Anatomy of a Single Girl by Daria Snadowsky is a relatable and easy to read novel that allows the reader to tag along as college freshman Dominique “Dom” Taylor’s preconceptions about life, love, relationships, and romance are challenged.

In Snadowsky’s first novel, Anatomy of a Boyfriend, the reader learns about all of high school senior Dom Baylor’s firsts. It shares the experience of her first boyfriend, first love, first time, and most importantly, Dom’s first breakup.

After the death of her first real relationship, Dom is an emotional wreck. However, with an adequate amount of time and space she began piecing herself and her life back together. Almost a full year after her big breakup, Dom is single and ready to mingle, which is where the second book picks up.

Anatomy of a Single Girl starts with Dom’s return home after a busy and slightly stressful freshman year at college. Pre-med is no joke and although she loves her courses and is a self-proclaimed “biology nut,” Dom is ready for a relaxing and fun summer vacation back home. She wants to find happiness without needing a guy and spend some quality time with her family and friends.

It could also be said that her time off from school is also full of firsts. She has her first fight with her best friend and also enters into her first relationship since her big breakup. On one of her first days back home, Dom meets the incredibly smart, gorgeous and basically perfect Guy Davies (no points for creativity on the name.)

At the beginning of the novel, Dom Baylor comes across as charming, smart and relatable. She faces the kind of problems most teenagers face including, balancing work, school, and relationships. Snadowsky does a wonderful job in capturing the thoughts and emotions of Dom as she experiences them. This causes the reader to be empathetic towards Dom and hope she finds a happy ending.

When Dom meets Guy Davies everything changes. Dom goes from charming and relatable to selfish, inconsiderate, and needy. Dom has wonderful parents and a faithful, supportive best friend named Amy who she completely takes for granted. Unfortunately, everyone else is put on a back burner when it comes to Dom’s happiness.

She cancels plans with her parents and Amy on countless occasions to fool around with Guy (as in the guy she’s just met) and expects everyone to bend over backwards for her sake. Standards are one thing, but all relationships need compromise. When she messes up and causes her own ill fortune, she’s the first to cry and play the why-does-the-world-hate-me-nobody-loves-me card. A perfect example is when she finds out that Guy is looking for a summer fling and not a real relationship. She then informs him they can’t even be friends and later wonders why she’s so lonely.

Moving on, while Snadowsky does an admirable job conveying the emotions and thoughts of a teenage girl, the dialogue and outdated slang in the novel leave much to be desired. Her attempt to connect with her target audience is flattering, but it doesn’t come across as natural in the speech of the characters. T he last time the phrases “mackin’” or “jonsing” were cool was the late 1990s.

While the wording was awkward, the themes presented in the novel are intriguing. The main thing to take away is the difference between love, romance, and sex and how a person’s preconceptions about them change as a person experiences different situations.

At the beginning of the novel, Dom believed that all of these things had to go hand in hand. However, after meeting Guy, she realizes that isn’t always the case and as an adult, it’s something that one has to decide for herself and as a result becomes more “sexually liberated.”

Be forewarned. This book can get pretty graphic. This novel is not for people who prefer not to know the intimate details of other people’s shenanigans.

Because the plot was intended to follow Dom’s growth since Anatomy of a Boyfriend, a lot fell on the growth of Dom as an individual. To be fair, the beginning is pleasant enough and at times Snadowsky achieves the witty humor she is going for. If only the same was true for the entire book.

VERDICT: 2.5/5