Scan barcode
A review by ambeesbookishpages
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
5.0
The full review can be found at The Book Bratz closer to its release date!
**Please note: I recieved an eARC from the publisher via Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own**
Made You Up is easily one of my favorite contemporary that I have ever read (and I am VERY picky with my contemporaries). Francesca is a talented writer who created a thought provoking story about a young girl who refuses to let her mental disorder get in the way of her dreams.
When she was seven, Alex freed the lobsters at a supermarket. She received help from mysterious boy with blue eyes, who told her she smelled like lemons and himself smelled of pond water. She asked him to be her friend and he accepted, then disappeared. Shortly later Alex learned she was schizophrenic and was convinced that he was nothing but a delusion made up by her mind. Only ten years later she never expected to see this boy again.
What makes this whole book is Alex, who is a paranoid schizophrenic who takes pictures to help her know what is real or a delusion. She is terrified that the communists are coming for her, doing 360 degree perimeter checks when she walks into a room and checks her food for tracking devices that could be used by the communist to get her. Her character is so complex. The story is about her, not a romance, or a mystery (well a little bit) but about the struggle of her mental disorder and knowing what is actually real, or what her mind has made up. Besides Alex, Miles is well written with some issues of his own. He hires himself out to do weird tasks and has general assholish tendencies. But underneath all that Miles is vulnerable. Made You Up could have easily been your typical flawed girl meets flawed guy and they fall in love. Though there is romance, that wasn't the main focous. Francesca managed to branch this story off in different ways to give us a clear view into the life of Alex and her daily struggles.
Most of the story focuses on Alex's struggles but there is also the struggle that is facing both Alex and Miles. Their principle has an unhealthy obsession with the score board, dedicating a day to give it offerings and such. Alex soon uncovers that he made the board a memorial for the girl he was in love with who was crushed by it nearly twenty years earlier at their high school reunion. Now Scarlett's daughter, attends the school and the principle is forcing her to be just like her dead mother. Even if it means getting rid of anyone who is in they way. But who is going to beleive the delusional girl?
Made You Up is equally parts funny, heart breaking and thought provoking. It leaves you wondering what is real or what is fake. I am honestly going to say I wish we could get more of Alex's story. I loved her character, and getting to be in her head. She is one of my favorite characters I have read about.
**Please note: I recieved an eARC from the publisher via Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own**
Made You Up is easily one of my favorite contemporary that I have ever read (and I am VERY picky with my contemporaries). Francesca is a talented writer who created a thought provoking story about a young girl who refuses to let her mental disorder get in the way of her dreams.
When she was seven, Alex freed the lobsters at a supermarket. She received help from mysterious boy with blue eyes, who told her she smelled like lemons and himself smelled of pond water. She asked him to be her friend and he accepted, then disappeared. Shortly later Alex learned she was schizophrenic and was convinced that he was nothing but a delusion made up by her mind. Only ten years later she never expected to see this boy again.
What makes this whole book is Alex, who is a paranoid schizophrenic who takes pictures to help her know what is real or a delusion. She is terrified that the communists are coming for her, doing 360 degree perimeter checks when she walks into a room and checks her food for tracking devices that could be used by the communist to get her. Her character is so complex. The story is about her, not a romance, or a mystery (well a little bit) but about the struggle of her mental disorder and knowing what is actually real, or what her mind has made up. Besides Alex, Miles is well written with some issues of his own. He hires himself out to do weird tasks and has general assholish tendencies. But underneath all that Miles is vulnerable. Made You Up could have easily been your typical flawed girl meets flawed guy and they fall in love. Though there is romance, that wasn't the main focous. Francesca managed to branch this story off in different ways to give us a clear view into the life of Alex and her daily struggles.
Most of the story focuses on Alex's struggles but there is also the struggle that is facing both Alex and Miles. Their principle has an unhealthy obsession with the score board, dedicating a day to give it offerings and such. Alex soon uncovers that he made the board a memorial for the girl he was in love with who was crushed by it nearly twenty years earlier at their high school reunion. Now Scarlett's daughter, attends the school and the principle is forcing her to be just like her dead mother. Even if it means getting rid of anyone who is in they way. But who is going to beleive the delusional girl?
Made You Up is equally parts funny, heart breaking and thought provoking. It leaves you wondering what is real or what is fake. I am honestly going to say I wish we could get more of Alex's story. I loved her character, and getting to be in her head. She is one of my favorite characters I have read about.