Weekly Review: Made You Up

-

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia (428 pages)
Overview: Alex has schizophrenia which means that hallucinations are a major part of what she sees as reality. Some blend seamlessly into her world while others, like the phoenix who flies over town or the armed men who guard the school, are easier to distinguish as nonexistent. Through carefully developed procedures, Alex has been able to control her hallucinations and paranoia well enough to continue going to high school. Though there are certainly difficult times, the people she meets senior year at East Shoal High will forever change Alex's life for the better. Overall: 4 

 Characters: 4 While I read tons of mental health books, I had never read one with a main character coping with paranoid schizophrenia. It was a very interesting experience to live in her world of total uncertainty with her mind. I also love how Alex doesn't let her difficulties define her, and, while they are always present, she works to live her life to the fullest.
I also loved the friends she makes at East Shoal through community service club and class. Miles especially shines as he learns about Alex early on and is there to help her distinguish between what is real and not and help her cope with some harsh realities. Miles defies the flat labels that the school gives him and is the perfect second ingredient to the story.

Plot: 4 The plot was interesting but did throw me for a few loops. While I enjoyed reading about her mental health journey, it was hard for me to believe some of the events that actually did happen at the school. Going into this too far would provide too many spoilers, but I felt like Zappia took it a little far without having much of a point for it. At times, it just felt unnecessarily chaotic.

Writing: 4 The writing style had a strong voice that I enjoyed. It was light and easy to read which made the four hundred pages manageable. While I can't personally speak to the accuracy of the portrayal of the mental illness, I thought that she framed and executed Alex's story well. Click Here To Buy Now: Click Here

Links Of Interest:
A Flicker In The Clarity: Review Here
Be Empathy: Article Here
Fat Girl On A Plane: Review Here
The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik: Review Here
Emergency Contact: Review Here
All Out of Pretty: Review Here
The Fall of Butterflies:Review Here
America Panda: Review Here

 *The sales link is through the Amazon Associates program so I may receive a portion of the sale at no extra charge to you.*
If you liked this article, please share it with your friends and check out our other articles ranging from book reviews to poetry and short stories to editorials. To get updates about new posts and extras, please follow us on Instagram (@readingwritingandme), Twitter (@readwriteandme), and Facebook or sign up for email alerts by clicking the subscribe button at the top of the sight. Also, please leave comments or email us (readingwritingandme@gmail.com) with your thoughts or review requests. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You'd Be Home By Now by Kathleen Glasgow: YA Book Review

-
Image
  You'd Be Home By Now  by Kathleen Glasgow  I'm very thankful to the publisher for providing me with this ARC to share my honest thoughts on this book with all of you. Overview: Emory has always been the good one. The nice one. The easy one. The invisible one. Her older sister, Maddie, is gorgeous and talented. Her older brother, Joey, is struggling with addiction issues, and her parents saddle Emory with the responsibility of being his forever babysitter. No one thinks about Emory- ever. Which leads her to pick up a habit of stealing and collecting small things and hooking up with the high school baseball star next door to feel seen and important. While Joey is stuck on the rollercoaster of his addiction, his family is right there behind him, and as Emory struggles to keep Joey stable, she's also left to contend with her own precariously okay life. Overall: 5+ Characters: 5 Emory is maybe the most universally relatable teen character in YA. She feels unheard and unseen by
Read more

Hole In The Middle

-
Image
Hole In The Middle  by Kendra Fortmeyer (September 4) Overview: Morgan is like everyone else starting senior year. She's easing into adulting and thinking about her future. She's living in an apartment with her best friend Caro and trying to figure out how to break it to her super driven, successful, fitness guru mom that she doesn't really want to go to college. Morgan also spends a fair amount of time at the doctor's office because she has a peach sized hole straight through her abdomen. There's been one rule her entire life. Don't let anyone know about the hole, and, besides Caro and Caro's boyfriend Todd, she's succeeded. One night, though, she cuts herself a crop top and goes out to a club called Mansion where she shows off her true self, in all her glory. Photos spread like a wildfire on the internet, and she's approached by a new doctor who thinks she might have a cure. Though it  comes with press crews, a boy who has a lump that won'
Read more

Happy Place by Emily Henry: romance review

-
Image
Happy Place  by Emily Henry Overview: Harriet found her friend group for life in college. They might as well be her family. They've grown together through graduation and law school and medical school and one member leaving to go to South America to learn organic farming because they always come back together to spend a week in Maine every year at one friend's family summer house. Now, as they confront true adulthood and the changes that come with it, they have one more summer together before the house is sold to set the course of the future of their bonds. Overall: 4 Do I think this is an incredible romance? Maybe not. But it is a great book.  Characters: 4 There's a lot of characters in this book. The core friend group is six people, plus we get a closer look at both Harriet and her ex-fiancé Wyn's families. They're all well developed and have good dimension despite there being so many characters involved.  Harriet is at a crisis point in her life. She's in the
Read more