Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - I Was Born for This

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I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

120 reviews

mandaraffe's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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hnagarne's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

That's why people get into fandom and bands and stuff. They just want to hold on to something that makes them feel good. Even if it's all a big lie.

Have you ever loved something (a book, a show, a band) so much that you made it your entire personality? Have you ever felt that you needed it to survive? That you would simply lose the will to live if you didn't get another book, another episode, another song? Angel Rahimi has, and so have I, and that's what makes I Was Born for This such an absolute gem.

CW: panic attacks, anxiety, transphobia, biphobia, depression, suicide (mentioned), parental abandonment, death of a loved one (mentioned), alcohol abuse, assault

One of my favorite aspects of this book is how it's, in essence, a love letter to fandom and the way it brings people together.

Angel Rahimi lives for one thing: The Ark, a boyband catapulting to stardom. She's followed The Ark from their early days on YouTube, runs a popular Twitter account dedicated to them, and has ditched her school's "leaving ceremony" in order to attend the last concert on their tour before they sign a new contract and (fingers crossed) make it big in the United States.

In order to attend said concert, Angel plans to stay with her internet friend of two years, Juliet Schwartz. Angel and Juliet talk nearly every day online, and they share one major thing in common: their love of The Ark. They've never met in person.

Angel and Juliet fangirl over The Ark's public appearances, attend a fan meetup, and even plan to do a meet and greet before the concert. There's a deeper story to be explored here between Angel and Juliet: Spoilerwhile Angel is busy fangirling over The Ark, Juliet's life appears to be falling apart, and in the end we get a gentle reminder that people are more than the things they love, and sometimes (often times) there are things more important than boy bands.

Seeing Angel's love for The Ark and its fans reminded me of how much I love my fandoms, including the people I met along the way, and how meaningful they were and continue to be in my life.

This isn't just a story about Angel, though. It's told from dual first person perspective, with alternating chapters told from Angel's POV and Jimmy's POV.

Jimmy Kaga-Ricci is The Ark's frontman, and life has changed so drastically in such a short period of time that he's just trying to stay afloat. Playing with The Ark is all he's ever wanted, but he finds that it often only exacerbates his anxiety. The Ark's fangirls perceive a romance between him and his best friend and bandmate, Rowan Omondi. They read into their every interaction, write erotic fanfiction, tweet about every brief glance. (What they don't know: Rowan has a secret girlfriend, Bliss Lai, who desperately wants her life to stay normal.)

As their stories begin to intersect, we see from Angel's perspective how perhaps our idols are not what they seem, and from Jimmy's we see that even the most passionate fans can still be kind, caring, and empathetic human beings. In the end, maybe that's all any of us want: to be seen as human.

Being a fan isn’t always about the thing you’re a fan of. Okay, well, it sort of is, but there is much more to it than just going online and screaming that you love something. Being a fan has given me people to talk to about the things that I like for the past five years. Being a fan has made me better friends online than I’ve ever encountered in real life; it has entered me into a community where people are joined in love and passion and hope and joy and escape. Being a fan has given me a reason to wake up, something always to look forward to, something to dream about while I’m trying to fall asleep.

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bookishcb_21's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A popular band, a fandom, and people trying to figure out their place in this world. This was a good book to start off my 2023 reading - it has lots of positive representation and does include some heavy themes. However, reading a book about fandoms and a popular boy band just reminds me that there are many positives to being in a fandom. I could relate a bit about how Angel and Juliet met and that their love for a group brought them together. I love the Heartstopper series by Oseman, so if you enjoy them, give this novel a try! 💜

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withlivjones's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I love Alice Oseman’s writing. The narration feels so natural and real, and while people might call it cringey I think it’s just so true to young people’s trains of thought. They rarely have everything together - especially in the case of the characters in this novel - and the narration reflects that really well. There are also a lot of little tidbits that are so relatable, like in the case of Jimmy’s anxiety and Angel’s lack of direction. All the characters are well fleshed out in a way that you both criticise their mistakes and end up sympathising with them anyway. And while I can’t comment on the accuracy of the representation in the novel, it feels really refreshing after the other books I’ve read by Oseman having primarily white cisgender casts.

If you’re looking for a book with realistic events this probably isn’t for you, as the plot is pretty fantastical and at points reads like fanfiction. But as someone who reads and enjoys a lot of fanfiction, I’m 100% here for it.

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lucia_without_j's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

sophiafaurs's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

chaoticbyrddemon's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

It's overall a really good book.
I enjoyed both of the character perspectives, both from Angel and Jimmy.
Angel's character was a bit nice. At first, it reminded me of the book "Kill the Boy Band" which has a similar concept, but it was executed rather poorly and to an extreme level. Angel's character was really well written, and I enjoyed the research that Alice Oseman put into making sure that her character was accurate.

Angel having a safe space and really only bonding in fandom culture definitely hit close to home and I really enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the story.

Jimmy's character was definitely a lot, and I really enjoyed it. Seeing how he and the rest of the band had to deal with everything and such was really interesting. Each of the members has their own ways of coping with things, and I think learning and reading about that were really nice.
My favorite character was Lister, who seems to fall into a trope that I enjoy.

Star who is oversexualized and relying on addiction.

Definitely not a super common one. But the way he was written was really interesting.

Upon first glance when you first meet him, he seems like a completely different character. However as the story goes on, not only his problems but the problems of the band are revealed and we learn more about them and how they deal with things.

It's definitely a book I'd read again, having lots of surprising twists and such, some of which make me super happy and others worried. It's a book that I think I'd want to annotate in the future and I'd highly recommend it.
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CW: mentions of religion, drug use, blackmail, stalking, antisemitic stereotypes (in mention), blood, violence, addiction, eating disorders (mentioned), suicidal thoughts, family struggles, break ups, near death, hospitals, biphobia (mentioned), transphobia (mentioned),

Content Warnings