Anatomy of a Single Girl

December 15, 2012
Snadowsky's candid follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend (2007) takes readers through ambitious pre-med Dominique's second sexual relationship. Dominique returns home after her freshman year at Tulane still reeling from her breakup with Wes, her first love and first sexual partner. Dom's best friend, Amy, normally content to hook up without getting emotionally involved, is spending the summer in a long-distance relationship with a boy she met at college. While interning at a hospital, Dom meets Guy, a fraternity brother at a local university, and the two soon become involved. What's the difference between a relationship that might be forever and one that's just for the summer? How does sex affect relationships? What's sex like, anyway? The book's answers are frank, though sometimes didactic or expressed clunkily ("I wonder how many more penises I'll have inside me in my lifetime"). In its best moments, the book presents a multiplicity of opinions and stories about sex, intimacy and relationships and lets readers come to their own conclusions. Some options, however, are still off the table: All the main characters are heterosexual, and masturbation is only ever depicted as weird or tragic. A mixed bag, but the blunt sex talk fills a niche. (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-In this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend (Delacorte, 2007), 18-year-old Dominique Baylor is fresh off her freshman year at Tulane and plans to spend eight weeks with her family at their Fort Myers home. She will work as a hospital volunteer and hang out with her best friend, Amy, hoping that this will help her recover from a recent breakup. She meets Guy Davies, a handsome Ford University junior, and is immediately attracted to him. While both acknowledge the chemistry between them, Dom longs for a level of commitment that Guy does not reciprocate. He makes it clear that he is interested in a summer romance. At first hesitant, Dom decides to go along with the limitations, living for the pleasures of a relationship that has no future. Not surprisingly, she eventually determines that she wants more than a strictly physical relationship, breaks off with Guy, and returns to Tulane a "sadder but wiser" girl. The necessity of having a boyfriend ("No matter what we do, it's always more special if there's a boyfriend to share it with.") is an underlying message. The book contains explicit sexual scenes, raunchy language, and a detailed graphic description of a pelvic exam.-Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
Grades 10-1 In this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend (2007), Dom is now a freshman at Tulane studying premed. She has been reeling from the breakup with her first love, first time, first everythingWesand she has very definite opinions on sex, love, and romance. When Dom goes home to Florida for the summer, she realizes, I've been so caught up with mapping out a picture-perfect forever' that I'm completely neglecting my present, and gives herself permission to fall for a hot local student, Guyeven though Guy has made it clear he is not looking for more than a summer fling. After a frank discussion about safe sex, getting tested, and a well-described trip to the gynecologist, Dom and Guy do it, and do it, and do it. By novel's end, Dom realizes that it may take scads more guys, dates, relationships and acceptance of imperfections to find the right person. The overuse of italics for emphasis throughout is distracting, but curious teens will find Snadowsky's honesty refreshing, and like Forever before it, this one is sure to be passed from hand to hand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)