My Thoughts On… I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman
My Thoughts on… I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman
For Angel Rahimi, life is only about one thing: The Ark – a pop-rock trio of teenage boys who are currently taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything – her friendships, her dreams, her place in the world.
Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark too. He’s their frontman – and playing in a band is all he’s ever dreamed of doing. It’s just a shame that recently everything in his life seems to have turned into a bit of a nightmare.
Because that’s the problem with dreaming – eventually, inevitably, real life arrives with a wake-up call. And when Angel and Jimmy are unexpectedly thrust together, they will discover just how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be.
My Thoughts
Having absolutely loved both of Alice Oseman‘s previous books, I was both extremely excited and incredibly nervous about I Was Born For This. As per usual, however, Alice has written a strong, addictive and emotional read that I absolutely devoured. I loved every single second I spent reading the words she had written and would recommend this book to everyone I know. It is a character led book – my favourite! – and it really looks into what it is like being a fan but also about being the object of someone’s fandom. Plus she deals with anxiety in such a relatable and sensitive manner too.
This book switches between Angel and Jimmy as they navigate the week before the last gig of The Ark’s world tour. In Angel’s story there are themes of friendship, online relationships, fandom worshipping and trying to know who you are and what you want to do with your life. In Jimmy’s tale, there is friendship again, family, dealing with being famous as a teenager, knowing who and what you are and dealing with the mental health issues of anxiety. There is also an LGBT theme running through the book, especially with Jimmy’s trans life but also with other members of the band as well. It is a book that runs all of these things together smoothly and seamlessly with an incredible plot that will literally keep you turning the page until you have none left.
As this is a character led book, it is absolutely essential that all of the characters in the book are well-developed, unique and meaningful. Fortunately, this is definitely the case in this book. Alice Oseman has created every single in this character to be their own person with distinct personalities that affect their relationships with everyone else. Ultimately my favourite character was Jimmy but I found them all to be similarly entertaining. I thought it was great to see how the friendship between Angel and Juliet progressed, how the friendships between Jimmy, Rowan and Lister began and developed too. There was just so much in this book that I absolutely loved but I don’t want to spoil too much of it so I’m going to stop talking now so you have to read and find out the rest!
Overall, this was a book that I very much loved reading. It involves a very diverse cast of characters, a fascinating plot, and conveys the realness of anxiety and panic attacks really well too. It shows how online friendships can be as real and true as real life friendships and it is just a very modern and entertaining novel that I can not recommend enough. Once again, in my opinion, Alice Oseman has written an absolutely stunning novel that will sit in your mind for days. It twists and turns, pulls on your heart strings and tugs on your emotions throughout. A brilliant YA novel that should be read over and over again.
** I received this copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. **
Will you be reading this book?
