I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t not give this book five stars. I am not a reader who is easy to please. I sometimes give two stars to books that everyone else worships. I write harsh and brutally honest reviews. I thought this is what I would do after reading this book, but I was wrong.

The Anatomy of a Misfit is a story about a 15-year-old half-Romanian girl named Anika Dragomir. She’s the third most popular girl in school so, naturally, she has to be friends with Shelli, the airhead, and Becky, the queen meanie. At first I thought this was just another classic mean girls story, but again I was wrong. This book is different. I can’t explain what makes it so different without giving too much away, so I’ll leave it for you to discover.

I loved Anika. I felt like I knew her. I laughed with her, went places with her, and smacked her in the face for the stupid things she did. She’s not perfect. There are lots of times when she’s not rational. She’s insane, she’s an occasional mean girl, she’s racist, and she hates religion. She has many flaws and that’s what makes her character seem real. I could say I hated her rants about her friend being a Christian, but they built her character more.

I salute Andrea Portes for having the courage to write about things that will surely make some readers raise an eyebrow, just to give birth to a perfectly imperfect character.

I loved how Anatomy of a Misfit is written; it made me hear the narrator speak. I loved that the book thrashed all my horrible ideas about what would happen next. I loved that it made me pull my hair thinking of what I would do if I was in Anika’s shoes. I loved that it showed character flaws, unlike some books where the protagonist is perfect. I loved how it made my jaw drop.

All in all, Anatomy of a Misfit is a page-turner. It’s a quick read (I read it in three hours), but it has a pack of feelings tucked inside those pages. I cried, I laughed, I sighed, I cringed, and I stayed up late to write a review. I definitely recommend everyone read it.