One year after graduating law school, Daria Snadowsky did something most newly graduated law students don’t have on their to-do lists: She published a novel.
Her work, Anatomy of a Boyfriend, chronicles protagonist Dominique’s struggle with the horde of firsts that many young adults face, such as first love, first sexual encounters and first heartbreak as they transition from the high-school world to the new environment surrounding college life.
“A lot of young-adult novels involve protagonists no older than 17 and in high school,” Snadowsky said. “My books follow Dominique through her first year at college, so college students can relate to where Dominique is in her life: away from home and making her way at a new school with new people.”
Five years later, Snadowsky has released the book’s sequel, Anatomy of a Single Girl. Continuing the story of Dominique’s adventure with love, she confronts more mature issues, such as physicality versus love when dealing with a new relationship.
Exploring the themes of sex, limerence and relationships, Snadowsky’s novels depict sexual scenes in a non-gratuitous manner. The scenes are meant to advance the plot and be realistic, Snadowsky said.
However, the Anatomy books do not solely focus on the relationships depicted, a topic commonly found in most of today’s young adult literature similar to Twilight.
“The books are more about how the characters grow and learn from those relationships,” Snadowsky said. “Whether the relationships work out or not is merely incidental to the bigger themes of self-exploration, love, lust and heartbreak.”
From securing guest-writing pieces for The Huffington Post and USA Today to managing all of the media coverage, Snadowsky’s publicity assistant Nicole Banholzer of Random House Children’s Books said she enjoyed working with Snadowsky because of how different her novels are from other young-adult novels.
“(Snadowsky) doesn’t try to gloss over any of the awkward experiences that teens go through with relationships, both emotionally and physically,” she said.
Because of the book’s popularity since it was published on Jan. 8, local bookstores such as Little Professor Book Center, 65 S. Court St., are making sure to have the series on their shelves by the end of the week. The most recent edition will have a 20-percent discount at the center, accompanied by paperback copies of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.
“Anatomy of a Single Girl should be in store,” said Rich Purdy, co-owner of Little Professor Book Center. “The paperback edition of Boyfriend will (also be) available.”
mg986611@ohiou.edu
