I like the YA genre. And I've been enjoying the Young Adult Book Challenge. But... good golly, I need a break from this stuff. Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky was the book that helped me see that.The book isn't awful. To be honest, I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't had such a heavy influx of YA lately. However, it is heavily cliched... in the most annoying of ways.
Let's count, here we go: Girl meets boy in chivalric moment (1). Girl initiates online conversation with boy, eventually declares her love (after a week?). Boy does not respond, girl's life is over (2). Oops, just an internet error, boy likes girl too. Girl's world becomes boy (3). Girl changes interests to suit boy (vegetarianism, track, his dog) (4)...
That's just the beginning. I haven't even mentioned how they have sex for the first time on prom night. Really?
Perhaps another annoying feature of the book, is how closely it resembles my life at that age. Beginning a relationship in the last year of high school, freaking out about where to go to college, going to different colleges, trying to make it work even though you both know you're drifting apart, getting blindsided and dumped. All happened to me too.
But let's be clear... the cliche bits, did not happen to me. The general plotline, my life at 18.
Oh and... the book is dedicated to Judy Blume, and I suspect some extra raunchy bits were included in her honor.
Recommendation: It may be a decent book on its own, but don't read it in a string of young adult.
3 comments:
okay. i won't add this one to my to-read list. there are too many really good YA books that i want to read!
I luuuved Anatomy of a Boyfriend! Didn't find it cliche, just very relatable.
Sally: I'm glad you liked it! Like I said, I think I would have liked it more if I did read it in a string of YA!
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