Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Made You Up

by Francesca Zappia

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be-sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. For fans of Silver Linings Playbook and Liar, this thought-provoking debut tells the story of Alex, a high school senior-and the ultimate unreliable narrator-unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. Alex fights a daily battle to figure out what is real and what is not. 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 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. Can she trust herself? Can we trust her?

Reviewed by Bianca on

4 of 5 stars

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“But—but what if this whole place... what if everything is inside my head? What if you’re not real because nothing is real?”

“If nothing’s real, then what does it matter? You live here. Doesn’t that make it real enough?”


— An addictive and quirky book about a girl with schizophrenia. I particularly loved the unreliable narration: not knowing what's real and what's not. That really kept me glued to the pages.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 September, 2017: Finished reading
  • 3 September, 2017: Reviewed