Reviews Young adult

I Was Born For This: By Alice Oseman

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Age recommendation: 13+

My thoughts

I really really really enjoyed this book. I’ve never read a book with such diversity in the characters and the themes. The story is split perspective and is told by the two main characters called Angel and Jimmy. Jimmy is one of three in a famous boy band and Angel is one of his fans.

One of the main themes in this book was about idolizing celebrities. Angel always puts the band before anything else and completely idolizes them. She states many times in the story that her dream is to meet the band and once she has done that she doesn’t know whether her life will be worth anything. I thought that this topic was so important in today’s society as so many teens look up to celebrities and crave both them and their lifestyles but here Oseman was trying to tell the audience how it’s not always perfect being in the spotlight and showed exactly how the publicity of the band effected Jimmy’s friends and family and how isolated he felt.

Another key theme was friendship. I thought that the way Oseman portrayed the importance of friendship was also so great. It was one of those themes that weaves in and out of the pages until the very last fifty pages where it pokes its head up and becomes so prominent.

The diversity was also so impressive. I think that sometimes authors shy away from using diverse characters but its crystal clear that Oseman was far from scared to do so. I felt that the diversity of each character wasnt forced at all in any way which can also sometimes happen.

Furthermore, there were an incredible amount of plot twists that I didn’t see coming. Sometimes authors make plot twists quite easy to foresee however in this book there were moments where I was so shocked at the turn of events.

I Was Born For This wasn’t difficult to read either and was so easy to fall in love with. I truly believe that every single person both young and old should pick up this book now. The story was so beautiful and was one of those books that has a very important message that can be taught to everyone.

The blurb

For Angel, life is about one thing: The Ark – a pop-rock trio of teenage boys taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything she loves – her friend Juliet, her dreams, and her place in the world.

Jimmy owes everything to The Ark. He’s their front man – and playing in a band with his mates is all he ever dreamed of doing.

But dreams don’t always turn out the way you think and when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together they find out how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be.

About The Author

Alice Oseman is an author and illustrator who was born in 1994 in England. She has written four young adult contemporary novels including Solitaire, Radio Silence, I Was Born For This, and her latest upcoming novel Loveless. she is also the creator of the LGBTQ+ and young adult romance webcomic called Heartstopper, which is now published in book form. Alice’s first novel was published when she was nineteen and her young adult novels have been nominated for the YA Book Prize, The Inky Awards, and the Goodreads Choice Award.

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