She applied the "page 69 test" to her novel and reported the following:
Visit Daria Snadowsky's website and the Random House website for Anatomy of a Boyfriend where you can find a "build your own (ex)boyfriend" game.Page 69 of Anatomy of a Boyfriend has only four sentences, but it’s totally representative of the novel’s “first love” theme. By this point, seventeen-year-old Dominique has fallen hard for fellow senior Wes, who’s been giving her mixed signals for the past two months. At wit’s end, Dominique writes Wes a bare-all email:
I finish by telling him he’s one of the closest friends I’ve ever had, but in my heart I’m wondering if he could be even more than that.
I opt not to proofread because I don’t want to give myself the chance to edit down my emotions. I press send, inhale deeply, and resume writing my English paper with vigor. Of course, I still manage to check e-mail every three minutes for Wes’s response.
Page 69 marks the end of the only chapter which I uploaded to my website, so I bank wholly on page 69’s cliffhanger ending to entice readers to see for themselves whether Wes will email Dominique back.
One point I hope the book gets across is that even the brainiest, most rational people can still fall prey to “obsessive” behaviors when they fall in love. Prior to meeting Wes, Dominique never could have imagined that she’d “wait by the phone” for any guy. And the fact that she’s learned and level-headed is no bar to her genuinely believing that the world will end if Wes doesn’t return her affections. In school, health class warns us about all the physical consequences of sex, but it doesn't do the most thorough job of preparing us for the emotional consequences of love. And unlike pregnancy or STDs, there’s no fool-proof way to abstain from a broken heart.
Read an excerpt from Anatomy of a Boyfriend.
Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.
--Marshal Zeringue
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