Anatomy of Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky
Release Date: Reprint- Sept. 23, 2008
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 272
"Before this all happened, the closest I'd ever come to getting physical with a guy was playing the board game Operation. Okay, so maybe that sounds pathetic, but it's not like there were any guys at my high school who I cared to share more than three words with, let alone my body.
Then I met Wes, a track star senior from across town. Maybe it was his soulful blue eyes, or maybe my hormones just started raging. Either way, I was hooked. And after a while, he was too. I couldn't believe how intense my feelings became, or the fact that I was seeing—and touching—parts of the body I'd only read about in my Gray's Anatomy textbook. You could say Wes and I experienced a lot of firsts together that spring. It was scary. It was fun. It was love.
And then came the fall."
There have been reviews for this book all over the place, well now it’s my turn! First off, I just want to express my concern that some readers have been surprised that there is sex in this book. Number one: It’s called “Anatomy of a Boyfriend,” number two: there is a naked man-doll on the cover, number three: are there still really people out there that think teens don’t have sex? Let me throw this little factoid at you, nearly half (46%) of all 15-19-year-olds in the United States have had sex at least once. If you don’t believe me check out Guttmacher.org.
Now that I’ve aired that out. I only wish I would have had something like this to read when I was a teen. Thankfully I have an extraordinary mother that was there for me. The only sex talk my mother ever received growing up was that sex was a dirty, nasty, thing that you only did with the one your love. I guess she didn’t want me to grow up with that same warped view on sex. I’m not condoning or condemning teen sex, but I think that having information available and books like this are absolutely necessary.
Okay seriously I’m off of my soap box now, and on to the review. It’s probably obvious that I liked this book, I enjoyed reading it. It was a great story and I’m sure that is some ways it parallels the first love that many of us have experienced. The only thing that bothered me, and I know I’m not alone in this, is there wasn’t enough “love story” for me. I didn’t see the how of why these two feel in love, or really why Dom fell in love with Wes. Had that aspect been fully represented I think that this read would have been even better.
However the actual depiction of the relationship, was totally believable! The highs, the lows and everything in between. The characters had sex yes, but they did have safe sex. The sex scenes themselves, while they were graphic, never crossed the line of becoming phony or smutty. It’s authentic, maybe that’s why I liked it so much. And probably also because The Princess Bride is my all time favorite movie.