Made You Up

Title: Made You Up

Author: Francesca Zappia

First Published: May 19th 2015

Series: Stand Alone

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Mental Illness

Available As: Hardcover, paperback, ebook

Pages: 448

My Copy: eBook

My Rating: 9.5/10

Goodreads Summary

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.

 This book has been on my TBR for quite some time. A friend recommended it to me, and I just never really got round to reading it - until now. And I have to say, it is an amazing book.

Alex has paranoid schizophrenia, and she can't tell reality from hallucination apart. Her hallucinations are getting worse, even with the help of medicine. Joining her new school, she runs into Miles, the boy she met a long, long time ago. The boy she calls Blue Eyes.

The relationship between Miles and Alex is well planned. They don't get along at all in the beginning, with Alex thinking Miles is a jerk, but throughout the book, they slowly become friends and finally - fall in love. YES! The chemistry between them... woah! I ship the two of them so much.

I don't think that Alex's mother is supportive. She is always quick to jump to conclusions and blames anything out of the ordinary on Alex's schizophrenia. Her dad is more supportive, although we don't see much of him in the book. *Spoiler alert* I think the saddest part of the book was finding out that Charlie was in fact a hallucination the whole time. The real Charlie died 4 years ago. And her parents continued to allow Alex to live in the fantasy world where Charlie was still alive. But I can see where they are coming from: telling Alex the truth will cause her a lot of shock and may worsen her schizophrenia. *Spoiler over*

Miles is my favourite character in this book. His backstory is so sad and it gives us a lot of insight as to why he acts the way he does. He isn't the bad boy of the school; he's the valedictorian (but he can be classified as the 'jerk'). We finally find out what happened to him years ago to him and his mom. Poor Miles!

The ending was perfect. It wasn't too dragged out, wasn't too short. I'm glad Alex got a (somewhat) happy ending and Miles as well. Everyone got what they deserved, thankfully.

I'm so pleased with this book and I'm glad I finally chose to read it. I think Francesca Zappia captured Alex as a character very well. I would definitely recommend it for everyone!

My Chosen Quote

“Sometimes I think people take reality for granted.”