Daria Snadowsky

I debated what to label Anatomy of a Boyfriend. I'm sure most people would not stick it under the New Adult heading, because of the rather graphic nature of the sex involved and the fact that Dom is in college for roughly the last third of it. Honestly, though, it reads like a young adult novel to me, and it's not like teens wouldn't be having some or all of these experiences. However, I'm mentioning the detailed descriptions of sex up front, so that readers who are not comfortable with that show more are full informed. Personally, I really like Snadowsky's take on teenage sexual relationships and first love.

Dominique, more commonly known as Dom, has always been the studious type to her best friend Amy's boy crazy type. Dom doesn't really understand why Amy is willing to hook up with random guys, but she's also not particularly judgmental about it either. Dom and Amy really care about one another and maintain a strong friendship throughout, even if they're not the focal point of the story.

Dom's never really even been strongly interested in someone until she meets Wes. Something about him sets her teenage hormones ablaze, and they quickly strike up a friendship, emailing and IMing. Much to her frustration, though, the relationship doesn't go anywhere. She spends a lot of time talking with Amy on the phone, unpacking the latest messages for deeper meaning.This Snadowsky got just right, as I know I've been there and so have all of my female friends.

Once they do strike up a romantic relationship, things accelerate swiftly physically. Both virgins, they move through the bases at a fairly fast clip. What I really love about Snadowsky's take on this is that she doesn't spare them any awkwardness or pain. Unlike most fiction, there's not a simultaneous orgasm to be found within these pages; the sex is not romanticized. The depiction of sex is very realistic and descriptive about most basic sexual behaviors, and while it's perhaps more detailed than some parents might want their teens reading, I think it's much more honest and likely to make a teen think things through than the fade to black scenes that suggest perfection. Plus, Dom is always very careful about using protection, which is a very good message to send, and one often left out of fictional sex scenes. Snadowsky also does an admirable job depicting the emotional arc of their relationship.

Unfortunately, I often found the writing awkward, like Snadowsky hasn't quite manage to simulate teen speech patterns. For one thing, their AIM messages are all fully written out in paragraphs with punctuation and capitalization. Every single one. Some teens do write everything out, as I know I tended to, and Wes and Dom are likely to have done that. However, I don't think anyone consistently sent everything in a big paragraph. Generally IMs were no longer than a sentence or two, so that struck me as very strange. Also, at one point, during a breakup, someone says "'I'm going to have to change my status to "single" on MySpace now'" (233). This book was published in 2007, and, by then, it definitely would have been Facebook. That reference might not have been outdated when the book was written, but certainly was by publication, and is laughable now.

In part because of the occasionally awkward writing, I never really bonded with Dom. She's smart and all, but the amount of time she spent focused on Wes seemed a bit excessive, though I've never been the most romantic girl, so maybe that's realistic for people who aren't me. The biggest thing that distanced me from Dom was her jealousy...of Wes' dog, Jessica. She thinks some seriously mean thoughts about that dog, and, as an animal lover, I could not deal with that. I mean, they're heat of the moment thoughts, but they kept me from loving Dom. She also was generally overeager about things. The first time she's invited to Wes' house, for example, she asks to see his family photo albums, and they weren't romantically involved at this point. That seemed highly odd to me.

Though imperfect, I devoured Anatomy of a Boyfriend, and I really appreciate its frank depiction of sexual exploration and coming of age. I'm very excited to see where Snadowsky goes in the sequel, Anatomy of a Single Girl, which I'm starting next. show less

This book wasn't terrible, because in a lot of ways it does portray real first loves, but it was so incredibly cliché at points that it was almost painful to plow through.

I have to give the author props where props are due: there were moments in this book that I sympathized with to the point of physical reaction, and that’s tough to pull off – kudos – but I’m not sure if that should be credited to the author’s skill of writing or the simple awfulness of the subject matter she show more delves into. That being said, I’m not sure if it was the awkwardness of the characters/plot or the awkwardness of those real life situations the book strove to portray, but it was horrific.

I really wanted to like this book for its glimmers of perfection, but all in all I just dreaded picking it back up. show less

You will read many reviews warning you that Anatomy Of A Boyfriend is sexually explicit. They’ll mention masturbation and oral sex as well as doing it. But, Anatomy Of A Boyfriend is really just the story of a smart teenage girl who gets completely, blindly, struck dumb by love.

Dominique dreams of going to med school, reads Gray’s Anatomy the way most teens read Stephen King and doesn’t seem the sort of girl who would lose her virginity on prom night. That’s just too corny for a girl show more like Dom. But a guy named Wesley fits the bill of knight in shining armor all too well and soon Dom is living and breathing for Wes’s every wish. I enjoyed the portrayal of Dom as smart girl who gets suckered into the romantic stereotype all too easily and I suspect teen girls will recognize their own voice in hers.

Anatomy Of A Boyfriend’s graphic depiction of the fumbling we all experience while wading into the pool of our sexuality is dead on. It’s uncomfortable to remember and even more uncomfortable to discuss with our child. Most of us would like to just push it out of our mind, but if we look back toward our own firsts, remember our sexually bumbling selves, we know that it’s a universal experience and just another part of our child’s growing into adulthood. Even though the sexual can be wicked at times, what Anatomy Of A Boyfriend does best is expose the perplexity of love, its joys as well as its pains, in a genuine voice that many young girls, on the cusp of womanhood, can relate to.

Recommended for high school students and up.

Review first published on Reading Rumpus show less

Where Anatomy of a Boyfriend tackles first love, first sexual experiences, and first heartbreak, The Anatomy of a Single Girl considers what comes after all that. Snadowsky delves into the mental recovery process and facing life and dating after the end of a relationship you were convinced would be forever, much as logic insists that most first loves don't end in marriage. The much-belated follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend is thematically similar, but very, very different in overall show more message and frame of mind, yet another wonderful addition to literature for older teens.

Single and depressed, Dom doesn't know what to do with herself. Her parents and friends urge her to date to get over the last vestiges of love for Wes, to move on. At Tulane, her good friend, Calvin, really wants to date her, and she's seriously considering it, but she really struggles with whether she actually has romantic feelings for him. Sometimes she thinks there's something there, but other times not so much. I was SO glad to see this in a novel, because I felt like this SO MANY TIMES in college. When a good friend develops a crush on you, it is really hard distinguish between the love you have for them as a friend and romantic love, especially since you want to make them happy and would like to not be single. That can be a really tough line to draw, and I like that Snadowsky tackled the fine lines between different kinds of love.

The healthy attitude towards sex that I praised so much in the first book continues full steam ahead in Anatomy of a Single Girl. Her first love, Wes, was her only sexual experience, and Dom's not really sure what she's okay with now. She meets a highly attractive frat boy while home for the summer, and they have great chemistry. However, the relationship can only be for the summer. Dom has to decide whether she's okay with a relationship and sex for their own sake, or whether that will make her some kind of person she doesn't want to be. Her experiences with Guy, the frat guy, really open her up to new experiences and broaden her horizons.

Of course, Snadowsky continues to revel in the awkward moments of real life. Though Dom's sex life has dramatically improved, there's still no magic, immediately expert sex. Plus, there's a whole lot of rigamarole to get out of the way beforehand to be safe: getting tested and going on birth control. The description of her trip to the gynecologist was a bit more in depth than I personally would have liked, but it's honest and educational, without coming off like your over-eager health teachers in middle school.

This installment also focuses much less on romance overall, and more on Dom's relationships overall, none of which are especially romantic. Snadowsky dives into various kinds of friendship, like the two with the boys described above. She also gets more in depth into Dom's friendship with Amy, who becomes less of a sidekick now, as she goes through her own relationship problems. Both Amy and Dom turn out not to be quite who the other expected, and their friendship goes through some bumps.

There's also additional focus on Dom's parents, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, I like how involved and supportive her parents are, but the level of their nosiness is a little uncomfortable. They alternate between basically telling her not to get too serious in relationships and that she needs to play the field and telling her she shouldn't be going on dates. I couldn't really figure out their agenda, because they were so inconsistent.

Those that enjoyed Anatomy of a Boyfriend will also speed through Anatomy of a Single Girl. I think it's a bit stronger, with the writing coming across more authentically, and a very satisfying ending, though I do think there's space for more. I will be eagerly anticipating Snadowsky's next project, because writers who can be so open and honest are always a great find. show less