Made You Up

Francesca Zappia

May 2015 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. For fans of Silver Linings Playbook and Liar, this thought-provoking debut tells the story of Alex, a high school senior—and the ultimate unreliable narrator—unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion.

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out what is real and what is not. 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 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. Can she trust herself? Can we trust her?

Ratings and reviews

Reading the synopsis of the book, I thought it would be a deep dark book on mental health exactly like Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, and I went inside prepared for a fairly intense book. Made You Up was a really fun read, one that made me really believe in the romance like very few books do. It was about friendship and trying to function normally while also living with a debilitating mental disease. Let’s break it down: Writing: Francesca had an easy to read writing style. In fact, it was so easy to read, I finished the entire 400 page book in one day and I wanted more. It made the entrance into the world and especially Alex’s mind very east. Idea: I LOVED THE IDEA. I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT. A story about the confines of reality told from the schizophrenic’s point of view? And the girl suffering from schizophrenia is also trying to be a normal high schooler, get into college and fall in love? I NEEDED IT. I was going to import a copy for myself before Harper announced that they would be releasing it and I was over the moon. Plot: I LOVED this book. I loved Alex, I loved Miles and I loved everything about this story. It was fun, it was about to know it all high school teenagers whose conversations were filled with sass and dark humour and there was nothing not to love about it. I’ve never read a book told from a schizophrenic’s point of view, and I wasn’t sure what I expected really. The only schizophrenic’s I’ve seen are the few on Grey’s Anatomy, who have rather advanced cases but I assume that what Alex has was not so acutely onset. I honestly don’t know enough about the disease to make judgements, but I felt like it was treated a little lightly. Alex was trying a lot to be normal (which I respect and understand) but I felt like I learnt nothing more about the disease, in a book whose tagline was about said disease. I did love the chemistry between Miles and Alex, the club and even the high school conspiracy that also played around the book. It was a FUN book. Characters: Like I already said, I LOVED the dark humour and sass between Miles and Alex. I liked all the club misfits and Tucker. I really wish that Alex’s parents were more responsible about her condition. I wish her mother didn’t say she would throw her in an asylum. They were well developed, but again, I don’t feel like the people who were supposed to treat her disease with maturity didn’t and it annoyed me a little. Conclusion: A fun, light hearted, sass-filled book that will make you appreciate the reality you live in while making you crave the romance that it creates. 4 stars.

One of the most heatfelt but also heart wrenching books i've ever read. The author made the descriptons so vivid and bright that it feels like you were in the book as events are happening. Also, the character deelopment is just amazing, to see the characters get out of their shell and become into the ending characters is beautiful. I finished this 400+ book in one sitting and it was the best desisions I've made. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone of any ages.

I love you, Francesca Zappia! You're such an amazing author! The twists were killing me! I love it the way you surprised us readers, you're such an inspiration to people who just learned to write like me!

About the author

Francesca Zappia lives in central Indiana. When she is not writing, she’s drawing her characters, reading, or playing video games. She is also the author of Made You Up and Eliza Mirk’s favorite, The Children of Hypnos, a biweekly serial novel posted on Tumblr and Wattpad. She also blogs about writing at francescazappia.com