She isn't particularly upset about her Lack of Boy -- in fact, she chooses to look at it as a blessing -- one less distraction on her way to becoming a doctor.

Until she meets Wesley Gershwin.  After a chance encounter at a track meet, she is smitten-and-a-half.  Anatomy of a Boyfriend chronicles their relationship in intimate (sometimes excruciatingly embarrassing) detail from its stuttering and awkward beginning to its gushy and passionate (yet still awkward) middle to their first semester of college (and we know how that usually goes).

I liked: 

The fact that Dom was so into science, and specifically, anatomy.  The science factoids and her knowledge of technical names of body parts put a different spin on what could have been a stereotypical teen romance.

I also liked Amy a whole lot. I liked that although she was comfortable Getting It On, she didn't pressure Dom about it -- and that she was also big on promoting (ahem) self-pleasure.  I did think that her regular use of the phrase "The Big O" was a little odd -- it's such a seventies term.  But, heck, what do I know?  Maybe someone Brought It Back.

I didn't like (and this is a big one, considering the book is a first-person narrative): 

Dominique.  She had the classic Only Child ME! ME! ME! mentality, I found her habit of calling babysitting "bratsitting" obnoxious and just... not nice, and her jealousy of Wesley's dog was just... well, crappy.  Her reactions to some of the events in the book (there's one I'm thinking of specifically) were selfish and showed an almost astounding lack of empathy.  But that isn't to say that she wasn't a realistic character -- Only Child-dom and her First Relationship-dom could easily add up to selfishness and extreme jealousy and clinginess.  But I, personally, couldn't connect.

Okay, while I'm at it -- I wasn't all that into Wesley, either.  He was just... bland and generic.  I didn't get the attraction.  Then again, from what I remember, at that age, sometimes it doesn't take much.  (Says the girl who had the Kirk Cameron pull-out from Dynamite magazine tacked to her bedroom wall.)

And now for The Sex:

It's explicit enough that it makes The Scene in Looking for Alaska look positively tame.  Which is saying something.  But it's not titillating in the least -- it's a Cringefest of Awkward, which was, I assume, deliberate.  So, I wouldn't be surprised to see it challenged at some point, but it is, in no way, pornographic.  It's just very, very detailed and very, very realistic.

*Amy doesn't subscribe to the Oral Counts belief. 

Comments

[Lessie]

I love reading your comments. And your comments about Anatomy of a Boyfriend seem so wise. :) To be honest, though, I would have a personal cringe-fest to find my neice/daughter/young friend reading this book. E-gads. But based on what you've written, in my judgment it would be better for a teenager to read this than a steamy romance -- less pornographic. Oh, how I want to protect my niece from the dangers and pitfalls of sex. Not easy to do.

[Leila]

Oh, I totally get that -- I can think of some young patrons who would cause that reaction in me, too. (Some of them actually check in with me first, to ask if there is any IT in the book. That's exactly how the question is phrased: "Leila, is there any IT in this book?" It never fails to crack me up.)

Anyway, I do personally think that forewarned is forearmed, and the more info kids have about All That Stuff, the better they'll be able to avoid the pitfalls, blahdiblah, etc. But I do get the cringing. (I'm a big baby -- whenever I read a grown-up book with steamy sex scenes, I practically avert my eyes!) I tend to let teens find books like this on their own, rather than recommend them directly (unless they're looking for something very specifically like it, of course).

Anyhoo. I did go on quite a bit there, didn't I?

[courtney]

I'm glad you read/reviewed Anatomy--I heard an excerpt of the book on the author's website and wasn't really sure how I felt about the protaganist, but because it was only an excerpt I couldn't pinpoint WHY (though there were parts I really enjoyed and thought were clever). I think a lot of the things you pointed out fell in line with my reservations. Despite this, I'm still kinda tempted to pick it up.

[emma]

i just finished reading this book yesterday, and i read it in about 2-3 days. i love this book! i thought it was so detailed and at the end where she was throwing up and stuff, it made me so upset that i wanted to cry. =[ i loved this book and i hope to read more like it!! :)

[Adam S.]

Bah! Bah I say! No more reviews until you review the Dairy Queen sequel. You do that and I'll get around to reading that Ocatvius Something-or-another book.

[Leila]

But Adam, everyone (Okay, mostly Chrissy, but she's really scary!) always yells at me when I review books months before the pub date!

[Adam S.]

I really can't wait. You have to let me know if it's any good.

[gisselle]

i loved this book so much that at the end i cried.....i just couldn't figure out why they couldn't be together forever,and it reminds me of just how crummy boys are (some parts of it were funny),some were sad and some parts i really didn't understand(like the part where they broke up) b.t.w. i read this book in one and a half days and read it again the next day ( i was that hooked)