Made You Up

After reading several books in a row that were either mediocre or just plain bad, I needed a five star book. And boy, did I find it with this one. I love books with unreliable narrators and this just may be my favorite one yet. I have read a couple of other books with characters dealing with schizophrenia, but this is the only one where there was more to the main character than just her illness. Alex is your everyday teen dealing with things like strict teachers and homework and mean girls and crushes . . . she just has to deal with her paranoid schizophrenia on top of everything else. I loved how she carried a camera with her all the time. She would take pictures of stuff she saw so that she could look at them later and know what was real and what was fake. It was a genius idea, but not one that worked all the time (not going to give anything away, I promise!). The relationship between Alex and Miles was adorable. They kind of hated each other at first and that is my favorite kind of relationship. Miles and Alex kept playing these pranks on each other, which was pretty hilarious. Miles was also kind of a genius. He knew all of these random facts about historical people and places. Miles and Alex kind of bonded because she knew those things too. History is a great bonding tool apparently. Their relationship was such a slow burn and I loved their chemistry. Their relationship just made me want to hug both of them. Adorable. Miles isn't perfect though. He gets paid cash to pull these revenge pranks on students and teachers alike. He does have his reasons for doing this. And it is alluded to that he could be autistic, maybe, and that just added a layer of depth to his character. There were a couple of times where he was genuinely confused about emotions that people had. Because of Alex's illness, I should have known there would be a twist of some kind. I was not expecting it at all. In addition to Alex's illness, she is trying to solve a mystery surrounding the principal of the school. The mystery seemed really out there and there were times when I had no idea if it was Alex's paranoia or if it was really happening. There were things I thought were real that turned out to be figments of her imagination and there were also things I thought were hallucinations that turned out to be real. It was a crazy ride. One thing that I never quite understood was the absence of Alex's therapist. As far as I knew, she never saw the therapist in person throughout the entire book. Alex would make references to the therapist in general and her mom had a conversation with the therapist on the phone every time she thought Alex was in trouble. I guess her mom had her therapist on speed dial or something. From what I understand about people with schizophrenia, they need to be in therapy on a regular basis. But even when Alex's mom thought she wasn't taking her medication, there was still no meeting between Alex and the therapist. WTH?!? The therapist really wasn't seen until much, much later in the book. I also think some of the things that DID really happen at the school were maybe just a little far fetched. But even with a few flaws, I could not help but LOVE this book.

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.

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 <3 reality-benders. As soon as I heard about MADE YOU UP, I couldn’t wait to read it! As far as offbeat and bittersweet go–check and check. If you’re stuck in the overflowing washing machine of YA tropes and are looking for something a little (or in this case, a lotta) different, pick this baby up. The first thing I want to talk about is something that I can’t discuss since it would mean spoilers, and IT’S KILLING ME! I’d love to enter a goodreads discussion with other readers of this book just to talk about what is real and what is not. Zappia does a beautiful job painting the world as Alex sees it, blending reality and delusion until it’s impossible to tell the difference. As a reader, I felt I knew better than Alex as she takes pictures to try and straighten out what is real and what’s made up, but that false sense of security in judgement is turned on its head at the end of the second act. Ultimately, the reader is left in an existential fix as Alex questions her entire reality…but that’s where the love story comes in. Miles is the valedictorian terror of the school. He’s just about the worst person Alex, or anyone else for that matter, could get mixed up with. He’s a paid prank artist and does horrible things to the possessions of people who’ve done nothing more than make his acquaintance (including Alex). Miles describes himself as being emotionally stunted and seems the last person to anchor Alex in reality. That is until he discovers (rather dramatically) that Alex is schizophrenic. This draws him to her, his complicated history unraveling as Alex digs deeper into what makes Miles…Miles. His home life so dark, his intellect so impossibly high, and his pranks so unthinkable, that it is both easier and harder to see him as a made up character. Of course, Miles is a made up character–Zappia’s character. The English major inside me at this up! But even if you aren’t compelled to gleefully over-analyze every piece of media you encounter that contains a narrative, plumbing its depths for hidden meanings, you will find reasons to enjoy this book. The characters act, talk, and think like authentic high schoolers. Zappia has a humorous, quirky writing style that zips along, and you can tell she had a lot of fun writing it.

Alex has Paranoid Schizophrenia, so she has trouble telling what's real and what's a hallucination. She has ways of coping and figuring out what's just in her head, but in Made You Up, things are getting really blurred. Alex starts at a new school after being kicked out of her old one, but her mom actually wants to send her to a hospital where she can get a better grasp on reality. On top of all that, Alex suddenly meets the boy that she thought she imagined when she was seven years old. Is he really there, or did her mind just conjure him up again? I liked Made You Up. Alex was a great narrator. She's definitely unreliable, but there are some scenes where you can tell it's one of her delusions. But for the most part, I was never really 100% sure anything was real. Even when Alex used her trusty "take a photo" method. It's obvious that someone in her life isn't real, and I honestly wasn't expecting it to be who it was. I was shocked, and then I was mad. Someone should have told her! Alex is struggling enough without people playing along. The one thing that bothered me about Made You Up, was that it felt long. It is over 400 pages, which normally isn't a problem for me. It's just that there's random plot points that felt like filler, and had no connection to the overall story. It was almost as if the author wanted to throw extra stuff at us to confuse us even more about what's really happening. Well, it didn't confuse me other than me wondering what the point of it all was. It was just a bit silly and added nothing to the story for me. Made You Up was still a very good read though. I enjoyed being part of Alex's world. She's very smart, as is Miles, so I adored all of their interactions. They go from antagonistic and playing pranks on each other, to playing silly guessing games, and finally a sweet romance blossoms. I do kind of wish that the focus had been more on Alex dealing with her schizophrenia and how that affects her graduating from high school, moving on to college, etc, rather than the story feeling like a guessing game of who's real and who's not.

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.

Could you imagine wondering if what you were seeing or perceiving was real? That was a challenge Alex faced on a daily basis. Add to that, the desire for all the things average teens want - college, friends, an after school job, and you can see that Alex didn't have it easy. Made You Up was an interesting and thought provoking look at one young schizophrenics life, which I really enjoyed. I have a relative, who is schizophrenic, and it can be a very difficult disorder to manage. I thought Zappia did a nice job conveying that challenge in this story. There was medication to keep her symptoms at bay, therapy to help her cope with those the medication could not curb, and the disequilibrium of constantly having to wonder if something was real or a delusion/hallucination. These were all things that Alex had to work around on a daily basis, and I appreciated that she dealt with all these things, while still trying to reach her goals of college. I loved Alex, and I was so elated, when she found her tribe. Zappia assembled an interesting group to support her in her new school. This merry band of misfits showed their friendship many times during this story, and I was so glad Alex's punishment brought them into her orbit. I was even more happy, that it reunited her with Miles. Miles was a really complicated character, who I couldn't help but love. He had many things in his life, that were working against him. He had a mission to "rescue" his mother and escape his father, and he was willing to go to great lengths to make this happen. He was wounded, but kept on going, regardless. His fortitude was overlooked by many, but not Alex. It was something they both had in common, even if they didn't recognize it in themselves. But, what they really had in common with each other was a love for history. Miles loved to play a sort of twenty questions game, where he would challenge someone to make him guess a mystery person's identity via yes or no questions. I think it was love at first game for Alex, when she played with Miles. The surprise and admiration he elicited from her was precious, and I saw he valued her intelligence as well. This admiration turned to friendship, and once trust between them was established, it took a romantic turn, which I really was happy about. Alex took the unreliable narrator role to a new level for me. There were many times I wasn't sure what was real and what was delusion, but there were a few reveals that left me reeling. One of them actually made me cry. I swear, it broke my heart, and it brought out the idea of what responsibilities the loved ones of a schizophrenic have to them. I won't lie about the ending either. I would love a little follow up there, because I honestly was questioning what was reality and what was fantasy. So, kudos to Zappia, for planting so much doubt in my mind. Overall: I was extremely happy I had the chance to meet Alex, and I thought that Zappia did a wonderful job helping me understand her and bringing me into her world via a story, that was difficult at times, but also funny, joyful, and smile inducing.

This debut is an excellent point/counterpoint of the experience the madness that lies masked in "normal " society, thusly making one question who and what constitute this label and how important is the distinction. I am a bibliophile and I have read many books. This one really stuck with me, both while reading and whirling around during and after. The story it uses is compelling, yet the questions one is left with, even more so. Ms Zappia should be quite proud and I look forward to reading more works by her in the future. I really think that she captured the almost free falling one has in high school - floating between adult and child. She juxtaposes that with experience of schizophrenia very smoothly and contrasts it with the horrors and madness lying underneath the veneers of "normalcy". She demonstrates the frustration and harshness doled out to those deemed "mentally ill " in our society. We aren't understanding enough of a spectrum of humanity. I very much enjoyed the characters, was surprised in all the (I believe ) intended places, and felt for Alex quite deeply. There are many philosophical queries and some definitely humorous passages /situations. It's definitely worth a read or two and I am pleased to have stumbled upon a great work. I don't do in-depth or spoilers in my reviews, as I prefer to just give my overall opinion and leave the nit-picking to people far better suited than I. Besides, I hate when the plot is revealed in a review. Maybe that's just me. But, I think that you will like what Ms. Zappia Made You Up, so give it a try. :)

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.