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Anatomy of a Misfit

Andrea Portes (Goodreads Author)

3.51 · Rating details · 10,411 ratings · 1,711 reviews

This emotional, hilarious, devastating, and ultimately triumphant YA debut, based on actual events, recounts one girl’s rejection of her high school’s hierarchy—and her discovery of her true self in the face of tragedy.

Fall’s buzzed-about, in-house favorite.

Outside, Anika Dragomir is all lip gloss and blond hair—the third most popular girl in school. Inside, she’s a freak: ...more

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Hardcover, 336 pages

Published September 2nd 2014 by Harper Children’s

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Lists with This Book

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Average rating 3.51 ·

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· 10,411 ratings · 1,711 reviews

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May 27, 2014 Celine rated it did not like it

Shelves: arc, did-not-finish

I thought I was prepared.

I'd seen many friends pick this up and then lay it down after 15 pages or so, saying this just really wasn't for them. But I've been the odd one out before, so maybe this could end up working for me! So I finally started my own copy of Anatomy of a Misfit and... well. Let's say my friends weren't wrong. The really sad thing about Anatomy of a Misfit is that it's really trying to prove a (good) point. But there are so many things that contradict that message that it just ...more

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Jul 05, 2017 Aj the Ravenous Reader rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, physically-owned-books, lol

Lately, I’ve been coming across this particular type of character development and I find myself liking it- character is really unlikeable, so unlikeable I imagined giving her a little knuckle blow in the head. She’s mean and offensive, my eyes hurt from excessive rolling at her judgmental thoughts and words. She’s friends with the most popular girl in school even though she hates her like poison and she’s best friends with the second most popular girl even though she slut shames her fifty percen Lately, I’ve been coming across this particular type of character development and I find myself liking it- character is really unlikeable, so unlikeable I imagined giving her a little knuckle blow in the head. She’s mean and offensive, my eyes hurt from excessive rolling at her judgmental thoughts and words. She’s friends with the most popular girl in school even though she hates her like poison and she’s best friends with the second most popular girl even though she slut shames her fifty percent of her narrative. That’s Anika Dragomir and no she isn’t a vampire even though her dad is Romanian. A vampire is probably more likable.

What I like about Anika though is how she admits her flaws and even succumbs to them often. But even though she clearly knows who she is, she also knows what she needs for self-preservation. As she juggles her different persona, she also tries to make amends by doing what she thinks is good for other people even though they may sound stupid to others. She won’t probably magically transform into a goody two shoes because she’s good and evil (but probably more evil) combined. By getting to know her, the reader gets to understand the Anatomy of a Misfit. I also have to say, she’s hilarious.

“I mean if there was any justice in the world, you wouldn’t even have to go to school during your period. You’d just stay home for five days and eat chocolate and cry.” Lol!

Anika’s character is I think what I liked best in the story and if the plot was a bit more clear-cut and focused on addressing her inner conflicts- to be who she wants to be versus to be someone accepted, I think I would have loved the book. But instead the plot tried to be so many things at once that it became too overwhelming. The conflicts have become quite too heavy and even the love triangle which I thought worked so well to challenge Anika’s inner conflict has turned into something too complicated, even tragic. I couldn’t reconcile this tragedy with the entire concept of the story. I just find it unnecessary.

I did enjoy most of the book though and despite my complaints, I still think it’s a compelling and gripping read. In fact except for the rest room and snack breaks, I read it in one sitting and even though I wasn’t too happy about the entire plot, I would still recommend the book for its relevant messages and themes. ...more

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Jul 04, 2014 Aaron Hartzler rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, fiction

ANATOMY OF A MISFIT is what happens when your favorite Sara Zarr book and the movie HEATHERS get drunk and make a baby. By turns snort-into-your-palm funny and arrow-to-the heart observant, this book is ultimately a bust-your-soul-to-smithereens look at what it means to care too much about the opinions of all the wrong people. Adult novelist Andrea Portes gives a masterclass in what "voice" is, and does so here with her camera's POV firmly set at the Young Adult audience. This is YA at its best: ...more

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Nov 07, 2014 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Who here is tired of people using Mean Girls .gifs in their book reviews?

Well, tough shit ‘cause I’m gonna use a bunch of them.

Anika Dragomir is the third most popular girl in high school. Think of her as Gretchen Wieners . . . .

True Mean Girls fans are probably screaming that Karen Smith was probably the third most popular girl in school or something of the sort. Have no fear, Anika’s best friend Shelli is the Karen Smith of t ...more

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Oct 25, 2014 *TANYA* rated it liked it

I really wanted to like this book but it felt flat.

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Sep 02, 2014 Dahlia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-own-in-hardcopy, legit-lols, made-me-cry

4.5 stars. This is not a book for everybody. This is a not a book you will enjoy if slurs and slut-shaming ruin a book for you. To love this book, you need to be the type who can read a book about people as they are and not as you want them to be. It struck me hard so many times while I was reading how many bloggers I knew would despise this book from early on, and I knew I'd find a bunch of reviews hating on it, and obviously, to each his or her own.

But I loved this book. I loved the snarky, ir ...more

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Feb 06, 2015 Faye, la Patata rated it it was amazing

Shelves: funny, fun-narration, good-heroine, humans-are-scary, contemporary-fiction, heartwrenching, heart-doing-blackflips, young-adult, drama, social-issues

Filipino readers! I'm giving away a copy of this on the blog! Come check it out!

First of all, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. As your friendly neighborhood book blogger, I would like to suggest the best way to maximize the next 24 hours as much as possible: buy cake or a box of chocolates, a glass of wine, maybe even some delicious foie gras, and curl up with a book to read for the rest of the day.

And please, for the love of god and all things holy, let it be this book.

My friends, I am not a fan of th Filipino readers! I'm giving away a copy of this on the blog! Come check it out!

First of all, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. As your friendly neighborhood book blogger, I would like to suggest the best way to maximize the next 24 hours as much as possible: buy cake or a box of chocolates, a glass of wine, maybe even some delicious foie gras, and curl up with a book to read for the rest of the day.

And please, for the love of god and all things holy, let it be this book.

My friends, I am not a fan of the contemporary genre at all. I am willing to admit even that it is what I read the least, as my shelves are full of fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal stuff. However, it is without a doubt that many of my best reads were contemporaries, and this was one of the them. I started this book with doubts and worries, and finished it with tears in my eyes, a pang of pain in my heart, and a soul enriched.

Anika Dragomir is probably the most real and honest-sounding contemporary heroine I've read yet. The way she was written, the way she narrated her story in her own words, was simply magical in a really realistic sense. She's far from being the perfect teen; in fact, she has so many flaws like you wouldn't believe - she's judgemental, she can be mean, she cares a lot about what other people think, she says a lot of awful things that would make you want to cringe, and yet, she also makes you realize many of these are actually brought about because of her environment and the time she lived in, a time in which people were way too conservative, too racist, too wary of each other. She called her best friend a "slut" for sleeping around, her sister the same thing for talking to boys all day and all night. Awful words that made me worry at first, but taking into consideration the historical context (set in the 1960s-1970s), I understood, in a way.

She's all of these things, but at the same time, she's also not. That's how complex she was - because despite wanting to conform, deep inside, she fights against it at the same time, making it an even more fulfilling experience as she finds her own place and her own voice through her snarky, humorous, and honest-to-goodness narration. She worries about what other people say, she goes against her gut for the simple fact that maybe the school's social hierarchy won't like it, but, when no one is looking, when she's sure of herself, she hops on the bike of the school's outcast, she helps the black girl who everyone else was being nasty to, she undoes the evil acts of Becky - small acts of kindness that make you see her real colors, the true Anika she's afraid of revealing in a town full of bigots, sexists, and abusers.

Plus, did I mention how amusing her narration is? Every 2 pages I would be laughing for a full minute. The writing here is so full of her personality and her spunk and her wit. Never have I read a contemporary with such a heroine whose persona truly jumped from the pages. For example, when she describes the Queen Bee of her school who's definitely evil incarnate, this is what she says:

The weird thing is... it's not like you can point to anything that made her that way. It's not like her dad's a criminal or her mom's a crack addict or she was raised in an orphanage or something. That would actually explain her demonic powers. It's just like she was born, she did a few print ads for the Penny's catalog, and abracadabra-BEELZEBUB!

There have been some concerns over the romance here. There are two "love interests", but truthfully, I never saw it as love triangle. For me, there really wasn't any real romance, because these two boys were simply a part of Anika's story growing up. Through them, she realizes the consequences of following the trend and of what is deemed "acceptable" and the beauty of following your heart. Through them, she matures and discovers her worth.

And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons that made this book so beautiful to me.

For me, this isn't just a contemporary coming-of-age book where the heroine or the hero sees the beauty of life after trials and tribulations. This is a book in which even after trials and tribulations, reality is still so shitty and bad things continue to happen at the wrong time to the wrong people, and yet, at the same time, this grittiness makes the good things in life shine even more. Anika finds out so many things about herself, about her friendships with the people that matter, about her family, and about the world, that the values she brings and instills continue to flow through you and inspire you.

While at the same time being so bloody funny and, let me reiterate, honest. So, so honest.

Seriously, guys? BUY THIS BOOK. You cannot not buy and read this book. I may not have read many contemporaries, but I read damn good ones, and this one pretty much topples them all. ...more

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Jun 07, 2017 emi rated it liked it

'I don't know how to act around anybody.'
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I feel like this is one of those books that leaves you a little speechless after finishing.
description

There were many things that I didn't necessarily like about this book and I found the characters a very strange set of creations.
description

I saw little correlation between the different events that took place and I just couldn't help thinking what the point of this book was (which isn't necessarily a bad thing; some crazy, chaotic books are fun to read).
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To this day, I'm n ...more

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Jun 05, 2014 Paula M rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf

I just.. couldn't... read it anymore.

description

What a waste. My excitement and enthusiasm is just useless. And I got disappointed.. BIG TIME. The blurb said that it was Mean Girls meets The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and in the first few chapters it's more on the Mean Girls part.. which is kind of annoying to read. The main protagonist did nothing but complain and swear unnecessarily. Seriously, there's a lot F bomb dropped here and it's just useless. What are they for?! It just turned me off and made m ...more

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Aug 21, 2014 Natalie (Never trust a duck) rated it did not like it

Shelves: arc, dumb-ass-protaganist, gave-away

*First I would like to thank Andye from http://www.readingteen.net/ for letting me review her books!*

I finished this book a couple days ago and I have yet to figure out what the plot of this book was. So I'm gonna go ahead and say that it is safe to assume there was none. Nada. Zip.
description

You have your main character Anika (which is pronounced Ann-ika, just like it's spelled. I thought for the longest time it was pronounced Uh-kneeka....don't judge), who is the third most popular girl at Pound High. Th ...more

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Oct 09, 2014 Emily (Obsessed Reader) rated it really liked it

4.5 stars
Ok, I really didn't think I was going to give this book such a high rating, but it completely redeemed itself. I'm still put off by the slut-shaming & using the term "gay" as an insult, but everything else was done really well. This book was described by someone as mean girls meets the perks of being a wallflower, and I literally could not come up with a better description. This was pretty fantastic & it definitely surprised me. Also, Anika's character development throughout this book i ...more

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Jun 03, 2014 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: bea14

Witty, honest and utterly heartbreaking.

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Jun 17, 2014 april rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I'm a terrible book reviewer... especially when I really loved the book.

You know that feeling when you love a story so much you've got nothing to say but "That was so good", "Brilliant" or "Holy Shit!!!!".

This is one of those moments... I'm not a very technical book reviewer, I'm more an emotional one. I oftentimes rate a book based on what it made me feel or how I did relate to the characters but I also sometimes rate it based on how it was written or narrated. I can distinguised a good prose f ...more

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Jul 21, 2014 Heather Anne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc-reads

What a read! Anatomy of a Misfit is filled with sarcasm, humor, and a whole lot of spunk. This is one of those books where you hear the voice of the story perfectly in your head. Sarcasm included. You’re taken on an emotional roller coaster as you work your way through the pages. One minute you’re laughing, the next you’re in compete and utter shock! I never really knew what was coming, but the short chapters that seemed like a “fast forward” was a hint that told me something was coming.

I felt ...more

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Oct 29, 2014 Jeff Raymond rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-ya-contemporary, cwmars-digital-catalog

What on earth did I just read?

I picked this one up solely because it was the "Big Library Read" on the digital library catalog, so why not grab something a little extra, especially if its recommended enough to be something offered to anyone who wants it. I've since found that it's one of the hotter reads of the year, got a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, and is pretty well-regarded.

And I have no idea why.

This story follows two teens in Nebraska. There's a hot boy, a mean girl clique, and ...more

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Aug 21, 2014 Alana rated it really liked it

I must admit that I was a little skeptical when first approaching this book. When I initially read the blurb, I thought it would just be another clichéd love story/triangle. Instead, I found a brutally honest depiction of bigotry, abuse and bullying that will stay with me for days.

Anatomy of a Misfit is a contemporary YA novel that follows ninth grader Anika Dragomir (Dragomir? Vampire Academy anyone?) as she struggles to maintain her ‘third most popular’ social standing in a Mean Girls-esque hi I must admit that I was a little skeptical when first approaching this book. When I initially read the blurb, I thought it would just be another clichéd love story/triangle. Instead, I found a brutally honest depiction of bigotry, abuse and bullying that will stay with me for days.

Anatomy of a Misfit is a contemporary YA novel that follows ninth grader Anika Dragomir (Dragomir? Vampire Academy anyone?) as she struggles to maintain her ‘third most popular’ social standing in a Mean Girls-esque high school setting where rumours and bullying can make or break a person. Immediately branded as an outsider for her Romanian descent, Anika must stick to her manipulative ‘first most popular’ friend Becky Vilhauer in an effort to avoid becoming an eternal social pariah. Enter loner and newly turned hottie Logan McDonough with his unique views of the world and suddenly the life Anika has grown used to, doesn’t seem so great after all. What should Anika do? Follow her heart and beliefs, or follow the crowd?

I loved Anika and her quirky personality. She was sarcastic, hilarious and unashamedly honest. Her various diabolical plots were incredibly entertaining as she struggled with her desire to do right even with the looming threat of unpopularity. Logan was harder to like. He made these incredibly sweet gestures of romance to Anika but his underlying anger issues at times (and in one particular scene) were quite frightening. Hats off to Porters for this realistic portrayal.

Honestly, I wouldn’t really call it a black and white love story. The relationship itself is pushed to the side when acknowledging the bigger issues portrayed in this novel. I liked this about it though and found it refreshingly realistic that Anika’s entire life didn’t revolve around Logan.

One thing I have to say is that I did NOT see that ending coming. I mean I know the blurb itself boasts a ‘devastating penultimate tragedy’ but it definitely came out of nowhere. I won’t spoil it for you, but I recommend chocolate, or tissues.

This book had me laughing to myself on the train (to the dismay of the very cute boy I may have scared half to death) and close to tears (damn you, Andrea Portes). ‘Anatomy of A Misfit’ was a wonderful and at times incredibly daring book that honestly tackled important problems without trivializing them.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good and surprising read. Portes does a wonderful job at realistically portraying not only the incredible difficulties of surviving high school, but of the ingrained and often overlooked problems within society as a whole. Don’t be fooled. This is not simply a love story; it’s a candid portrayal of a young girl coming to terms with not only the underlying prejudices of society, but with herself.

Thank you to Harper Collins Australia for providing a physical copy in exchange for an honest review.

My guest review for thoughtsbyj can also be found here: http://www.thoughtsbyj.com/arc-review... ...more

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Jul 06, 2014 Shanna rated it liked it

2.5 Stars

This wasn't a bad book but it wasn't also a good enough book. The writing wasn't good enough, the chatacters weren't well rounded enough and the plot wasn't well crafted enough.

...

Mean Girls meets The Perks of being a Wallflower? Now if that doesn't intrigue you, I don't know what would. ...more

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Feb 24, 2019 Cory Marie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

UPDATE: This was slightly based on a true story?!? Thanks, now I’m even more destroyed. Impressed, yes, but also... destroyed.

Here is the most accurate review I can come up with at the moment: 😂😂😂😂😂😂😭😂😂😂😂😂, and then all of a sudden, BOOM. FEELS.

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May 09, 2018 Fernanda Granzotto rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf

Unfortunately I could not even finish this book. I had a lot of problems with it on the few pages I read and honestly I did not see this book getting better.
to list some of the problems I had with the book:
the author's writing.
the youthful tone of the book.
the girl on girl hate.
the protagonist of the book.
all the minor characters I read about.
the actions and speeches of the protagonist.

I did not like this book at all and I do not recommend it. ...more

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Sep 11, 2014 Ruth Tjakra rated it did not like it

Shelves: wtf-did-i-just-read

Ok I'm not sure why this book is so popular. I was so excited to read it since I've been hooked on contemporary romance for the past few months and when I came across this book, I flipped head over heels. The summary had me going like "Damn! This sounds amazing!" So I went and bought it and read it... I am regretting it 110%. By the time I finished, the book had me going like "Damn! That sucked major butt!" The concept is pretty good but... That's about it. I give this book 2 stars for... Well.. ...more

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Sep 18, 2014 Camilla rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016, to-unhaul, own-and-read, to-unhaul-read

2.5 stars!

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Sep 02, 2014 Georgie rated it it was ok

Expectation of Mean Girls meets Perks of Being a Wallflower:

October 3, 2004

Dear friend,

I am writing to you because you listen and you understand and you didn’t laugh when I forgot to wear pink last Wednesday. I just need to know that someone else feels like this. I keep all of these secrets and I think it’s tearing me apart. Regina’s especially.
Sometimes I feel like she doesn’t even notice me. God, I just want her to notice me.
Last week she told me ‘fetch’ wasn’t going to happen. My heart br Expectation of Mean Girls meets Perks of Being a Wallflower:

October 3, 2004

Dear friend,

I am writing to you because you listen and you understand and you didn’t laugh when I forgot to wear pink last Wednesday. I just need to know that someone else feels like this. I keep all of these secrets and I think it’s tearing me apart. Regina’s especially.
Sometimes I feel like she doesn’t even notice me. God, I just want her to notice me.
Last week she told me ‘fetch’ wasn’t going to happen. My heart broke into a million pieces.
I even made her a mixtape. It had Milkshake by Kelis on it (twice). I never got anything in return. None for me I guess.

Love always,
Gretchen Wieners

.....Reality:

"One time she told me Rusty Beck told her "she has the biggest pussy I've ever fucked." Yup. Try to unhear that. Nosiree, you cannot. By the way, she told me this like it was a compliment. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm pretty sure that wasn't going to get her a date to the prom."

Excuse me? This girl is not redeemable. She does horrible things, bitches about all of the people around her and generally blames all of her problems on someone else. She hates pretty much everyone--rags on her Romanian father for being a 'Vampire', but takes offence when she's called 'immigrant' and takes an out of character stance against racism against one of her co-workers. She calls herself 'spider stew' inside, but I get the feeling the author intended me to start liking her at one point. Which I didn't.
After stewing in it for a while I can see that the author is deliberately writing her in this 'mean girl' tone, but I literally did not empathise with her character in any part of this book.
All of the male/father figures are caricatures with no variety, and the only mother shown in a good light is the one who stays at home, re-marries only (in the eyes of the protagonist) to provide for her children and (here's my favourite) cooks huge breakfasts no matter what. Wow.

Not a fan of the ending either, didn't really resolve any of the characters struggles or reveal the meaning behind the story...just threw in something new with a far more cliche mean girl take down than Mean Girls itself.

...more

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Mar 01, 2014 Hazel (Stay Bookish) rated it really liked it

Shelves: signed, own-copy-read, won-from-giveaway, young-adult, hardcover

Honestly, 90% into the book I was so sure that I was gonna rate this 3 stars because as much as I thought the character voice was so real and strong, I wasn't fond of the prose and the love triangle. But then those last few chapters caught me off guard, raised the hairs on my arms, and broke my heart to pieces. I knew I had to give it another star for that alone. ...more

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Feb 06, 2016 Claire (Book Blog Bird) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-will-go-down-with-this-ship, romance

Wow. This was one hell of a book. And that’s a pretty good achievement, considering I was tempted to DNF after about ten pages ...

Anika Dragomir is the third most popular girl in school, behind her best friend Shelli and her best frenemy Becky. On the outside, she’s all lip gloss, boobs and blonde hair, but inside, she’s spider stew. Constantly working hard to maintain her social position, she’s fully aware that if she shows one iota of interest to Logan McDonough, who has just come back from th Wow. This was one hell of a book. And that’s a pretty good achievement, considering I was tempted to DNF after about ten pages ...

Anika Dragomir is the third most popular girl in school, behind her best friend Shelli and her best frenemy Becky. On the outside, she’s all lip gloss, boobs and blonde hair, but inside, she’s spider stew. Constantly working hard to maintain her social position, she’s fully aware that if she shows one iota of interest to Logan McDonough, who has just come back from the summer break transformed from a loser to a hot fit guy, Becky will take her down to Chinatown. But who needs Logan anyway, when supercool and socially acceptable Jared Kline is asking her out on dates?

So yeah, at around page ten I was seriously contemplating giving this book up. I’d read Anika Dragomir’s internal dialogue for all of five minutes and already I despised her. She speaks like a mallrat, she’s ridiculously judgemental and she slut-shames the girl who’s supposed to be her best friend. Jesus, I thought, I don’t think I can stomach another 300-odd pages of this horrible girl.

But I plugged on. I’m not entirely sure why - maybe there was something in the narrative that hinted to hidden depths in Anika’s personality, or maybe it was just to see where the plot was going, but I plugged on and bloody hell, I’m so glad I did. This book was such an emotional rollercoaster. Just when I start wondering if I’ve read so many books in my life that none will truly push my buttons again, a book like this comes along and I realise that yes, I have the capacity to be emotionally affected in as many ways as there are authors in the world.

So, first I want to talk about Anika. She’s not a pleasant girl. She’s snarky, foul-mouthed, irreverent, casually bigoted and judgemental. But she’s also funny, loyal to the people she loves and grudgingly kind.

I’ve read a few reviews from readers who gave this book up because they hated Anika so much, and while obviously other people’s opinions are totally valid, I do wonder whether some people picked this book up thinking they were going to get a hero rather than a protagonist. Where a hero is always the good guy, the protagonist has mixed motives. They have flaws, sometimes lots of them. They’re REAL.

Anika is a protagonist. She’s not like ... (racks brains for an example of a hero) ... I dunno, maybe Clary from TMI. Clary is self-sacrificing, loyal, brave, pure - a true hero.

Anika is not a hero. She’s having a thing with Logan and hides it from everyone because she’s terrified (with some justification, admittedly) of what everyone (Becky) will think. She’s utterly incapable of being true to herself in this regard, and yet at other times she shows flashes of humanity that took my breath away. This book was sold to me as a version of Mean Girls, but really it’s a lot more than that. And I LOVED Mean Girls.

Spoiler Alert
One of the things I loved most about this book, was this scene right at the end, where Anika calls Becky out on her Mean Girl ways and everyone applauds and Becky scuttles off, shamed and (hopefully) repentant. It was incredibly emotional and the whole scene had such a John Hughes feel to it, totally in keeping with the time the book was set in. I could completely imagine Molly Ringwald up there on the podium as Anika and like Shannon Doherty or someone as Becky.

The plot is a love triangle mixed in with Anika’s attempts to reconcile her twisted insides with what she thinks she ought to be like and what everyone else expects her to be. The only thing I wanted to see more of was Anika’s relationship with Logan - he was such a sweetheart - but I could see why some aspects were skated over - Anika is so terrified that people will find out, that she can barely even admit her feelings to herself.

I’ve read reviews from other readers and it would seem that Anatomy of a Misfit is a Marmite book - you’ll love it or hate it. I’d recommend anyone going in to bear in mind from page one that Anika isn’t a hero and maybe you'll enjoy it too. ...more

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Aug 05, 2014 Roxanne rated it it was amazing

Well what the hell. I never saw that coming. I was laughing my face off for about 3/4 of the book and then, surprise! I get it that something would happen due to the fact that there were chapters that seemed like a flashback or something, but what happened was far from my suspicions. Really. Call me stupid or something, but not once had I thought that it will end the way it did. And to top it all, was the author's note. This book is quite depressing. Gaaaah. The story was very light at first, or ...more

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Jan 06, 2017 Anna (Enchanted by YA) rated it liked it

Shelves: super-ending, saw-it-all-coming, almost-dnf, stand-alone, one-sit-read, audiobook

The painfully beautiful ending won me over (until about 90% in I had too many problems with the plot, love triangle etc. and thought that it would be getting a 2 star rating). That is what I'll be remembering this book for. ...more

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Sep 19, 2015 inês rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016, favorites, funny

“You could waste your whole life worrying, you know that?”

AWKWARD CONFESSION: I didn't knew this book was passed in the past until I've finished reading it. Which, to my pleasure, explained some of the references and problems in the book.

Anatomy of a Misfit was such a fun read. Anika is such an inspirational character. You may not think like me, but I watched her as not only the scared and useless girl she thought of herself: Anika is strong and selfless - and you'll find that with each tu ...more

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Sep 25, 2014 Andrew Hicks rated it liked it

Shelves: ya

Anatomy of a Misfit is being marketed as a cross between Mean Girls and, I dunno, something else you’ve seen or read that’s newer than Mean Girls but strikingly similar. Misfit has that same core Mean Girls setup - a clique of the three most popular girls in school, with protagonist Anika being the nicest (i.e. the one with a conscience), the second girl being a dumb-as-rocks sidekick to both girls, and the alpha as the villain in charge of the entire school’s social strata.

B ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 Ana rated it liked it

Shelves: united-states-literature, fiction, north-american-literature, 21st-century, young-adult, contemporary, romanian-character

I started off hating this book, but by the second half things started to pick up and I ended up enjoying it. It's like 'Mean Girls' with more heart. ...more

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Mar 12, 2017 Shruthi rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: my enemies

Shelves: contemporary, romance, awful, boring, young-adult

For more reviews like this one, check out my blog, Reading Recluses

Sometimes you read a book so terrible that you wonder if the author did it on purpose. Anatomy of a misfit is one of those books.

Meet Anika Dragomir, one of the most shallow protagonists ever. She's the third most popular girl in school and she's an idiot. She's not a misfit.

Misfit:
a person whose behavior or attitude sets them apart from others in an uncomfortably conspicuous way. (Credits to Oxford Dictionary)

Anika has no behav ...more

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Shauna Ewry's Review #8	1	4	Apr 12, 2019 01:52PM
Why is it irritating to read this book but at the same time it is too good to put it down.	2	33	May 10, 2016 06:00AM
2015 Reading Chal...: Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes	2	23	Jan 12, 2015 11:11AM

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About Andrea Portes

Andrea Portes

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Andrea Portes is a bestselling American novelist.

Her novels include HICK, BURY THIS, ANATOMY OF A MISFIT, and THE FALL OF BUTTERFLIES. Portes is also the author of the upcoming LIBERTY book series and the upcoming HENRY & EVA book series. She also published the SUPER RAD graphic novel series for Dark Matter Comics.

Portes was raised in rural Nebraska, outside of Lincoln. She attended Bryn Mawr Col ...more

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Quotes from Anatomy of a Misfit

“It's one of those dumb days where nothing's really wrong but nothing's really right either and the sky can't even choose to be white or gray.” — 87 likes

“Ceaseless.
Almost too much for this small frame.
You make me part of the sky.” — 66 likes

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