Review: Anatomy Of A Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky

Title: Anatomy Of A Boyfriend
Author: Daria Snadowsky
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Sex, First Love
Pages: 259
Rating: A-




Synopsis: 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 fall.

First Impression: I've seen this book around for a while now (it was published in 2008) but had never truely looked into it until just this year. Shortly after Christmas I was at Borders with all the money I had received in gift cards, when I noticed it. I'm not going to lie, it's the fact that this story has to do with first love and first sex and all those firsts that I picked it up. One the back, above the summery, it reads "Snadowsky’s debut novel is an unusually honest portrayal of a teen girl’s sexual discovery . . .  Like Forever, this sensitive, candid novel is sure to find a wide audience among curious teens." — booklist This was a good enough reason to buy it for me. 

Full Impression/Review: Dominique Baylor, a high school senior from Fort Meyers, Florida, aspires to be a doctor and cares more about reading Grey's Anatomy (the actual medical book, not the TV show or anything to do with it) then she cares about boys. When not competing on her school's science quiz team, she can be found at home playing the board game Operation with her parents. That all changes when she meets Wes, a shy fellow senior and local track star. Instantly she's hooked. After a couple months of exchanging hundreds of IMs and a dozen or more e-mails, she finally admits her feelings for Wes and makes the first move. And so starts their relationship.

     Both unexperienced in love (and sex), they prove to be eager to learn and so things get pretty hot and heavy just on their first date (they run past first base and explore second to the fullest). After a couple more months, they are ready to go All The Way Home and lose it on Prom Night, as cliché. 

    At a first glance, this novel could sound redundant, cliché, and overdone a million and one times, but I'm not writing a review from the perspective of a first glance. Even going so far as naming her an inspiration for the novel, it's obvious that Snadowsky is a fan of Judy Blume and took a hint from Forever... (1975), a novel that also follows the first love and the exploration of sex from the point of view of a couple in their senior year of high school. 

   Dom is mature and goal-oriented. She has her sites set on getting excepted into Stanford and becoming a doctor. On the other hand, her experience with guys is limited to kissing party games from her earlier teen years and the bodies of the drawn male figures in her medical books. In many ways she is the polar opposite of her best friend Amy, a rather free spirited artist who is saving her virginity until college, but does everything else. When Dom meets Wes at the big football game the day after Christmas, she finds herself really falling for him. As the months pass they start dating, exploring, and loving each other. By Prom they do feel ready and decide to take that next step. Everything seems to be going well for the happy couple who, though are off to different colleges in the fall, strongly believe they will weather the tempest of long distance relationship and come out on top. But then fall does come and things change.

   While this book is filled to the brim with sex, it's not the racy and sensual sex that is the making of a hardcore romance novels. Instead it's very realistic, frank, insightful, graphic, and even somewhat scientific -- as are the thoughts that come to Dom as she sees a certain where-the-sun-don't-shine part of Wes (of any guy) for the first time. Dom's view on sex shine through clearly -- she's the type of girl who believes in love before sex, another thing that makes her the opposite of her casual hookup type best friend. The novel isn't the most original idea put out there, but Snadowsky brings a fresh and new look onto this theme. Unlike many books, Wes is neither a loner/outcast, or jerk/ jock. He is simply the average teen male -- good and bad included. 

    In her debut novel, Snadowsky weaves together a story that feels both old and new bring up many of the essential and basic questions of relationships: Is sex love? Is there a difference between first love and true love? How can you tell? Like Forever... before it, Anatomy Of A Boyfriend an authentic and candid story sensitively but frankly explores sex in our modern day society, experiencing it for the first time, and dealing with it in a mature way. 

                                         ~ XOXO, 
                                                Ariana

Follow The Yellow Brick Road…

Dear Bloggie,

   Yeah, I know, it’s been a while. Life has been “interesting”, as Cat calls it. I don’t see it that way, but I will NOT stop blogging, so I might as well update. Lets start with NaNoWriMo -- or the lack of it.  I know, I was so excited to start the project. I have a good idea how it’s going, I made an awesome cover, and I want to write it, but the first chapter isn’t going well. I’ve re-written the beginning of chapter one twice now (I only have 655 words by now, not including the prologue which is actually my a short story my 5th grade teacher had told me in, well, 5th grade; don’t worry, I make it clear that it’s not my story bit one that is a moral, be nice to others one that we all hear some sort of during our life) and can’t decided what to do. I want it to be perfect. My old English teacher, Mr. Marino, instilled this want to do well in me. I’m glad he did, but sometimes it gets annoying since I tend to over edit myself in my writing. I know writing needs a lot of editing, but when you’re writing your first draft you’re just supposed to just write. Like I do with my blog. But I can’t with my stories.

   On equally not-happy news, things between me and Zach will not work out any time soon. My closest friend at GHAA (we shall call her Annie-May on my blog, not her real name) really likes him. I never told him OR her of my feelings for Zach, so I don’t blame her, but of course I’m jealous and upset. Except I can’t tell her that because I’m scared how she will react. If I had told her before, she probably wouldn’t have minded, but I didn’t. She had asked if I liked anyone and i had told her know. I lied, and now I’m going to have to deal.

  Thankfully I do have other parts to my life. For example, on Monday we had our auditions. With all three rotations over (I can’t believe I’ve been in high school for ten and a half weeks now!) we chose our top two and auditioned for them. I was super nervous. I was sure I was going to fail my audition and be forced to take Visual Arts for the year. I could of course audition again in the spring for next school year, but by then I would be behind everyone. All I could imagine was failing and being so behind that no college would take me and I would end up living in the streets of New York, in the heart if Times Square, in a cardboard box begging for pennies and slowly dying from the toxic fumes of taxis/cars/buses and the sewer. I know, I’m over dramatic. But still, it seemed sorta rational at the time. Sorta.

  The point is that I sat near Zach in the beginning, but after the auditions, while people were finishing up and we were all just sitting around, Zach and Annie-May were talking and I didn’t really feel like joining the conversation. So instead I hung out with my dear friend Marty. He showed me some more of his animations and we talked about them and listened to this music until we were all told to go to out advisory groups. Marty is really good at animations. He was explaining some of it for me, and God, it’s a long and complicated process. You can see his work here. My favorites are the Dumpster Baby and the Playground one. Hope you check them out. They’re really funny. Or at least I think so.

Too bad he’s not only a visual artist, but also a half-day student so I won’t see him much anymore. We’re in two completely different buildings, even after the move in January (when our new school building will complete, making it possible for all morning students, grades 9-12, to be under one roof, and providing housing for the Creative Writing, Inter Arts, and Musical Theater departments). Still, at least I have Sierra. Remember how I mentioned her a while ago, on my lonely post? At the time she wanted to be a visual artist, but after doing a rotation through creative writing she decide she loved it and liked how she got the feeling of being a family in this department.

  As you can tell, I got into Creative Writing! I’m officially a creative writer! I still can’t believe it, but yeah, it’s true. I’m really excited. I’m trying to get into this Shakespeare class Sierra is taking. It requires a lot of reading and right now she’s the only freshman in it (i.e. it’s difficult), but it sounds interesting so I’m up for the challenge. as for now, It’s a minute to 1am and I have no school tomorrow because of veterans day. Until next time, keep following that yellow brick road and all your dreams will come true. 

~ XOXO,
       Libby

P.S. Yes, I know. I should become a greeting card writer for Hallmarks.

P.P.S. Actually, Hallmarks in one of my top five favorites stores (not sure which spot in my top five,  I just know that Borders, Torrid, and Temptations -- a hair accessory and jewelry store they have in the mall near my house -- beats it for sure) so I wouldn’t mind writing greeting cards for while. As long as that isn’t my only job in the writing world.

P.P.P.S I’m going to post the beginning of chapter one for your opinion. Am I on the right track or not? If you picked up a book in a store that began like this, would you read it? Criticism much needed, please don’t sugar coat please, that gets me nowhere. Thanks. :)

Chapter One

  “Adèle Baudelaire.” The woman behind the table smiled, searching for me on her list. She handed me a name tag, my name written in large but neat print with sharpie. A nine stood in its upper left corner.

    “The number is your group; they will be called together shortly. Find a seat and get comfortable for now. Welcome to the Academy!”

    “Thanks.” I smiled back. She seemed genuinely happy to see me. I turned away as another girl took my place. Her hair was three different shades at least, only one of them being a natural hair color. Addie, we’re definitely not in Catholic school anymore. 

    I searched the room of faces, looking for one person who wasn’t preoccupied in a conversation. It seemed that I was the only freshman at GHAA (what the school website used to refer to this school, George Harte Academy of the Arts; it was named after its first sponsor) who had come here alone, all their friends attending other schools. For the first time since I had received my acceptance letter, I was doubling thinking my choice.

    It’s too late now, I reminded myself. I turned down Northeast Catholic months ago and public school wasn’t an option. Sink or swim, I was here for the year. I just hoped it was the later.

    I found a seat towards the back out the auditorium. A girl a couple seats down let out a loud laugh. I cringed, wishing I had someone to laugh with. I don’t know how long I spaced out, but when I came back to attention a tall brunette was standing on the stage where I had just checked in. Like the other, she had a big smile on her face. Her hair was tied into two braids despite the fact that she appeared to be around my mother’s age. Still, her bright turquoise top and flower printed skirt made her seem younger.

    “Good morning! Can I have your attention, please?” The girls to my left continued laughing. It seemed that I was the only one paying attention.

    “OK everyone, I know you’re all excited, but can you please settle down so we may begin?” The talking continued.

    A woman in a tan dress ran on stage, kitten heels clicking. Unlike every other adult I had seen, she looked as if she meant business. She took the microphone out of the other woman’s hand and yelled, “SETTLE DOWN NOW! IF YOU’RE A FRESHMAN, THEN TURN YOUR ATTENTION HERE. IF YOU’RE NOT A FRESHMAN, THEN YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!”

    The room went silent.

    “Thank you Jen.” Happy Woman took the microphone back. “Now, I’m Jillian Oliver but you can call me Jill. I’m the head of the musical theater department and as well as the coordinator for freshman arts classes. I would like to welcome you to the Academy. We are very happy to have you here. I know your all excited to begin so I’ll make this quick. Can the teachers--”

    “Freshman!” A male screamed from the door way. He had to be around sixteen at least. His light brown hair almost touched his shoulders in a hairstyle that could only be a cross between a skater and Justin Bieber. His clothes, like his hair, was a mash-up of two styles – wannabe white gangster and skater; typical teen male fashion. He just strolled in as if he owned the place, eyeing the crowed in search for his prize horse. When his gaze reached me end of the auditorium I saw it falter for a second.

The Incident

Hey Bloggie,
I know it’s been a while, but that’s only because I’ve been apprehensive about writing down the incident. Nevertheless life moves on and I might as well just say it. So let’s start at the beginning.

You know my post about the horrible day? Well it turns out scraping my knee was only the tip of the iceberg. Even though my mom told me not to, I had brought my cell to school that day. That night I was going to take a picture of my graduation dress to show to Serena, when I checked my backpack and could not find it. I wasn’t too worried; I’m always losing stuff and there was a small possibility that it was somewhere in my house. On Tuesday I checked my school but couldn’t find it, so when I got home I looked for it around the house. Now, I was getting worried. I told my mom and she said to double check around school so I did. Still nothing.

My mom picks me up from school on Wednesday, so I told her it was still missing. I didn’t have school that Friday because of some teachers in service meeting, so I said if I didn’t find it by Thursday I wanted her to cancel my account ant I would pay for a new cell with my grandfather’s money I never used (100 for Christmas and 100 for my birthday). It never got to that point.

I was checking my mail when I saw people were commenting on something on Facebook. So I log onto Facebook and guess what the first words I see? No, not magical pony (good guess though) but instead “I HATE YOU BITCHES” as MY Facebook status. Under the status it has comments from different people asking what is going on and one – from Neena – asking what was I cursing her and Serena out. Of course I’m in shock because I did no such thing. That’s when I notice that the status was posted via mobile Facebook. My mom just so happened to be walking through the door from work at that point so I ran to her (she would later say that from the way I was acting when I ran to her she thought the house was burning down or something!) and told her someone was impersonating me and that she needs to cancel my phone account.

While she is canceling my account I started to tell people it was not me who had posted the status and that they should not believe any bad status. Well I guess the person who had my phone was not done because they posted a status (under my name!!!) saying “Chill out, I found my phone.” I of course told my mom who was on the phone with Verizon about it and again told people that I had NOT found my phone! Finally my phone was shut down, I changed my Facebook password and I start asking Neena what happened. I guess the person texted her and Serena saying that I hated them and that I didn’t want to be friends anymore. I told her to inform Serena that it wasn’t true and she did. The next day I told my friends what happened and asked Serena more about what happened.

In the end Verizon sent me a new phone right away (I had it by Thursday evening, the fiasco having occurred Wednesday evening), Serena and Neena understood and didn’t hold it against me, and everything went back to normal, but I can’t help but wonder. Who would hate me enough to try to mess up my life? Who is my enemy? It had to be someone in my class since they would have to have been aware of my previous arguments with Neena and Serena (they only targeted them from my phone list) but after this year I wouldn’t imagine anyone doing it. I have become pretty close to the girls in my class to a point where I don’t see anyone of them as backstabbing, and this incident is too bitchy to be a guy. So who? Now that’s the burning question...

~XOXO,
Carrie

Carrie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Hi,
So this is only going to be a quick post since I should be doing both my home work and working on my book Incandescent (Ever's story), but I just needed to say a couple of things. First and foremost... Serena and I are friends again. Yeah after a month er finally made up. What happened was that her brother is sick in the hospital so her mother asked my mom to bring her to the dance. As we are getting into the car she taps me on the shoulder and asks if I'm still angry. Well I said no and that led us to talking out what happened. Let's just say by the time we walked into the dance we were laughing.

The second thing I wanted to say is that I am having the worst day ever! I keep falling all over the place. Like earlier I kept bumping into people and tripping, but it wasn't until I was leaving school and fell and scraped my knee that it was really bad. So right now my knee really hurts! Ooch, Ouch! Well, have to get back to homework and writing so ta-ta for now.

~XOXO,
Carrie

P.S. I had my placement exams on Saturday, and though I did horribly in math, I met some kids and talked. They seemed nice and a lot like the people I know right now so I'm not worried so much for September anymore!

Pandora's Box

So I never told you but Serena and I made up on March 8th. My friend Stephanie had her birthday party on the 6th and all of our friends made us talk. We talked out a lot of problems and in the end our main problem was that we had both so drastically changed that we weren't the same people who first became friends. She said what upset her the most was that she felt I was always trying to get attention and talking about my books, ect. I said what upset me the most was that she always told my secrets, like who I liked ect. So come Monday our friends made us sit together for lunch (only us) and we talked and laughed and things seemed good and back to normal. That didn't last long.

As the weeks went on I felt things were getting sorta weird again, but nothing major. Then on Tuesday my friend Corey told me that Serena had told him that I liked Luke. I got upset, but nothing much. All I wanted was an apology. That was Tuesday afternoon, last period of the school day. Today is Saturday, and still nothing. So I guess you can say we are on our third fight in four and a half months.

I have known her since third grade, but we weren't friends until the end of the year so, I'll count it as five and a half years of friendship. Four and half of those years we only got into two arguments. One was so small that all it involved was an apology to Corey and me after she kept saying we liked each other when we didn't in 6th grade. The second was because I was being controlling on a health project, and after when I saw she was really upset I apologized and promised not to be so controlling. That was lat year. Besides those fight we never really argued. This year it has been three big fights within a matter of months. The first lasted a week, the second two weeks, and this one has lasted four and a half days so far.

But you know what really bothers me? Not the fights but what happened yesterday. Yesterday Serena was writing a comic strip about this guy in our class named Regis. Well we always tease him about his dad being a creepy pedophile because he watches us at dances. He also likes one of my friends Angela. Well Serena put both in to her comic strip, and though I don't know what it said, I know it was perverted and upset Angela who read it. Well Serena got upset after Regis, Angela, and some of Angela's friends started to yell at her (in a normal voice but with pissed ofness in it) so she ran into the bathroom. Neena ran in after her to comfort her.

That was my job! I have been the one to talk to her when she cried, not Neena! That's the moment when I realized the total truth; we're not ever going to be best friends. I mean, if we make up we will be friends again, but we will never ever be best friends again. The second Serena said those things on Facebook, she opened a Pandora's box. There is no return. Things will never be the same no matter how much I want it to be.

That's what really hurts. Not our fights, but that our fights will never truely be resolved. When 8th grade ends we may talk on Facebook for a while, but by September things will be completely over. We will be one of those old friends who see each others' statuses on Facebook but don't comment because we aren't that close. We will be each other's "middle school friend" instead of life friends. I hate that this happened, but it did and there is nothing that can be done now.

Life was changed and now were both walking in different directions. Imagine if you want both of us standing in a room with two doors exactly across from each other. At first neither one of us did anything, we just stood there talking and laughing, but in 6th grade we finally noticed there were doors in the room. I walked to one door and Serena chose the other. We were right near each other in the beginning so we didn't notice the gap at first. Sometimes we caught a glimpse of it, but we never said anything until people started to fill in the gap. Then we were starting to get closer to other people. Finally I got upset about the gap so I took it out on a trivial problem, which in turn caused Serena to speak up about the gap, the facade that had been created tearing apart.

We tried to fix the gap, to go back, but like those escalators floor things, we were just running in place. When we graduate we will reach our doors, and by September we will have no choice but to open it and walk through.

~XOXO,

Carrie

Life With Serena, Neena, Luke, and Yoda

So things aren't going well. My friend and I are still not talking, but I have decided it is ok. I mean, I will always wish things hadn't ended this way, but truthfully I think she is acting like a five year old. She calls me bitchy and jealous, but really I think I like the other girl better, the one who I used to think was trying to steal my ex best friend. You know what, lets give them names (not their real ones) so I can call them something. Let's call my ex best friend Serena, and the new girl Neena. And why don't we just call that guy I like Luke and the friend that gives me advice Yoda because she is so wise.

I wonder how my life will go on from here? I wonder if lunch is going to awkward for any longer? I wonder if high school will be ant better? I wish life had an easy button like Staples has in those commercials. That all you had to do is push the big red button and magically your life will fix itself. But in life there are no easy answers, though if there was I would be the first to find it since I'm always looking for it.

I didn't have much to say but I'm trying to procrastinate since I still have to do my health packet and health project, so I decided to blog. I don't know where my life will take me tomorrow. Tomorrow for all I know Serena and I may be besties again. I don't know where I'm going or who will or will not join me for that journey, but I can say one thing for sure. I will write. When the world is down I will write. When everything falls in place and I experience those few moments of bliss, I will write. Because writing is all about memories. Good or bad.

~ Carrie




Life's Road

I'm Sorry

Dear Non-existent readers
I probably shouldn't be writing this after the currant events in my life, but I need to talk it out. You see I consider you a diary, something that no one ever seems to read and if anyone did read this, I thought they wouldn't know me so I wouldn't care. But now I see I'm wrong. What should I do when I'm scared. I don't know how to apologize with out getting defensive, it's in my nature. I've always been defensive. But now I can't be because my wallowing (though almost two months ago) has cost me problems.

You know my old post "Friends", well that friend read it. Not the new girl (I wish it was her and not the other), the one I was upset at. That was never suppose to happen! I consider you a diary where I write thoughts that only people who don't know me or will ever know me can read, because they can't effect me and don't care about me. I guess your my version of "Yahoo Answers" without any answers. But now someone read it who does know me, someone I do care about. What should I do? What should I say? No matter what that person thinks, I do care about them and consider them a best friend as I always did. To be truthful even though my two friends from second grade and under weren't that nice, I will always consider them my best friends of a sort. Not my currant best friends, or my ex best friends, but my kindergarten through second grade best friends.

But now everything is messed up and I don't know what to do. I got advice from one of my other friends (not any of the two mentioned here) and I think I will follow it. I just hope she will listen (the one who is mad at me, not the new girl or the one who gave me advice) because I really screwed up. I though creating a blog would help me with my problems, well it just made it worst. Now that is a fact.

~Carrie

Friends

I would like to start by saying hi, hi to anyone and everyone who has taken their time to read this. Ok, now lets cut the crap and begin. I could start by raving on about how this is my first blog, but I know nobody cares so lets get to the topic at hand: Friends. Hate them, love them, no matter which, they shape who you are. I can tell you right now I have no idea where I fall. If you asked me this a year ago, even only three months ago I wold say that I loved them , that friends made life worth living, well that was before The Incident. I'm about to give you the best advice you will ever get so listen up, NEVER EVER FORM A GROUP OF THREE FRIENDS!!! No matter how nice the third person might be, never form a group of three. Always keep the numbers even , or you will find out the hard way that it sucks. Trust me I know.
I've had a best friend for five years now, we met in third grade. I never really had any close friends in the past except for a girl in kindergarten that I blew off since I wanted to be popular - something I still regret to this day since she was the sweets person you will ever meet- so when I met her everything seemed to be awesome. That was until September. My school goes from preschool to eighth grade, so when this new girl came in during our eighth grade year I felt bad so I welcomed her. She was really nice, quiet but nice. But I started to notice that her and my best friend were really getting close, so I got upset but kept it to myself, thinking it was the new girl who was trying to steal her. In December I finally had it and picked a fight over something trivial, something that normally would have meant nothing and we would have been friends with in two days, but instead the two girls got closer. I was apologizing to the new girl on Facebook -which she did except and apologized back so we are friends now - when my "best friend" jumped in. Lets just say it wasn't the new girl who was the problem. My friend was getting tired of me, what she said - over Facebook I have to add so other people did see - really hurt, but it opened my eyes.
I acted like a moron and begged her to let us talk it out come Monday since it all happened on a Friday after school - the Facebook fight, not the first fight - but come Monday were both silent since I felt that if I had to beg her to be my friend then she wasn't worth it. I decided to be the bigger person and gave her a gift for Christmas like I was doing for all the girls in my class, ( I have really small class since I attend a Catholic school, only 11 girls including me and 18 boys in our eighth grade) which caused her to feel bad and apologize. But trust me, our problems are still there.
We never talked them out, we never truly made up. Instead of best friends we now only friends though neither one of us will say it out loud. It still hurts even though it's been a month. Some people might say "Stop acting pathetic and move on" but how? I don't make friends easily and I only have eight other girls in my class besides me, my ex best friend, and the new girl/ new friend! Most of those girls have best friends! The only good thing is that next year I get a fresh start with high school.
So remember never make a group of three and if you think anything might be wrong in a friendship, talk it out before it gets ugly because losing a best friend is worst than losing a guy. When you lose a guy who do you run to for comfort and support? Your best friend. When you lose your best friend who do you run to? No one. I found this quote online that sums it all up, it's part of a song by MXPX.( don't know who they are, I find the quote on a sight of friendship quotes)

It breaks my heart; it makes me sad to think of all the times we had. You made me laugh and you made me cry. And all that I can do is sigh and wonder why.

Thanks for reading, comment if you feel like it. Ciao.
~ Carrie