Title: Made You Up
Author: Francesca Zappia
Publication: May 19th 2015, Greenwillow Books
Format: ARC
Source: Pinoy Book Tours! (Thank you soooo much, Dianne! <3)
Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore /
Fully Booked (PH)
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.
Misfit Review:
Here I am, somehow contemplating how I can actually talk
about this novel and then halfway into it, I’ll be talking and talking and
somehow I’ll surprise myself. Anyway, what I’m saying is, Made You Up left me
speechless, wishing for more, and believing more in what is real.
So the story starts with Alex, a young girl in high school
who has schizophrenia. As a kid, she never actually saw it as an illness, but
somehow a friend as her imagination was the only thing that could suffice her
loneliness, having kids call her weird for having unnaturally red hair. She
meets a kid she dubs as Blue Eyes, a young boy who was the first person to ever
take Alex seriously. But she never saw him again. This then leads her to believe she made him
up. Jump to the present and Alex still has her illness but somehow manages to
live a normal life, working in a diner, but having an unbelievable sense of
paranoia. With her camera, she takes photos of things she finds unusual or out
of the ordinary, to somehow filter them from reality. She is positive she can
get through high school without another hitch, when she meets the young boy she
thought was only her delusion, Miles. She then starts to be more involved with
people, make friends and somehow start a relationship. But when things go array
around the school, mysteries trigger her delusions and it might cost her her
friends
and family, most especially her life.
When I first found out that there’s an opportunity for me to
review Made You Up, courtesy of my affiliated book tour, I immediately signed
up for it and luckily got the chance, and boy did I make the right decision.
The novel is funny without being overbearing. It has the right amount of humor,
drama and conflict wrapped into this package of amazingness.
Characters are well diverse, of course, there’s Alex, who
has schizophrenia. If you don’t know what schizophrenia is, I’d rather link you
to a much needed reference. But basically, it’s a mental illness/disorder in which the person suffers
from delusions, of things unknown to people or seeing double or just the idea
of a person existing who never actually did, is most likely what schizophrenia
is. I did study psychology in my first and third year of uni, but I never
exactly had the chance to dive into the concept of it completely.
But the depiction of schizophrenia for this novel seems accurate enough and definitely draws you in. I have a high level of respect for people who can describe situations with such beauty and power, like when Alex started seeing a bloodied Miles and so many others. As a character, Alex is much more than her illness. She is spunky, honest, kind and a loving sister and daughter. Though she does worry that her illness is what will define her, she does try to make connections with people and that’s what I love about Alex. I wish she didn’t worry about her hair that much. I personally loooove her hair.
But the depiction of schizophrenia for this novel seems accurate enough and definitely draws you in. I have a high level of respect for people who can describe situations with such beauty and power, like when Alex started seeing a bloodied Miles and so many others. As a character, Alex is much more than her illness. She is spunky, honest, kind and a loving sister and daughter. Though she does worry that her illness is what will define her, she does try to make connections with people and that’s what I love about Alex. I wish she didn’t worry about her hair that much. I personally loooove her hair.
Miles is a character who from the very moment that he was
mentioned, I flipped, gasped for air and knew that he was gonna be special to
my heart. I know YA novels make their way to attract readers, most especially
if they are inclined to charismatic guys, and Miles definitely has the hook on
me, centered out. He’s charming though ruthless. He’s not afraid to speak his
thoughts and isn’t worried about what other people think of him. He’s feared by
people because of his no nonsense attitude and possibly of his German roots,
but to me Miles is just one epic sweetheart. Though he won’t admit that he
actually possesses friends, deep down he cares for them. Also, the love that he
has for his mother is beyond words. He’d do anything, even do dirty business
just to save up to bail his Mom out from the mental hospital. And the way that
he initially teased Alex in the beginning was already superb chemistry. And
please, blue eyes, glasses, lanky guy. Give me a break. I think I need a cold,
cold drink.
And the rest of their pals in the novel aren’t left out. I
loved that each character was filled with personality, though could’ve been
more utilized, they were still adorable and used to their potential for this
novel. Oh yes, I would like some more Jetta, please?
Not just a barrel of laughs, Made You Up had a side dish of
grit and mystery. It was gripping and did a good job in reeling me till the
end, rather than just taken with the romance and friendship parts. I liked that
the conflicts are intertwined to one another and that somehow, Alex’s delusions
became an integral part of finding out truths towards these problems.
I love the fact that Francesca Zappia gave a fresh zing to a
roster of YA novels talking about mental disorders and it is actually my first
time to read one about schizophrenia... (except Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides
To Die. We all know what that’s about) There’s lots of attitude and modernity
to it all and she wasn’t afraid to go far and beyond for this novel. It was
brave to talk about something like schizo in a novel, and that’s why to me,
Francesca is a now a new favourite.
Made You Up is not one without flaws but it works its way to
making the novel far more interesting. And that ending to the epilogue was
truly nice. It’s definitely an eye opener. And I tell you what, my love for it,
is not made up.
EXCERPT
Prologue: The Freeing of the Lobsters
If I was good at the grocery store, I got a Yoo-hoo. If I was really good, I got to see the lobsters.
Today, I was really good.
My mother left me at the lobster tank in the middle of the main aisle while she went to get Dad's pork chops from the deli counter. Lobsters fascinated me. Everything from their name to their claws to their magnificent red had me hooked.
My hair was that red, the kind of red that looks okay on everything but people, because a person's hair is not supposed to be red. Orange, yes. Auburn, sure.
But not lobster red.
I took my pigtails, pressed them against the glass, and stared the nearest lobster straight in the eye.
Dad said my hair was lobster red. My mother said it was Communist red. I didn't know what a Communist was, but it didn't sound good. Even pressing my hair flat against the glass, I couldn't tell if my dad was right. Part of me didn't want either of them to be right.
"Let me out," said the lobster.
He always said that. I rubbed my hair against the glass like the thank was a genie's lamp and the action would stir up some magic. Maybe, somehow, I could get those lobsters out. They looked so sad, all huddled on top of one another, antennae twitching, claws rubber-banded together.
"Are you buying one?"
I saw Blue Eyes's reflection in the glass of the lobster tank before he spoke. big blue eyes. Blueberry blue. No, that was too dark. ocean blue. Too green. Blue like all the blue crayons I had, all melted into one.
The straw I'd jammed down the neck of my Yoo-hoo bottle dangled from my lips.
"Are you buying one?" he said again. I shook my head. He pushed his glasses up his nose, back into place on his own golden-freckled cheeks. The dirty collar of his shirt slipped down to reveal a freckled shoulder. The stench of fish and pond scum cling to him.
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