Made You Up
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Average rating4
What if you couldn’t be sure what was real?
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.
Content Warnings: Mentions of physical and emotional abuse
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4.5/5 stars
Not sure what to say about this one yet, but yeah, definitely enjoyed it. Really well written and the fact that I
read the last 150 pages in one sitting should say something, I think.
REVIEW:
Made You Up has to be one of the most unique contemporary YAs I've read in quite a while. From the very start it had me questioning what was real and what was a delusion (I've heard Made You Up marketed as “the ultimate unreliable narrator” and it is so true!). While I can't speak about how well or not represented the schizophrenia was, as I don't have the expertise to do so, I can say as a story it was totally fascinating and I loved how it made me think the whole time I was reading.
Initially, I found the pacing a teensie bit slower than I usually like, but I was still absolutely interested in the characters and what was going on. Alex's struggle made me connect to her immediately, and the cast of characters from Miles, to Tucker, to the triplets, and everyone else just felt very true to everyday high school experience (minus, you know, the out of the ordinary stuff going on).
Overall, I definitely recommend Made You Up to those looking for a fresh, unique contemporary YA and anyone looking for a brilliant example of an unreliable narrator in YA. As a bonus, I was happy to see mental illness handled respectfully, and very I'm curious to see what those with a better understanding and experience with schizophrenia think about the representation.
Great story with great characters and really wonderful writing. Made You Up lives up to the hype for sure. 4.5/5 stars.
Diversity note: Made You Up's protagonist has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
I have so much to say about this book that it's all a jumble and I don't know where to begin. I feel so many things that I'm numb. My heart says one thing and my brain says something completely different. My star rating, then, is somewhere in the middle.
Before I read about how problematic this book is, I really enjoyed it. Initially, I thought it was a bit too Y as far as YA goes, but by part iii I was pretty well invested in (some of) the characters and wanted to see how things would turn out for them. Towards the end, things got pretty emotional.
The book is really very touching and enjoyable in blissful ignorance. It is not an accurate guide to schizophrenia (thanks, brain!), but otherwise there is plenty in the story that I appreciated (thanks, heart!). Apparently the author was in high school when she started writing the book and at university when she finished it. I think this is an astonishing debut novel published at such a young age.
On some level I feel like things were tied up very neatly: something happened with the scoreboard in the past, something happens to Alex with it in the present; something happened with the snake in the past, something happens to Alex with it in the present—and none of it is hallucinatory. Despite loving their daughter and experiencing her schizophrenia from a young age, it's a teenaged boy who has to put the parents in their place, as if he knows what's what, as if public perception of a family member with schizophrenia is the same as the reality (since his mother was basically committed for nothing).
What I appreciate most about it is how well it engenders empathy and enables dialogue about mental health among teenagers. As long as we don't look too closely. It shouldn't be seen as a reliable guide specifically for child onset schizophrenia: I was reading some of the reviews and people are saying that the focus on hallucinations and delusions is really one-sided and that the narrative isn't really accurate. Some said that the author didn't do any research, but I find that difficult to believe.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
hashtag unpopular opinion: I loved Miles.
aside: Never before have I been so taken with a book cover. Never before have I shared a link to the cover with everyone I know, saying, This is the book I'm about to start reading; isn't the cover stunning? The cover is stunning.
“But—but what if this whole place... what if everything is inside my head? What if you're not real because nothing is real?”“If nothing's real, then what does it matter? You live here. Doesn't that make it real enough?”
— An addictive and quirky book about a girl with schizophrenia. I particularly loved the unreliable narration: not knowing what's real and what's not. That really kept me glued to the pages.
