Review : Made You Up by Fransesca Zappia

Title : Made You Up
Author : Fransesca Zappia
Genre : YA contemporary
Release Date : May 19th, 2015
Publisher : Greenwillow Books

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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.

If you're a book blogger or love to read a book blog, then you at least have heard about this book. I must admit, the first thing that made me want to read this book is because the number of positive reviews I've read. So I decide to try it, and boy, I'm so glad I read it!

Alexandra Ridgemont--or Alex--has a schizophrenia. In case you didn't know, schizophrenia is a mental illness which cause hallucination. Sometimes, it's clear that the hallucination weren't real, but the other times, the hallucination looks really real, and it could be dangerous. Armed with her camera, Magic 8 Ball, and her sister Charlie, this book follows Alex as she moves to a new school and meet her childhood "friend", Miles.

Both Alex and Miles are an interesting characters for me. I rarely read a book where the main characters has schizophrenia, so her character is refreshing to me. Also, after I read this book, it made me more understand how hard it is to have schizophrenia. As for Miles, well, he's definitely not your typical YA guys. In fact, when we were first introduced to him, he's more like a jerk and asshole. But, the more I read about him, he became more likeable, and by the time I finished it, you can say that Miles is my next book boyfriend! He's definitely not perfect--he even has a disability, too--but one thing that I love about him is his willingness to sacrifice anything, including his pride, to the person he loves most.

 The romance in this book is definitely my faves. Even if I didn't ship them from the beginning, by the time I finished this book, they're one of my OTPs. They're not perfect, but Alex and Miles help each other deal with their disability. Here are some of my favorite quotes :

“What you loved as a child, you will love forever.” 

“I am real. This”–he put his other hand over the first-“is real. You see me interacting with other people all day long, don’t you? I talk to people; I affect things in the world. I cause things to happen. I am real.”

“I pushed myself back up. He kept staring at me. I realized I wanted to kiss him.
I didn't know why. Maybe it was the way he looked at me like I was the only thing he wanted to look at.” 

Captivating and heart-warming, Made You Up is a book that you must read. It's not just about romance, there's even some mystery and a little twist in the ending!