A review by camillaforte
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

1.0

Here's the thing: this book, as a book, was good. It was really good. It was the type of good that forces you to read past your bed time and hate yourself in the morning. The plot was intricate and intrusive and filled with plot twists that left my jaw hanging open more than once. The characters were developed beautifully, they had layers. Of course like any standard YA the love interest was very present and quite obvious, but the author made sure that it wasn't your run of the mill teen love. However my enjoyment of this book was a bit stifled by one glaring issue. The author's depiction of schizophrenia was beyond inaccurate, which is worrisome. The main pillar upon which the book is held up is Alex's visual hallucinations, which newsflash, are not actually one of the symptoms of schizophrenia. This incredibly complicated and burdensome condition also cannot be fixed as quickly and with something so banal as falling in love. It just can't. I wish I could ignore this crack in what otherwise would have been a smooth work of YA but that, to me, that is impossible. The discussion on mental health is only now starting to become less taboo, and efforts are being made by people to better understand these conditions and provide for those plagued by them. Works such as these are threats to the advancement of this movement. They spread misinformation. Worst of all they spread misinformation among younger people who may not think twice before accepting it. To think that it could have been avoided if the author had researched the topic a bit more before adopting and contorting what can be a crippling condition for the sake of entertainment bothers me. This could have given a voice to thousands but now, it risks hurting their cause further. For that, I sadly remove two stars from a book I could have very easily loved.