Series: None
Author: Jenn Bennett
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: November 3, 2015
Source: Gifted. Thank you!
Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.
Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?
Find The Anatomical Shape of a Heart online!
So I just . . . didn't really like this book. I didn't hate it, either though. It left me wildly uninterested and a little uncomfortable and I just couldn't really muster up the interest or energy to pick it up, especially with so many other books waiting on the side line. I got about 73% through the book before I called a quits. There was good aspects along with the bad but for me at least, the bad outweighed the good. Despite the interesting premise and the promising characters, I can't say I regret putting this one down.
My issues with the book really stemmed from the characters, particularly the love interest, Jack. While he was charismatic and fun and artsy, he also came off as really creepy to me. I didn't like the way he and Beatrix started their relationship because it felt too much like stalking to me whenever he would just randomly pop up at places she was. Like, if it wasn't for his pretty face, Beatrix would have been totally weirded out by him following her around and turning up, too. I mean, this pattern isn't exactly unusual in YA novels (unfortunately) but for some reason in this one, it just really stood out for me. I wasn't a fan of his brand of mystery.
The overall story was initially interesting to me. I had never really thought about the process that goes behind the scientific, body drawing you find in biology textbooks and stuff like that. And this was the first book I'd ever heard of with a protagonist thawas an artist interested in that kind of art. It was equal parts disturbing, interesting, and creepy. There was quite a few sections about it, which were honestly the only interesting sections of the books for me. The rest of Beatrix's story revolved mostly around Jack (who, we've already established, I'm not a fan of) and some family drama. I didn't get far enough in the story to really delve into Beatrix's past and the conflict with her parents and family. But like I said, I just wasn't interested enough in the story or invested enough in the characters to continue reading to find out.
I'm disappointed I didn't like this story more. Like I've said, I didn't necessarily hate it, I was just totally uninterested. I didn't get the drive to read it like I do with other books. Because of this, I couldn't find it in me to finish it.
“Too weird for jocks, and not weird enough for hipsters, I was neither freak nor geek, and that left me stranded in no-man’s-land.”
I loved this book. Too bad you didn't like this one!
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