I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 400 

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books  

Released: 3rd of May 2018

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.

What I Have to Say 

Alice Oseman has proved once again that she writes great books, books that challenge perceptions and bring important issues to light. This book was a very insightful look on Fandom and the different sides of it. I felt she really showed all the different sides of fandom, the perception of it from outside, from inside, the different types of fans and some of the more worrying reasons that people turn to fandom. She managed to write a book that showed what goes in inside the heads of superfans without ignoring the bad or the good. 

Jimmy was a really interesting character. Through Jimmy Oseman showed anxiety at it's worse and she wasn't afraid to show it realistically. A lot of books try to pretty up anxiety showing it in a way that may be more palatable to the reader, but doesn't show truly how bad it can get. And while I did find some of Jimmy's part of the book a little hard to read, as a sufferer of pretty bad anxiety, I can attest that there is nothing in the book that wasn't a real thing that many people go through every day.

 I worry that people will see it as immature and over the top, but the fact is that a lot of people view anxiety attacks as immature and over the top, because we're a society that values a tampering down of emotions and showing extreme emotions such as those that come in a panic attack or the other things that Oseman showed Jimmy feeling throughout the book are seen as immature in today's society. 

I also liked the fact that there wasn't one part of fandom that Oseman didn't look into. She showed the pressure of fame and how it can bring those in the spotlight a lot of stress and pain and cause them to resent or fear their fans. She looked at the two sides of fandom as a group, those that didn't care who they hurt and the ones who would protect the band no matter what it took. She showed the friendship and happiness that being part of a fandom, part of /something/ can bring and she showed how people can let fandom consume their life due to problems or worries in their own lives. 

I loved all the characters in this book and as always, how real Oseman's writing in. I hope you all do too. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing me with this copy for review.