Anatomy of Misfit by: Andrea Portes

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Published: September 2, 2014 by: Harper Children's
Pages: 336
Rating: 3/5 stars

From the outside, Anika is the most popular girl in school. She gets what she wants and would make any girl jealous. But on the inside, Anika's thoughts run wild, sometimes about imagination, but also about dark thoughts that would seem troubling. Anika is a full on misfit, but she keeps it hidden from the outside world. But when her former crush Logan comes back to town, Anika wonders if it's worth opening up to someone for love, or keeping everything concealed like she usually does.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while. I'm not sure what really appealed to me, but I just saw it everywhere but never actually picked it up until now. And to be honest, I was a little underwhelmed.

First things first, I really liked how Anika was the narrator of the story. It gave me a first hand look into her thoughts that was a lot stronger than if the author was the narrator. I felt like I was in her head, which was a really cool thing.

I definitely appreciated the mental health aspects of the book. It's very poignant and real, and could definitely relate to a lot of teenagers. I feel like a lot of teens, myself included, can keep some things hidden from the rest of the world, so I could really relate to Anika in some strong ways. Maybe not with her dark thoughts, but in many other ways.

But other than these aspects, this book kind of fell flat. I didn't enjoy the romance aspects, I thought that it was forced an unnecessary, and I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if it just dealt with Anika's mental health and her family life. Idk it just didn't click with me.

I also found it kind of hard to understand. There was so much slang from the 60's and 70's which would suggest that the book was from that time period, that I was just lost at times. The way Anika talked was just really odd that I couldn't follow at points.

So overall, good but not great. But I definitely don't like it when I've been anticipating reading a book for so long and I don't love it :(

Have you read Anatomy of a Misfit? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess