My Invented Life

by Lauren Bjorkman

During rehearsals for Shakespeare's "As You Like It," sixteen-year-old Roz, jealous of her cheerleader sister's acting skills and heartthrob boyfriend, invents a new identity, with unexpected results.

• ISBN10: 0805089500
• ISBN13: 9780805089509
• Publish Date: 29 September 2009
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Henry Holt & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 232
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

The description says that My Invented Life is hilarious. That could not be further from the truth. It's actually quite offensive and gross. Roz is upset that her sister has cut her out of her life. Then she finds a book involving a lesbian romance in Eva's room and jumps to the conclusion that she must be a lesbian and it is her duty as her sister to show her that it's okay to be gay! Somehow this turns into Roz pretending to be a lesbian, but not to show her sister that it's okay, but so she can finally be the one who gets the most attention. Ew.

I was hoping that My Invented Life would be a humorous but touching story of Roz pretending to be gay but then realizing that she really is gay. That's not what this is at all. It's just Roz being an attention whore and a liar. And no, by the end she doesn't learn anything. She doesn't have to face the consequences of lying to all of her friends, since she never reveals that she's been lying. She pulls this "I'm 90% straight, 10% gay" card so therefore she hasn't been faking for the last few weeks. As if.

My Invented Life has a lot wrong with it other than Roz just not learning anything. Some things that I think were suppose to be jokes, just made me cringe or were outright offensive. At one point Roz decides to "forgive" a girl (who is rumored to be a lesbian) for not being attracted to her. Um, excuse me? Then she thinks it's alright to date her sister's boyfriend behind her back, because she didn't bother telling her that they broke up. That's not how that works. And worst of all, at the very end, Roz edits someone's coming out story to make it more about how awesome she is! Are you freaking kidding me!?

On top of all that, I had some serious issues with how Jonathan was portrayed. Roz's drama teacher asks her to show her nephew around since he's going to be a new student. When Roz first meets him, she's all confused as to why she wasn't told he was black. Is it really that important? Jonathan also keeps referring to white people as "whitey." Then when someone points out that he's half white, he's like no I'm black. But when someone asks if he's adopted because he's black and his aunt is not, he's like no I'm half white. Also, he's bisexual, which makes Roz change her lesbian claim into also being bisexual to make friends with him. Roz also decides that she needs to look up coming out stories about black teens in order to talk to him.

Speaking of coming out stories. Roz becomes obsessed with reading them online, which isn't a problem in itself. But she becomes jealous of gay teens for being able to have these amazing stories published. And they have great supportive friends! She wishes she were gay so she could post inspiring coming out stories and have all of her friends hug and love her! But then, Jonathan mentions Matthew Shepard, and Roz has NO CLUE who that is, so she Googles him. Then suddenly she's thankful that she's just pretend gay and not real gay. She sickens me.

My Invented Life was super problematic for me. In fact, I was quite offended by a good portion of it. I was hoping to love Jonathan, because I too am biracial and bisexual and have been told I'm not white enough, or not black enough, or not gay enough. But he was just awful. Not as awful as Roz, obviously, but still.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[violetpeanut]

This is fun realistic teen fiction and I enjoyed it. The main character, Roz, is a quirky, funny and somewhat self absorbed girl who is just looking to find her place in her family, with her group of friends, with boys (or girls?) and eventually learns to be comfortable in her own skin.

The book is written in first-person from Roz's perspective so the reader gets full view of her. She's funny and smart and a little bit nosy. Ok, she's a lot nosy, but she always has good intentions. Seeing from her point of view is quite entertaining as there are these little asides inside her head. She imagines the way a scene will go - and then tells how it actually went. These asides are, of course, overly dramatic and always go her way and are really funny. I found Roz to be a little bit manic and crazy at times which kind of made me exhausted reading her. I don't know if everyone will enjoy the first-person perspective but it definitely gives a comical slant to the whole story.

The supporting cast of characters is varied and important to the story. They are all fellow drama geeks and have unique personalities. Since the book is from Roz's perspective, we meet them all through Roz's sometimes biased opinions of each. I would have loved to learn even more about each of them but I don't think

Roz and the rest of the drama geeks are performing Shakespeare's As You Like It as their school play. It's a humorous parallel to the teenage drama of Roz's life. Each character is in love with someone who is, in turn, in love with someone else. The main character is pretending to be someone she is not. By the end of the book - and the play - the truth is revealed and each person has found happiness with the person they are meant to be with.

Overall, this book takes a truthful look at the issues of teenage sexuality and identity in a humorous way through the eyes of an amusing young girl. It's a fun and quick read and will appeal to fans of lighter realistic fiction. It's not "heavy" or serious enough to be on par with other realistic teen reads (John Green's work, for example) but it's not meant to be.

Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the author through Crossroads Reviews and Tours. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.