Anatomy of a Boyfriend

An unflinching account of love, sex, and heartbreak—this generation's answer to Judy Blume's Forever.

From School Library JournalGrade 9 Up—Dominique and Amy-best friends and high school seniors in Florida-attend the big football game where Dom meets local track star Wesley. Wes is shy, and he and Dom e-mail and IM each other for some time before they start dating. Things get heavy pretty quickly and they lose their virginity on the clichéd prom night. Then they go to different colleges in the fall, and their relationship changes. Snadowsky describes Dom's first intimate relationship in frank and graphic terms. This novel discusses masturbation, oral sex, and intercourse both as part of Dom and Wes's romantic relationship and as casual pastime for Amy. For 17-year-old girls, the main characters have fairly mature voices and some of the novel reads like a Cosmopolitan article. The story is not highly original, but it does deal in modern terms with the real issues of discovering sex for the first time and dealing with it in a responsible way.—Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistDominique, a high-school senior in Fort Myers, Florida, is an aspiring doctor whose favorite book is Grey's Anatomy. Wes, a fellow senior, becomes her first boyfriend, and the two inexperienced teens explore first love, and sex, together. Written in Dom's authentic voice, Snadowsky's debut novel is an unusually honest portrayal of a teen girl's sexual discovery. Comparisons to Judy Blume's Forever (1975) are inevitable; even the plot, from the couple's initial fumbles to their breakup after separation, is similar. What feels so new here is the nonsensationalized explicitness. Dom speaks with an almost scientific curiosity: "I can recognize the features of his penis from my anatomy books." And her sexual insecurities are just as direct: "What if I squeal or scream or fart?" Also rare and authentic are scenes of Dom experimenting on her own, when she finally experiences her first orgasm. Snadowsky considers all the questions: Does sex mean love? What's normal in a relationship? Like Forever, this sensitive, candid novel is sure to find a wide audience among curious teens. Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved