Book Review || I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

After I read Radio Silence online, my dad bought me a collection of Alice Oseman books, and this was one of them. It took me six days to finish. The genre is young adult. It was published in 2018.

Main characters in most to least favorite: Bliss, Jimmy, Fereshteh, Lister, Juliet, Rowan, Mac

I'm not afraid. I was born for this.

- Character development!! Fereshteh finding more of herself, realizing that she can have a life outside of fandom. I get the need to throw yourself into something everytime something goes wrong, and she does it so much that it becomes a big part of her life. And it still can be, but she has to also live her life, and that's made clear in a really nice way I think.

- I like that Bliss doesn't really care about all the fans. She doesn't want to be famous, she just wants to actually live. Her attitude towards life is kinda inspirational almost.

- I really don't like that Lister is in love with Jimmy but seeing as I'm Doesn't Like Romance Georg, I'm an outlier here.

- I'm not a big fan of religious themes, as an atheist, so sometimes reading it kinda felt like awkwardly standing in the corner, if that makes sense?

- It's fun how music pulls Jimmy, Rowan, and Lister together. How everything is just okay once they start playing, how they can forget about what they're arguing over when they jam.

- Lister is so sad?? He's addicted to like everything, and of course he is, he was raped and he doesn't even know that's what it was.

- Mac kinda pisses me off. I'm glad he left

- Rowan is silly. It's fun how angry and worried and protective he gets about Jimmy. I like it when characters are angry in a way that isn't violent.

- The ending is alright. Fereshteh keeps speaking like she thinks she'll never see Jimmy and them again, but the way Jimmy messages her makes it seem like they're gonna keep in touch, which is nice. Jimmy isn't leaving but they're changing how everything works, which is also good. I think having the fans show up at the hospital wasn't very cool though, they should really be allowed to tell the fans to back off.

- The Jowan stuff is so stupid. Not in the sense that it shouldn't have been in the book, but in the sense that the characters who are doing that should've just shut up. It's unfair that they can't just say "we're not in a romantic relationship" and leave it at that. I relate to that as an aroace person, having people say that you and your friends are definitely dating is really exhausting and upsetting.

- The scene where Lister beats up the transphobic interviewer is so so fun. Everyone needs a friend prepared to do that for you.

- They kinda leave Lister out of a lot of stuff until near the end, which is sad. It's like the fact that Jimmy and Rowan have been friends for longer makes them think they have a right to exclude him, and he isolates himself while drinking— which he does a lot, so it's just not good all around.

7/10, here's the website for it!