Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - I Was Born For This

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I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

75 reviews

crufts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This must be the most exciting week of Angel Rahimi's life. She's meeting her best friend from the internet for the first time, and together they're going to see the boy band they love, the band which gives Angel a reason to wake up every day: The Ark.

Jimmy is the frontman of The Ark, struggling to keeping up the fantasy facade of perfection the band portrays. After all, he knows all too well that the "love" of fans is not real love...

The novel explores themes such as love, devotion, worship, religion, and more through the lens of fandom (a topic which the author understands back to front). I loved that the author made both protagonists religious, as their respective faiths acted as a springboard into comparing the Ark fandom to a religion.

The novel showcases the sheer power of fandom to rouse spirits as well as any religion, as Angel makes clear:
> Please, God, please, I want to believe. I want it to be real more than I want to be alive.

I really liked the entwined protagonists, with their entwined character development. The switching first-person point of view was clear and easy to follow, with each chapter clearly marked with the POV character's name.

Both protagonists are also very likeable, and the opening chapters had me immediately invested in them and wanting them to succeed.

Another thing which the author knocks out of the park is the interpersonal conflict. A few believable and compelling good-vs-good conflicts arise, such as

Angel only caring about the band, vs Juliet actually wanting to get to know Angel and Mac as people. Or Angel's selfless love for Jimmy, only wanting him to be happy, vs Jimmy's cynical belief that no fan could truly love him because they don't know him

I also liked the redemption arc for

Mac. Mac is symbolic of Juliet choosing to love something else, not just the Ark. Ultimately, Angel comes to see that this is actually a healthy and reasonable choice, so it felt appropriate and even necessary that Mac ends up in Angel's good graces

Now, let's talk about the representation! Firstly, a wide range of ethnicities are represented amongst the cast. There are also a number of LGBT+ characters, such as Jimmy (trans and gay); Angel (heavily implied to be asexual); as well as

Bliss (bisexual); and Lister (bisexual)

Now, heaven knows I'm a harsh critic of trans representation in media. But when it comes to Jimmy I have no complaints. Medical details are accurate, minor details are relatable, and it all seems well-researched. Well done! It was also rather cool to see a trans man character who transitioned at a young age (12).

One thing which the novel could have developed further was that

Lister and Rowan treating Jimmy as a fragile and immature "baby" would probably hit Jimmy much harder than they realized, as trans men are often infantilized. This could have led to an interesting conflict with Jimmy saying something like "You think you're being protective of me, but you're really just othering me - I know you wouldn't treat me this way if I was cis"

However, this is a minor suggestion and I thought it was fine as is.

Regarding the realism of life in a band: I don't know if this was truly an accurate depiction or not, but it definitely came off as convincing and maintained my suspension of disbelief that this could be real.

About the ending... I don't love it. I tried rereading the novel in case I'd missed something the first time, but that didn't help. It seemed like some of the final character development comes out of nowhere, specifically the changes of attitude from

Rowan and Lister, who are suddenly not treating Jimmy like a "baby", taking his concerns about the contract seriously, changing their mind and deciding that they don't need to go to America, etc

I also disliked the author's postscript about what happens after the story, i.e.

Jimmy and Lister end up dating eachother?? After everything Lister did??? Also, isn't Lister still an alcoholic????

Even so, I enjoyed the book overall and would definitely recommend it.

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lettuce_read's review against another edition

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robinskye28's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

As much as I love Alice Oseman, this one was not it. Too many plot lines that are all sorta half finished. Very slow paced until the last 100 pages where suddenly everything is happening (very chaotic and hard to follow). Ending seemed rather unexplained? Angel confused me - one minute she is presenting as the very stereotypical fangirl (whole chapter talking about how The Ark is like a "faith" and "despite everything in the world being terrible, we choose to stand by The Ark") but the next she is 'not like the others'. Would have liked more background/info on Juliet and Bliss as well.

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danilo_syrtis's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I've been loving Alice Oseman - I wanted to read more about the other people that Alice has wrote about and this book isn’t connected to the Heartstopper universe at all. So, I was very excited to see what this was about.

This book has two points of view. The first is Angel and her life is about one thing: The Ark. They are a pop-rock trio of teenage boys who are currently taking the world by storm, being a part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything – her friend Juliet, her dreams and her place in the world. The second point of view is Jimmy, and he owes everything to The Ark. He’s their frontman and playing in a band with his best mates is all he has ever dreamed of doing. However, 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.

I adored all these characters in this book, and I wanted to hug every single one of them (and also send every single one of them to therapy, like seriously). I wanted to hug Angel and Jimmy and Juliet and Bliss and everyone. This book has such a strong storyline and managed to break my heart. I was so worried, and I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. This book can describe anyone who has ever created a second account on twitter or Instagram or Pinterest or made edits or whatever regarding a celebrity or a band. Fangirls get so much shit just for being a fangirl and this book can show the highlights of being a fangirl and the downside of being a fangirl and how pressuring it can be to the celebrity that they are fangirling over.

I feel like this book was slow starting due to the excitement of meeting the Ark and then once it’s the day of the concert and after all hell breaks loose. This book can be hard-hitting and there is mention/depictions of suicide, so please check the trigger warnings before reading this book.

I’m really excited to read more of Alice’s work including Loveless, even if that one kills me.

Content Warnings

cookiemic's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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xeniba's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Wow, this book brought up way more than I expected it to. Jimmy’s panic and anxiety was incredibly relatable. Not sure if Alice is planning anything else in this universe, but I’d love to see what happens next for the boys if The Ark.

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emburke's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I still think Loveless is Alice Oseman's best novel thus far, but this one might be a close second. It really digs into the idea of fame and the ways society obsesses over famous people. And mental health and anxiety and all of those thinks you come to expect in an Alice Oseman novel. Of course, we get another group of characters who are wonderfully developed, and thrown into this kind of chaotic situation.

I also appreciated that there's no central romance in this, it's more focused on friendship of the main two characters. They're both trying to figure out their place in the world, and finding each other kind of helps with that. Oseman really just excels at writing those kinds of relationships in her books, and that's what keeps me coming back to them.

Anyway, I can now say that I've read every single one of Alice Oseman's books, so yay! Can't wait for what's to come next.

Content Warnings

good_names_dont_exist's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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