Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Title: Made You Up

Author: Francesca Zappia

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Series Status: Stand Alone

Page Count: 448

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis: Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook, and Liar.

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8-Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She’s pretty optimistic about her chances until classes begin, and she runs into Miles. Didn’t she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She’s not prepared for normal.

Funny, provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up.

Review: This is possibly one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I loved everything about this, it was just great all together. I have never read a book that was as good as this I think.

The thing I love about this is what separates it from other books. Firstly, it is about a girl who deals with schizophrenia and paranoia. That was really interesting to read about. More often than not I find that books who write about characters with mental illnesses are just normally sarcastic and sassy people with some quirks that make them different. This however, did not feel like that. I feel like it accurately represented schizophrenia, not that I would know what it really is.

I had heard about schizophrenia before, but I never truly understood it and this is why I loved this book. It opened my eyes to a mental illness I didn’t understand and helped to learn about it while having fun reading.

The characters in this were interesting and fun to read about and I just loved Miles. I really liked that he was German and could speak it, I found that to be very odd and unusual but nonetheless fun. I can easily say that the best character in this was Mr. Gunthrie. He was hilarious.

The romance in this was really cute and adorable and basically all of our relationship goals.

This book was filled with humor and heartbreak. At times it had me laughing out loud, other times I was crying for Alex and all she has to deal with. The plot twists are things I never would have expected to happen, and neither did Alex I think.

Overall, this was a great book that I really enjoyed reading.

I give this novel 5/5 stars and would highly recommend to fans of contemporary or anyone.

For more reviews from readers of Made You Up, click here.