So. What if you were Spider Stew on the inside? What if everybody thought you were an Immigrant, a Half-Breed, a vampire? What if you knew you were the darkness, but everyone thought you weren’t?
Meet Anika Dragomir. Actually, if you went to Pound High, Lincoln, Nebraska, you’d already know who she is. Oh the off chance that you don’t, however, I’ll introduce you to her…
Meet Anika Dragomir, Third Most Popular Girl at Pound High after Shelli Schroeder, her not-so-slutty, slut best friend and the evil incarnate Becky Villhauer. She’s half Romanian and lived with her Vampire Father in his Romanian castle from when she was three until ten. She has two older sisters and two older brothers. Oh, and her step-father is an ogre. Anything else to add, Pound High Residents?
But what you (and everyone else, obviously) doesn’t know about Anika Dragomir is that she isn’t the blonde, perfect, Bunza Hut working girl you see her as. On the inside, she’s dark and twisty and all wrong.
Now, Anika has always thought that her cultural heritage being what it is, that she had peaked on the social hierarchy. That is, until Logan McDonough shows up on a moped, and he is HOT. And he’s offering her rides homes, taking her to gorgeous houses and writing her haikus. Not to mention filling classrooms with butterflies for her, and painting her gorgeous portraits. But, still, he’s a nerd. And the third most popular girl doesn’t waste time on nerds.
Especially when the guy everyone wants – THE Jared Kline – wants Anika (ANIKA) to be his boyfriend. Is he the scam artist that everyone thinks he is, or is all that bad boy attitude just a facade? Oh, and what should she do?
Anatomy of a Misfit (a cool title, and a gorgeous cover) is something different; something that was either a work of true genius, or exactly the opposite. Even after closing the cover, I’m still not sure if it was told the way it was to get people to relate to it while bringing out extremely disturbing issues like abuse, alcoholism, stealing, lying, bullying , ethnicity and self-respect, or if these were things just thrown in there to make the characters have better backstories. I’m leaning towards the former, but I can’t quite decide...
“I just want you to know, I hired a black girl. Don’t be scared.”
“Why should we be scared?”
“What’s she gonna do, eat us?”
Mr. Baum and every other adult I know, seems to actually think this stuff makes some kind of difference.”
Just a small example. We switch from socially conscious Anika to Airhead Anika, from an Anika that knows what’s right and yet can’t see straight, one who is willing to keep quiet while people hurt in front of her and go behind the scenes and out of her way to make an outcast acceptable again. Strange, right?
All in all, I really liked, but didn’t love, Anatomy of a Misfit. 4 stars.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
