Review: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Title: Made You Up
Author: Francesca Zappia
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release date: May 19th 2015
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

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.

An addictive and irresistible read with an unreliable narrator, because she cannot distinguish what is real and what isn´t.

Alex was diagnosed with schizophrenia at thirteen years old and a year later was added paranoia to her diagnosis, so Alex is not sure if what she sees is real or not, so she carries a camera ans constantly takes pictures of all the things to help her discover if it's real. And she's about to enter her senior year at a new school, so she´ll be the new girl, which is a good thing for her because nobody knows about her.

At her new school she meets Miles, a quirky guy whom may or may not be someone she knew as a child and leave an impression. But Miles is not an easy person to deal with, he´s little anti-social and extremely intelligent. But somehow they work together and have a very good chemistry between them (is not instant love). I really loved them together!

Made You Up is a book that surprised me, because I didn´t expect to liked it so much, I LOVED IT !, why? because the whole time I was reading it, I was questioning everything, not knowing what was real and what was imagined by Alex and that was great. The plot is fresh and unique (at least for me). I recommend this book to those that like contemporary novels with a little of mystery.

Favorites quotes

“Sometimes I think people take reality for granted.” 

“Believing something existed and then finding out it didn't was like reaching the top of the stairs and thinking there was one more step.”