Reviews with content warning for Medical content - I Was Born for This

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.

Content Warnings

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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ross_emm's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

I liked the plot/setup of this book, the characters are what threw me off a little. They feel very wattpad esque and gives me y/n fanfic vibes, but i still had a good time reading it. Definitely gave me some second hand embarrassment .. repeatedly

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cdoubet's review against another edition

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emotional fast-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

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frey's review against another edition

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emotional sad

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

3.25

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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny reflective slow-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

3.0

Like other Oseman books, I didn't love this but I also didn't dislike it. It was entertaining, but felt like a self-insertion fanfiction by and about fans obsessed over a boy band. The characters are all fun and the problems they navigate werr intriguing enough to keep me reading to the end.

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teslis's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! Go read it right now!! <3

Now I've read all the four big books by Alice Oseman and this one is absolutly my favorite one out of them.

In this book we get to follow Angel who is a big fan of the most popular boyband at the time: "The Arc". She is truly one of my favorite character in this book, along with the whole band. Angel feels like a real person with what she say and do. I can totally see us as friends.

The part I really enjoyed with this book, was that we also get to follow Jimmy who is one of the members in "The Arc". He struggles with allot of anxiety both personally, but also from being in the band. To follow his bandmates thinking and doing was a big highlight of this book.

I really felt like Angel allot of time while listening to the audiobook. I think we have allot of similarities, example of that being to have dedicated allot (if not all) of my teenage years to fan-girling over different bands (and fictional characters). Listening to allot of things that she and her friends talked about was something that brought back memories.

I loved to see the differences of the same thing from the two perspectives. That is truly what I liked the most about this book. Some dual p.o.v. can be messy, and hard to understand, but Oseman know how and when to switch and what to keep and what to not. So to live thru Angel as a fan, but also to see Jimmy's point of view as someone in the spotlight was what I loved. To be reminded of the good parts that allot of famous people experience, but most importantly all the bad things that a fan don't see.

I would like all people to read this book, I loved it (!!), but especially all the fans of bands and other real and famous people to see what can be going on behind the cameras. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and it's important to understand that.

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