Made You Up

When did YA become so amazing? Why couldn't it have been this awesome when I could've read it without feeling like a creepy old lady? Of course, when I was in high school, I had a serious addiction to reading all of Stephen King's books, so maybe I just missed out on anything fun or romantic or YAish. Or maybe they weren't writing books like this ten years ago. I loved everything about this book - the plot, the characters, the writing style, the dialogue, the lack of instalove, the love interest, the twist, the ending - it was all great. I laughed out loud. I cried. Literally. My heart is a block of ice, but I cried. I felt for these characters and wanted to be friends with them. Alex is a wonderfully complex and rounded character who vividly depicts the confusion and despair that must come with having a severe mental illness, all without actually succumbing to that despair. She is a hopeful, courageous, and fascinating girl, and I loved her. Miles is a complicated and intense boy who I was almost afraid would degenerate into a manic pixie boy love interest, but he never did. He is complex and interesting through to the end, and I loved him. The secondary characters also get their time in the spotlight of Ms. Zappia's novel. Tucker, Alex's best (and only) friend, is more than just a cardboard cutout, although I'm afraid Alex falls into the trope of best friend vs. boyfriend there for awhile. Fortunately, though, her character never decays to the point of becoming unlikeable or even not understandable. And Tucker remains a pivotal part of the plot through the end of the book, which was a nice divergence for a YA novel. I won't say much about the plot because you should definitely read this for yourself. Whether you like YA or hate it or don't care much one way or another, this novel is so complex and compulsively readable that I don't think anyone could hate it. TL;DR: Best YA I've read in a while. THE FEELS. Pick up a copy immediately.

I start 2017 with a review of a book that’s been on my Kindle for a few months. Because I have a Goodreads account, I get periodic notifications when there are special deals on the books on my to-read list. When I got that notification, I immediately snagged myself a digital copy. I’ve wanted to check this book out ever since I learned of it. A YA contemporary about a girl trying to navigate senior year at a new high school and dealing with schizophrenia? What’s not to be intrigued about there? I could use a story with a good unreliable narrator, so here we go. Narrator Alex starts the story ten years earlier, with an adorable anecdote about wanting to set lobsters free from a supermarket tank. I smirked, thinking about many times my daughters said hello to the lobsters at such tanks. While there, she encounters a little boy with big blue eyes, but he disappears. Since the way Alex tells the story versus how her mother recalls it is very different, we’re left to question what is real. And that’s the way Alex lives her life. She had to leave a school after her junior year for—without giving away too much detail—defacing school property to express her paranoia. The present-day part of the story takes place at the start of her senior year at another school. Due to her outsider status and her naturally ketchup red hair, she’s already an outcast as soon as she arrives. Or maybe that’s her own paranoia; she does “perimeter checks” to make sure there aren’t any shady characters out to get her, and she takes photos of people to verify later whether they were really there or not. Because of the incident at her previous school, she’s required to perform community service, which takes the form of an after-school athletic support club, who is responsible for setting up the gym and/or fields for school sports practices and games. This group is led by valedictorian-to-be Miles Richter, who has quite the imposing reputation in school somewhat for his intelligence but more so for the mafia-like “jobs” he gets paid to do by students on other students. The plot of the book occurs over the full span of senior year, and it contains with the usual things you’d expect to find in a high school. There’s a big, buff, bully guy. He’s dating the attractive popular girl that other boys lust for. There’s also a bitchy cheerleader not living up to her mother’s standards. There’s a battle—academically, socially, and romantically (as two corners in a well-drawn love triangle kind of thing)—between the top two kids in the class. Some of it’s predictable, but most of it isn’t. It was definitely enjoyable, but nothing really wowed me. And then there’s the school principal’s bizarre obsession with the gymnasium scoreboard, but I’ll save that for you to experience. I don’t know if this book correctly portrays people with schizophrenia. I’m not a mental health specialist, and I only know what I know on the topic based on my own research and/or learning from other sources. Someone more versed on the subject—or experiencing the affliction—will have a better handle on the accuracy, kind of the same way I read books and watch TV shows and movies set in high schools that don’t portray teachers correctly. Or the way my father used to gripe at shows set in Boston about not being able to get from one location to another that quickly. I’m digressing. I can only judge Alex’s schizophrenia within the confines of the story. At times it felt like a real facet of a real character, but at other times, it felt more like a plot device. The titular thing/person that Alex made up didn’t come as much of a surprise to me as I think the author intended. Some of the others that were revealed were better hidden. But in those cases, it was more exciting to watch Alex discovering what was/wasn’t real than it was Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Alex as a narrator—she’s smart, sarcastic, sensitive, stubborn, and seriously wanting to do the right thing. The supporting cast is quirky and charming, and what I took most from this book isn’t a lesson about schizophrenia, but a lesson in human nature. We’re all battling with something (most of the characters in this book are), and we need to understand that about people when interacting with them. And if we truly care about those people, we need to support them. Made You Up is an enjoyable read with a protagonist that’s worth supporting because she deals with her affliction with caution and bravery. I’m not making it up when I say it deserves FOUR STARS.

This book is so incredible and beautifully written. Zappia seriously impressed me with her ability to create these lovely and realistic characters. The main character Alex suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia so she never knows what's real and what isn't. She takes pictures of the things around her so she can figure out whether or not she's hallucinating or not. The writing couldn't have been any better, the way the story slowly but surely progressed was unique and well done. If you haven't read this book yet, you should definitely have it on your list. Alex is an unreliable narrator and I absolutely loved that. Yes, it took a little bit to get used to the fact that you're never 100% sure if what Alex sees is really there, but I thought that made it all the more exciting to discover. This book is far from predictable, though I did see a few things coming. However, I was still surprised by some of the things and it was much more suspenseful than I was expecting. Both Alex and Miles aren't lovable in the beginning. Miles will surely rub you the wrong way in the beginning, you don't know why he's being so cold towards everyone, including Alex. Midway through though, we learn more about his story and at that point, you'll fall in love with him. I liked that there was no case of insta-love here, this was a very very slow building romance and that's exactly how I like it! I'm a sucker for flawed characters and this is exactly what we find in "Made You Up." I felt like the dialogue between Miles and Alex was so hilarious and relatable. They are both witty teens, but it never felt like TOO much to me. This was a highly gorgeous book that's bound to stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves reading unique YA contemporary books.

A história é linda, tocante e triste, mas muito boa de ler. A arte do livro é incrível e condiz com a maravilha que é essa leitura. Recomendo o livro tanto na versão capa dura quanto na versão capa comum. Ambas têm um ótimo trabalho de diagramação.

Non avevo aspettative alte, ma ho trovato Made You Up davvero meraviglioso. Per me è la prova che anche un genere spesso guardato dall'alto in basso come la narrativa young adult può offrire ogni tanto delle bellissime perle. I personaggi, soprattutto i protagonisti Alex (perfetto esempio di narratrice inattendibile) e Miles, riescono a farsi amare come delle persone in carne e ossa. È una storia che parla di temi complessi, ma in maniera sempre coinvolgente e mai pesante. Prima di tutto, però, è una storia che fa ridere, che fa piangere, che mette ansia e che spinge a tirare un sospiro di sollievo. In poche parole, una storia che emoziona. Mi auguro che i prossimi libri dell'autrice riescano a fare lo stesso.

Good book received as it is

Love this book!!, highly recommend. I’ve read it like 4 times already and I still can’t get enough of it.

What an amazing book, leaving me speechless with its gut-wrenching twists and turns, teetering on the edge of my chair, trying to figure out what I could believe and what I couldn't. In the beginning it came on a little too strong and I was just about to grumble about yet another inclusion of monster Nazis that Americans seem to love so much. Well, I'm German, so I never understood why people would include them into games and movies alongside vampires, turning them into some mythical creatures or so - but never mind, this story actually turned around really quickly and gave a very sensible approach to that topic, hitting all the right notes. And not only in that regard, everything came together just beautifully. Every strand of the story culminated in something fantastic and when everything unravelled I had to take a break, just to let that twist sink in. This is a masterful book, absolutely fantastic, that not only deals with schizophrenia in a great humanising way, but also told a thrillfull story along it. One thing I particularly liked that although, this was Alex' story, the other characters were just as solid and had their own story arcs not just centralised around her. Thanks for this book - it is for now the reading highlight of the year.