The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

Content Tags: LGBTQIA+, Abandonment, Crime, Mental Health

Description from Storygraph:

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?

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Re-reading the synopsis after having read the book, it feels a little misleading. Firstly, they don't spend that much time on midnight buses and I don't recall them spending any time on city rooftops... And the skeletons in her family's closet don't really do much of anything to the two of them. Weird synopsis choices.

Any who, there are some minor items that I could've done without in this book. Honestly, the brother felt a little bit like a plot device and nothing more. He wasn't really fully developed in a meaningful way. There was some slightly dated language since this book came out more than a handful of years ago. And I couldn't tell if the author had the first-hand experience to handle some of the material in the book (don't want to specify and spoil anything) in the best manner.

I did enjoy the somewhat different variation on a "young love" type story and the pace was solid. The story drew me in and I wanted to know what was going to happen. Some parts could've been fine tuned a bit better, but overall it was excellent.

Book Reflection Wrap-up:

If you were to write fanfic about this book, what kind of story would you want to tell?

I would enjoy either fanfic or just another book focused on the character that is revealed a little ways into the book. I don't really want to spoiler... but if you read it, you know who I'm referring to.

How did the secondary characters impact or influence the main character(s) or story?

As I said above, Heath felt very unnecessary. His only role was to facilitate minor plot changes that could've been accomplished in other ways. Most of the other secondary characters were either entirely secondary or more impactful in the way they were incorporated. I wanted more from Heath.

December Book Club Book

Finished 12/19/2023