Well, this one is complicated. I enjoyed this book. There were moments I didn't want to enjoy it because of some things I didn't feel comfortable with, but if I could take those out, I would automatically say I loved this book. I'm going to start with those because I feel like they are honestly content/trigger warnings.
1) "That's so gay" and "she's queer" were used a significant number of times early in the book, to the point where I almost stopped reading. I remember learning in 8th grade, so 2005, that those were not appropriate terms. I'm a little confused on the timeline of this story, but it appears to have been written in 2014, and regardless, using gay and queer as negative adjectives is not appropriate, even if we are trying to use it colloquially in another time period. Additionally, worse than the other triggers to come, this one was not being used to to prove a point or send a message. It was just a phrase teenagers used. This bothers me.
2) The N word and blatant racism and racial stereotypes are used several times throughout the story. The author does seem to be trying to prove the opposite while encompassing small town Nebraska vibes, but still... the N word was certainly not necessary. Yes, my small town Grandmother is blatantly racist and no I am probably not going to correct her because she is in her 80s and lives in a small town and probably does not often encounter opportunities for true anti-racist education or even someone who identifies as BIPOC, and what is embarrassing her at a family dinner really going to achieve? But that is my grandma. I would take the time to correct: my students, my friends, my colleagues and the general public. I think that as an author that is a responsibility that needs to be taken seriously and I don't think that the intended messages were appropriately communicated in this book.
3) Other stereotypes and derogatory, racist and hurtful terms were used and directed at the following groups: immigrants, people with mixed ancestry, people who have accents, devote Christians, people experiencing poverty, teens who are sexually active/promiscuous.
4) finally, simply to be as transparent as possible, other trigger warnings include: child abuse, domestic violence, sexual harassment, underage drinking, assault, bullying, suicide, and murder.
So if I could change two things about this book, it would be the derogatory language and the stereotypes. But I can't change that, and aside from that I did really enjoy this book. I can't completely put those problems aside, but I also want to share what I loved about this book.
But First, a quick synopsis:
Anatomy of a Misfit is a YA novel about a 10th grader named Anika who lives with her mother, step-father, her 2 bio siblings and her 2 step siblings, in a small town in Nebraska. Her father is from Romania and lives half time there and half time near Princeton, he is obsessed with her grades and has no other real relationship with Anika. Anika has two friends, Shelli and Becky, though Becky is the queen bee and is not really anyone's friend (think Regina George in Mean Girls, and Shelli is somewhere between Gretchen and Karen). Early in the story Anika begins dating two boys, Logan, someone who is seen by Becky and the rest of the school as a nerd or "social pariah" and Jared, the rumoured Sex God of the school. Inexperienced in the world of high school romance, Anika struggles to navigate these relationships, her complicated friendships, family drama, and life as a student and part time fast food worker, all while trying to decide which boy she should choose. There are some well-intended messages such as: don't believe stereotypes, be an upstander not a bystander, follow your gut, don't steal and don't worry so much about what other people think. It also has many qualities that make for a perfect YA, including lots of teen drama, experimentation with sex, drugs and alcohol, parties, and threats of being grounded and how life is just so unfair sometimes. Ha. There may have been a bit too much reference to lewd sexual acts that involved minors for my liking, and I would be cautious recommending this book to teens because of that and the other problems above, but in general I do think teens would love it.
For one thing, the writing was at times completely hilarious. For example: Anika faints in gym class, her teacher tries to check her cognition (for what reason I'm not entirely sure... perhaps this was some form of concussion assessment?) and asks if she knows where she is. Anika is slightly sadistic and gives random answers such as "apple" and "Cleveland" then finally says "It's Nebraska. We're in Nebraska." Her teacher then replies: "That's right! We're in Nebraska." and the author continues with: 'Never has anyone been that excited to say that sentence in American history'. But then it goes on lol! Anika says: "and you're Mr. Dushane. And there's Shelli... and Charlie.. and Jenny..." and the author continues with 'I'm just copying the end of The Wizard of Oz here, by the way. Just straight up plagiarizing.' Anika then goes on to ask the gym teacher if she finished the race (which she did not train for but is afraid she will not get an A in phys ed without impressing him) and he says no and she offers to continue running and he tells her no and makes a beautiful motivational speech out of the event. All of this together is perfect YA comedy. Many teen movies use the "adults are useless" or "adults are oblivious" tropes and any teen who has tried and failed to explain a problem to an adult can totally relate. This comes up often in this book and it is often used in a pretty hilarious way (when non-derogatory that is).
I liked that although Anika was inexperienced and got a little carried away in the hormonal rush that is new teen love, she did not let it block her judgement. She protected herself from potential assault and took the time to think over situations that bothered her morally or made her feel uncomfortable. While she certainly did suffer from some bad judgement at times, this also made her very relatable.
If you enjoy Mean Girls and other teen dramas, this is definitely a great choice for you. I'm really glad I read it, and so thankful to Books Forward Publishing and the author for sending me this book. It is highly entertaining and an interesting book overall, but as I mentioned previously, there are unfortunately a few problematic areas.
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