ARC Review: Secret for a Song by S.K. Falls

Title: Secret for a Song
Author: S.K. Falls
Kindle, 206 pages
Published: June 10th 2013 
Publisher: Createspace
Genre: YA - Contemporary Romance - Mental Illness
Source: via Netgalley

Saylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally.

She ate her first needle when she was seven. Now, at nineteen, she’s been kicked out of college for poisoning herself with laxatives. The shrinks call it Munchausen Syndrome. All Saylor knows is that when she’s ill, her normally distant mother pays attention and the doctors and nurses make her feel special.

Then she meets Drew Dean, the leader of a local support group for those with terminal diseases. When he mistakes her for a new member, Saylor knows she should correct him. But she can’t bring herself to, not after she’s welcomed into a new circle of friends. Friends who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives. 

For the first time, Saylor finds out what it feels like to be in love, to have friends who genuinely care about her. But secrets have a way of revealing themselves. What will happen when Saylor’s is out?

  I was given a review copy by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

  If you've been following/reading my reviews for this past few months, you may know that I've been quite fascinated by mental illnesses recently. I've had this book on my Kindle for a while now, but only decided to read this after my recent fascination. I must say, it was a pretty great and interesting read.

  Secret for a Song is about Saylor, who has Munchhausen's disease, meaning she deliberately makes herself sick in order to gain attention. Now I know this might sound really weird and most of us will be quick to judge. Who wants to be sick, right? This is why I was so glad that the author, S.K. Falls, decided to write about this topic and I really enjoyed learning more about Munchhausen's in this book. Of course, I don't really know what people with Munchhausen's are thinking, but through this book, I can somehow understand them a little better.

  Secret for a Song is not only a great book because of the topic that it discussed, but it also has a pretty amazing story. More than Munchhausen's, there were also some other diseases like FA, cancer and AIDS. And more than diseases, this book is about friendship, family, living life to the fullest and acceptance. 

  I really enjoyed the story in this book, and I loved how it unraveled. I liked how the story progressed and even though I didn't like what happened in the end, I felt like it was a pretty great ending. 

  Although there were some things that I think wasn't explained well enough or felt like loose ends, it became easy for me to overlook some of those things. What I really didn't like though was how [ it was not explained what happened to her friendship with the rest of the people from the group besides Drew.

  I really enjoyed this book and I recommend people to read this for the story and insight on Munchhausen's disease.

3.5 stars: I liked it. Would recommend.

ARC review: The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Title: The Rest Of Us Just Live Here

Author: Patrick Ness

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published: October 6th, 2015

Publisher: HarperTeen

Genre: YA - Contemporary - Paranormal

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

Purchase at: Amazon | B&N | TBD | Kobo 

Thanks to EpicReads for providing a copy in exchange for a honest review

"Feelings don't try to kill you, even the painful ones. Anxiety is a feeling grown too large. A feeling grown aggressive and dangerous. You're responsible for it's consequences, you're responsible for treating it. But Michael, you're not responsible for causing it. You're not morally at fault for it. No more than you would be for a tumor."

As soon as I learned that Patrick Ness was writing another book I just knew that it was going to be awesome. Every single book by Patrick Ness rocks my world! I love how in his hands, even your usual dystopian becomes something totally new and different from anything you've ever read. Whoever doesn't think that writing a book about the "extras", those who are in the background when the chosen-one saves the world and falls in love, please raise his/her hand. Nobody? Yeah, I thought so, because it's genius. 

Every chapter begins with a brief summary of what's happening to the chosen one, but we actually follow the story of Mikey and his friends, who are trying to decide what to do with their lives after graduations. I love how Patrick Ness managed to overturn all the usual YA tropes in just a few sentences at the beginning of every chapter. The chosen-one's story was so absurd, I couldn't help but laughing every time I was reading her story. 

But there's so much more than satire in this book. Ness also succeeded in wonderfully portraying two characters with mental illness, in particular anorexia and O.C.D. I'm well-acquainted with both disorders, and I can attest that, based on my experience, they were accurately described. It's really rare to find a book about mental illness where the therapist is actually helpful, and this one is one of them. Mikey had only one session with his psychologist, and Patrick Ness nailed it, right down to the last word. It's also rare to see friends who help out without judging you (both in real life and in books), and I loved how Mikey and Mel's friends worried about them and stopped them from being destructive without forcing things too much. 

The novel also featured a gay character whose story didn't revolve around his coming-out, and I believe it's very refreshing that nobody cared that he wasn't straight. Moreover, Mikey admitted that he fooled around with him in the past, without being ashamed of it.

If I really had to say one tiny thing that bothered me, was Hanna's behavior towards Mikey. With the pretense of wanting to "experiment", she kept leading him on even if it was clear she would never see him as more of a friend. I didn't like her hot-and-cold attitude towards him, and I definitely didn't want them to be together at all! 

Overall, this book was both serious and satirical, it tackled important issues and it was an amazing portrayal of the importance of friendship without losing its funny side. I definitely recommend it to everyone!.

Totally EPIC! One of the best books I have read. A MUST read!!

Review: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Title: Made You Up

Author: Francesca Zappia

Hardcover, 428 pages

Published: May 19th, 2015

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Genre: YA - Contemporary - Mental Illness

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook, and Liar.

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.

Purchase at: Amazon | B&N | TBD | Kobo 

Did I Make You Up?

This book left me speechless. Made You Up is an amazing portrait of schizophrenia, a haunting novel that leaves you with a question: how would you live if you couldn't tell apart between reality and hallucination? This book is so wonderfully written that you can't help but putting yourself in Alex's shoes, while you try to understand with her what's real and what's not. 

I particularly enjoy books told by unreliable narrators, and this one is no exception: you, the reader, think you can distinguish between reality and hallucination (snipers on the roof of the school are OBVIOUSLY not real!), yet you're fooled by Alex's voice into believing that some hallucinations are real! Alex felt authentic, and it seems to me that the author did her research, although I don't know much more than the basics about schizophrenia. I like that Alex refuses to be defined by her illness, she wants a shot at a normal life, she wants to go to college and in order to achieve her goals, she tries to act as normal as possible. She ignores the hallucinations, she keeps shooting photos of her surroundings, trusting that, in time, they will only show what's real when she looks at them.

I also must praise this book for the lack of the love-triumphs-over-illness trope. Every time a book features a character who suffers from mental illness who's miraculously cured by a love story, I start to cringe! The romance between Miles and Alex is slow burn, and it takes some time for Alex to feel safe enough when Miles is with her to not do her perimeter checks for possible threats. At the beginning Miles is a little bit unlikeable, but then it grows on you and you start hoping the ending won't crush your dreams (and Alex and Miles' dreams!).

I have a few criticisms, though, and this is what made me give this book 4 stars instead of 5. Sometimes I felt like there was no actual plot and no climax. I enjoyed living in Alex's shoes, but I felt too detached from the whole Celia plot (I'm being deliberately vague because I don't want to spoil anything!) and I didn't understand the reasons behind Miles' decisions towards the end. Moreover, I found the ending a little bit rushed and it left some loose ends.

Overall, Made You Up is a very compelling book that you don't want to miss, especially if you love YA contemporary or are interested in mental illness. I also enjoyed Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, which also deals with schizophrenia, although it's a little bit more confusing that Made You Up!

Totally awesome! I loved it, would read again.