We Made It All Up

by Margot Harrison

A contemporary, high-stakes thriller about how reality becomes more twisted than the fantasy novel two friends are writing when the real-life subject of their fiction turns up dead and they're the suspects, for fans of Mare of Easttown and One of Us Is Lying.

Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town's name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste's past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.

Celeste doesn't remember the end of that night and can't be sure she didn't deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn't as innocent as it appears.

• ISBN10: 031627576X
• ISBN13: 9780316275767
• Publish Date: 14 July 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Imprint: Little, Brown Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

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“All things are possible,” Vivvy said. “But you don’t know small towns, Celeste. You don’t understand what the sheer depth of boredom will drive people to.”

 

Thank you TBR and Beyond Tours for the chance to read and review We made it all up by Margot Harrison.

 

We Made it All Up is a YA thriller that was published by Little, Brown and Company on the 12th of July, 2022. It’s 343 pages long and already in the top 100 in two different Teen and YA fiction categories on amazon.

 

As Celeste moves to a small town in the US from Canada, she tries to just blend in. That’s really hard when no one new seems to have moved there for a hundred years (a girl is cheating on her boyfriend with her cousin of all things). She makes a friend in Vivvy, and the two of them write a fan fiction of two dudes in their grade, who seem to hate each other. As Celeste learns more about small town secrets and Joss ends up dead, she has to find out what’s really been going on or she might be in jail next.

 

As a whole, We Made it all Up is a good addition to the YA thriller/mystery genre. The way Celeste took the characters (in her story), Joss and Seth and spoke about her own trauma through those was really interesting. I loved Vivvy; she was my favourite. I totally called who the killer was 20% in. I felt so annoyed at Celeste’s parents, and in general, most adults in the town for just turning a blind eye to things for so long. The book was a little slow at the start, but when it picked up, it picked up.

 

I do wonder though, if had the genders of all the characters been changed, would the story have gone down as well? Two girls writing fanfiction about their male classmates is less sinister than two boys writing it about their female classmates.