Rating: PG-13
Genre: Contemporary, Mental Illness, YA Fiction
Score: 4 1/2 stars
Page Count: 448
Stand Alone
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Published: May 19, 2015
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.
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.
Review:
PROS:
1. Over the past couple of weeks, I fell out of a contemporary mood because of all the ones I was reading in June. I kind of got tired of that genre but I still really wanted to pick this one up. I decided to try just one more contemporary and read it and see what it had to offer. I was more excited to read this one because of the fact that our main character has a mental illness that I haven't seen in a book, like, ever. Maybe that's just me but hey, I wanted to shake things up a bit! That and I'm a sucker for that type of story. Here's my review:
2. Obviously, I was really impressed with the set of characters in this book. I really loved them for many reasons. One was that our main character, Alex, is schizophrenic and has to try her best to hide her "problem" from the rest of the school including her new friends. I really loved seeing a character with a mental illness that I've never actually seen before in a YA fiction and that was what originally made me want to pick this book up in the first place before it was released. Alex has to struggle with her illness and decide what was real and what was purely her hallucinations. I also fell in love with her friends and family. Her friends were those that I wished I could have in my life. They were very loyal and goofed around a lot with each other and just made a really awesome group of supportive friends. Alex's parents were also very supportive and loving towards her and her sister and that was really nice to see. Usually I don't get attached to a character's parents in books but her mom and dad were quite a different case.
3. This book was completely character driven but also had a bit of an interactive element to it. The character development was so great that the entire book could've lacked a plot and I still would've probably loved it. Other than the development, the book was also part mystery and a psychological read. You as the reader had to follow Alex as she tries to determine what she imagines and what's really reality and had it's incredibly surprising moments that literally had my mouth hanging open. I really loved getting to not only get to know the characters so much more with each chapter, but it also kept me incredibly entertained trying to figure out the mystery of what Alex and her friends had to uncover in this book. It was a contemporary with a little bit of edge if you will.
4. I really loved how everything in this book came back around to Alex being schizophrenic. Alex tried to hide her illness from her friends because of it and she also had to struggle with training herself to see the difference between imagination and reality. Even the romance and mystery that played big roles in the book came back to the fact that she was schizophrenic which was awesome because you never forgot that about Alex. I love that I constantly reminded me of her illness and I guess that's why Alex was such an interesting character to me in the first place. She was constantly doubting herself and her theories because of her illness and she was also driven by it as well. I loved that the book stayed to the theme of Alex and didn't wander off into a weird layout.
5. I loved the way the entire story played out and how it wrapped up as well. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride with all the mystery, surprise, heartbreak, shocking truths and also a bad case of the feels going on but it was fabulous nonetheless. It was a seriously entertaining read that I know I'll be picking up again in the future. It's a perfect summer read and also a great rainy day one. I recommended this to any YA lover who's looking for something a little different for a contemporary. The mystery was intriguing, I read it in just a couple of sittings and the romance was sweet and gave me so many feels that I couldn't even deal. Yep, it was that good!
The reason why I didn't give this book a five star-rating was because I want more. I need more of this book, like, right now. Sequel anybody?
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I hope you guys enjoyed this book review! If you have any other book requests you would like me to review, just leave a comment or send me an email! Read on bookworms! See you in the next chapter!
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