Book review: I Was Born For This

I Was Born for This, by Alice Oseman

Description: (from Harper collins)

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

Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark. He’s their frontman 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.

On the beginning I was a bit uncomfortable because I often feel a bit uneasy with the whole “shipping real people together” and I was afraid I would not like Angel because of that, also because I’ve never been a fangirl as intense as her. But Alice Oseman is a master with words and emotion and made me care deeply for her all her characters. I ended up a sobbing mess on more than one occasion.

I was only planning on reading the first two chapters to wake me up this morning and I ended up reading this in one setting just like her two previous books. And yes, you’re reading this right, as soon as I finished this I had to write something about it and publish it almost immediately.

I’m really a big fan of the way Oseman explores love in her novels, here she takes a long hard look at love not that much on a romantic level but from family to friendship, faith and community… all encompassing love. It’s amazing and frankly what makes her one of my favourite YA writer.

Her way to write so accurately about anxiety disorders, academic life and expectations on young people is also an arrow to the heart, with such empathy and experience that it made me feel all the things.

This book is also special in another way for me because I bought it while I was in London for the very first time two weeks ago and now I can really picture most of the places seen in this book that is mostly set in London! It’s a first for me and it feels really weird and good.

I also loved:
• the online friendship and meet ups
• the representation of fans in all their diversity, from the good ones to the bad ones, from the feelings to the passion
• both sides of fandom and hero worship
• Angel’s phone conversations with her dad (a self published writer, a cute addition) and Jimmy’s adorable grandfather
• that amazing woman on page 138
• female friendship 💛
• a tall girl being one of the two main characters!
• soft and nice characters caring for one another
• the acknowledgment where Alice Oseman listed and thanked all the people who helped giving insight and beta-read for the Muslim representation and transgender experience representation

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Content warning: anxiety disorder, panic attacks, eating disorder, alcoholism, assault, suicidal ideation, blood