A review by tinamayreads
Tell Me I'm an Artist, by Chelsea Martin

5.0

I loved this book! TELL ME I’M AN ARTIST by Chelsea Martin is an amazing novel! It’s about Joey, who’s trying to navigate her new life at a San Francisco art school. In her film class she’s assigned to make a self-portrait and decides to remake the movie Rushmore despite never seeing the movie. I loved the art school setting as Joey has to give and receive critiques on her work, try to find a job and balance school work with friendships. While she procrastinates making her film project the anxious feeling of whether she’ll finish it on time is palpable. I loved the writing style which includes little snippets of diary like entries and the first person narration worked perfectly to get into Joey’s headspace. This is a fabulous coming of age story of a creative mind. I found it extremely relatable as Joey tries to make sense of Rushmore since I’ve never seen the movie either. There were some really witty and funny parts in this book and it made me reminisce on my time in art classes. I rarely stay up late to finish a book but I did with this one! I loved it from start to finish! It’s five stars for me!
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Thank you to Soft Skull Press for my advance reading copy!