[Guest Post] Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Title: Made You Up

Author: Francesca Zappia [Twitter | Website]

Publisher: Greenwillow, an imprint of HarperCollins

Genre: Young Adult Fiction - Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Social Issues 

Release Date: May 19, 2015

Source: ARC provided by the publisher, opinions are honest and the reader's own. – review policy here.

omg I LOVED THIS BOOK! I loved the writing style, the wacky school, Alex's humor and sincerity and MILES! I freaking LOVED Miles! And their whole little group. It was such a colorful cast of characters.

This is a story about a girl named Alex who has paranoid schizophrenia. She often hallucinates and takes photos with her digital camera to help her understand what's real and fake. The story starts off with her as a child trying to free the lobsters in the lobster tank at the grocery store. She meets a boy who has the bluest eyes she's ever seen... and later learns that the whole thing was a delusion.

Years later she's in her senior year of high school. Getting her last chance. She didn't do so well in her last school (due to paranoia about communists and a spray paint incident) and you get the feeling that if she doesn't prove herself this time around something bad is going to happen.

Alex is quirky and not just because of her schizophrenia. She's just a wacky girl with a good sense of humor. I loved her voice and I loved being inside of her head. So often people are scared of schizophrenics and this really helped me to understand what it might be like for people who suffer from schizophrenia. I felt for Alex and she broke my heart more than once. Towards the end of the book we learn a very sad truth that is devastating for Alex and my heart just broke.

Mile's is an incredibly interesting character. He's a genius, he's a jerk, he's king of the school. He does 'jobs' for people who pay him money to get revenge, get them out of tests, and other odd ball things. He does this because it gives him power. Without that he's just a nerd from a bad home who gets bullied. And he faces off with Alex, pulling pranks on her, and her pulling them back on him. They slowly form a bond thought and he later figures out that she's schizophrenic. But he's very good about it, and takes care of her. There are some of THE sweetest moments between the two of them. And I just loved him. And I also loved how she took care of him when he needed help.

The school they go to is almost it's own character. There's a lot of weird stuff going on and I just loved how it added to the story as an almost living background.

Pick this book up guys. It's brilliant and amazing!

5 Stars from Molly at