Mini Review:
I have had the absolutely pleasure of reading all of Alice’s novels in the space of about 2 weeks and it was a GREAT time. IWBFT was by far my fav. It was the most mature, the most complex and the one I related to most. I adored all the characters, though I had a soft spot for Jimmy. It was great to see so much rep but also so much rep that was done WELL. I was completely grippe from start to finish. I laughed, I cried and at one point I GASPED so loud I made the person next to me jump.

Angel Rahimi’s life revolves around one thing: The Ark. The Ark are a pop-rock trio of teenage boys taking over the world. Angel has not only found friendship through The Ark, she has also found where she belongs in the world and what her dreams are. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci’s life also revolves around The Ark. He is The Ark’s frontman and fulfilling his life goal of being in a world-famous band. The problem is Jimmy’s life has turn into an anxiety riddled nightmare. When Angel and Jimmy unexpectedly meet, they discover what facing reality is like.

I Was Born For This made me so happy! I shed so many happy tears throughout reading it. Alice Oseman knows how to write an incredible novel. This book is out of the world! Can you tell I love this book a lot?

I Was Born For This is a duel-perspective narrative. I was a huge fan of this aspect of the novel as it added so much to the storyline. The diversity in this book is unforgettable. Angel is a Muslim and Jimmy is mixed race, trans and gay. Not only that but the secondary characters are also diverse. Rowan is Nigerian and Lister is bisexual and struggles with alcoholism.

The amount of love I have for the characters in this book is extraordinary. Angel has become a big inspiration for me. She may have been determined to meet The Ark. Although it was her determination in general that inspired me. Jimmy is the character I related to the most. His anxiety and panic attacks were like those that I have. So, I saw a lot of myself in Jimmy’s character in terms of his anxiety problems. I also connected to the secondary characters in I Was Born For This, Rowan, Lister, Juliet and Bliss. Bliss is easily my favourite character in this book, she is sassy, determined and doesn’t stop for anything or anyone. Also, she loves the band All Time Low who are my favourite band.

I Was Born For This lets you take a glance into two versions of the same world. The fandom world and the celebrity world. This part of the storyline was so well written. Alice shows how the different events throughout the book are perceived by members of The Ark fandom and from the perspective of the members of The Ark. Fandoms and friendships are the main focus of I Was Born For This. Romance plays a very little part in the story. All the interactions between the character’s work so well. Alice manages to bring all the characters perfectly despite the weird circumstances.

Alice Oseman is such an amazing writer who I cannot thank enough for this story. Everything is well thought out and there is so much attention to detail. Alice, I need more of these characters, please write a novella, please!

I was part of many fandoms when I was younger and I still am, this book brought me back to my fandom years. I Was Born For This is a letter of love between fandoms, the lovely side of friendships and love and the aggressive side of fandoms, which is trying to understand that celebrities are humans too.

Overall, this is my favourite book of 2018 so far! Alice’s writing is extraordinary and this story is unforgettable. I have already recommended this book to so many people and I will be recommending it for a very long time. I Was Born For This is a five star read I won’t be getting over anytime soon.

Thank you to, Harper Collins Children’s Books, Nina Douglas and Alice Oseman for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found the basic premise of this book highly relatable - two girls who become friends online over a shared love of a band, definitely been there myself. It was this aspect that I was most excited about reading and in many ways it lived up to expectations. It discusses (thanks to the dual perspective of both fan and band member) what both sides think about the other, shipping a romantic pair, dealing with the press and the whole spectrum of what fans can be like. However there's a clear 'life lesson' plot and so character developments were a bit too obvious and predictable. The author once again includes a number of diverse characters (ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender identity are all significant factors to the story), but smaller side-characters sometimes felt a bit two-dimensional. Overall it was a fairly enjoyable read but it's not my favourite of the author's works.

I Was Born For This is another Alice Oseman book that I totally adored. Like Radio Silence, it took me a little while to get into the writing and the story, but once I did I completely fell in love with these characters and their chaotic lives.

Fereshteh 'Angel' Rahimi is obsessed with the teen rock band The Ark. It is what gives her purpose, and she doesn't know how to love anything else. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci is The Ark's frontman. He is living his dream, but his life is changing faster than he can catch up with. Over the course of the novel, the lives of these two characters collide, as they discover more about themselves and what they believe in.

When I first heard that Alice Oseman was writing about a British-Iranian main character I kind of freaked out. Because that's me. I've never actually read a book with an Iranian protagonist before. There are hardly any, and I think I always felt a little scared of seeking them out. But Oseman's books feel safe and relatable to me, and she didn't let me down with Angel. Even though her culture wasn't central to the story, just reading that her real name and seeing the terms of endearment her parents would use for her felt huge to me. Plus having her be a nerd girl was a big deal - because that was me too. I only wish I had this when I was younger, because maybe then I would have realised sooner that my life didn't have to be split into two halves.

I also adored Jimmy. I think that out of the two narrators, he was the one I related to more. I've always been the nerdy fangirl, but never quite to Angel's level (I never got attached to real people, only stories and fictional characters). Although I don't share any of Jimmy's life experiences, his anxiety was very vivid and real. The constant dread of terrible things happening can be felt by anyone, but I never considered it from the perspective of someone so high profile. He's unsociable and has serious issues with trust and self-worth. The ways in which he and Angel parallel each other whilst being so different is brilliant, and I loved discovering the unexpected connections between them.

Oseman manages to capture the intensity of teenage existential dread in every book she writes. These kids are ordinary despite the extraordinary. They drink Capri-Suns and watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine and play Cards Against Humanity and pretend to be drunker than they actually are, and it's these ordinary, messy lives that make me connect to the characters so deeply.

Like with all of Oseman's books, this is a story about friendship and finding your path. It's about figuring out your identity when life seems to be falling apart. But most of all, I Was Born For This is all about having faith and something to believe in, even if that something is yourself.


Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Diversity Note: Angel is Iranian and Muslim. Jimmy is Indian-Italian, trans, gay, and Christian.

Warnings: stalking, transphobia, alcoholism, blood, panic attacks

Alice Oseman's I Was Born for This was one of my most anticipated books of the year – I adored Radio Silence and couldn't wait to see what Alice came up with next.

Continue reading this review over on Pretty Books: https://prettybooks.co.uk/2018/05/06/mini-book-reviews-nevermoor-out-of-the-blue-i-was-born-for-this/

Having absolutely loved both of Alice Oseman‘s previous books, I was both extremely excited and incredibly nervous about I Was Born For This. As per usual, however, Alice has written a strong, addictive and emotional read that I absolutely devoured. I loved every single second I spent reading the words she had written and would recommend this book to everyone I know. It is a character led book – my favourite! – and it really looks into what it is like being a fan but also about being the object of someone’s fandom. Plus she deals with anxiety in such a relatable and sensitive manner too.

This book switches between Angel and Jimmy as they navigate the week before the last gig of The Ark’s world tour. In Angel’s story there are themes of friendship, online relationships, fandom worshipping and trying to know who you are and what you want to do with your life. In Jimmy’s tale, there is friendship again, family, dealing with being famous as a teenager, knowing who and what you are and dealing with the mental health issues of anxiety. There is also an LGBT theme running through the book, especially with Jimmy’s trans life but also with other members of the band as well. It is a book that runs all of these things together smoothly and seamlessly with an incredible plot that will literally keep you turning the page until you have none left.

As this is a character led book, it is absolutely essential that all of the characters in the book are well-developed, unique and meaningful. Fortunately, this is definitely the case in this book. Alice Oseman has created every single in this character to be their own person with distinct personalities that affect their relationships with everyone else. Ultimately my favourite character was Jimmy but I found them all to be similarly entertaining. I thought it was great to see how the friendship between Angel and Juliet progressed, how the friendships between Jimmy, Rowan and Lister began and developed too. There was just so much in this book that I absolutely loved but I don’t want to spoil too much of it so I’m going to stop talking now so you have to read and find out the rest!

Overall, this was a book that I very much loved reading. It involves a very diverse cast of characters, a fascinating plot, and conveys the realness of anxiety and panic attacks really well too. It shows how online friendships can be as real and true as real life friendships and it is just a very modern and entertaining novel that I can not recommend enough. Once again, in my opinion, Alice Oseman has written an absolutely stunning novel that will sit in your mind for days. It twists and turns, pulls on your heart strings and tugs on your emotions throughout. A brilliant YA novel that should be read over and over again.

Took me back to my teenage years when everything your favourite band said and did was of utmost importance to you and your moods could be affected by any suggestion that they had a girlfriend! It's a cautionary tale too, pointing out the dangers of becoming obsessed with one thing and shutting people out and not engaging in real life events. Fame is not all it's cracked up to be either and our idols are struggling with the same things as us, anxiety, first loves, inappropriate crushes etc . The story shows how intense relationships can be built up online but we never really get to the heart of who people are and it's almost impossible in the virtual world to tell if they are lying to us.

After seeing a lot of amazing early reviews and the hype train that has started, I feel like I may have finally succumbed to the horrors of the hype train. I didn't love this book as much as I wanted to. I honestly thought I was going to LOVE this. Music YA. Check. Fandoms. Check. Friendships. Check.

Alas, it just did not work out they I hoped. I didn't love any of the characters in this book. I liked parts of them and I love how diverse the book is as a whole but I just didn't find myself getting along with the characters on their own. There were a fair few supporting characters and maybe they could have been fleshed out a bit better and that would have strengthened the friendship elements of the story maybe?

I found that this didn't help with the speed of the book either, the first half seemed to be very slow in comparison to the second half, which I did enjoy a lot more and pushed the rating up to a 3 star from a 2 star.

I wonder if this is more about me than the book as I couldn't find anything to latch on to nor could I make myself believe this book? In comparison to Radio Silence, I felt the characters had way more depth and were more real. Don't get me wrong, this isn't about the music side of thing, characters meeting their music idols not feeling real, I adore music themed YA for exactly that but it just didn't seem to fit right with me in this one.

Overall I enjoyed this book, it was a good read while I was away in London but it just didn't blow my socks off. 
(review will be live on the blog 24/4/18)

I finished reading this book at about 4am, which (a) shows that I liked it and (b) makes it extremely hard to review, because by the time I had enough brainpower to sit down and write a review... yeah, of course I'd forgotten all the pertinent details. I'll do my best, though.

Like Radio Silence, this had the advantage of feeling authentic. Although Alice Oseman has said on Twitter that she's never met a celebrity she fangirled over, and certainly not in the way that happens in this book, there was still something authentic about her portrayal of fandom. It felt in many ways more respectful than when people write about fandom from outside it, and only show the cringe and obsession rather than the real and genuine feelings. Oseman being young means that she knows how to write teenagers in a way that feels true, and that's what I like most about her work.

This also for me felt a lot closer to Radio Silence than to Solitaire in terms of tone, which is good, because I really wasn't a fan of the latter. (A surprise, since I loved Radio Silence; if your opinion on those two books is the reverse of mine, I don't know whether this will be a good book for you or a bad one.) Arguably it had more plot -- it was certainly on a larger scale. Jimmy's fame meant that it played out on a larger stage than just personal drama, which made the stakes feel higher.

I liked that it had trans representation but it wasn't a story ABOUT being trans. Even though it was an important part of Jimmy's life, Oseman didn't dwell on it or fetishize it, despite also making a point not to understate how it affected his experiences of fame. Similarly, Angel is Muslim, but her story isn't *about* being Muslim, even if it's a major part of her life. Both of these felt like a respectful way for a cis, non-Muslim author to approach the subject, and showed that representation can be done without being appropriative. Cis writers can and absolutely should write trans characters, but not stories ABOUT being trans, and I felt Oseman balanced that one really well.

(She thanks a few people in the acknowledgements who I imagine had something to do with this portrayal, too, so shoutout to them.)

There's no romance, which is great. Angel says she'd potentially be interested in girls but doesn't know how she identifies because she's never really crushed on anyone, which is a #bigmood, and I liked that this turned the trope of "megafan meets hero" on its head somewhat -- because you definitely might have expected a romance, but there isn't one. It's about friendship. It's also got a really important and sensitive portrayal of anxiety, which was important to me.

This book deserves a better and more detailed review than this, really, but I'd have to reread it to do that because I made the mistake of reading it in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. As and when I get the chance to do that, I'll try and write a better review for my blog. In the meantime, this one appears on Goodreads.

Well. This book. What can I say?

As I am writing this, I am still in a book hangover from I Was Born For This and I feel like my Twitter has been spammed with how much I love this book!

I Was Born For This is a dual narrative YA novel from the perspective of a fangirl, Angel, and a musician, Jimmy. This book brought back so many memories of my days as an All Time Low Hustler (although I did still squee when I saw an ATL reference in the book...) and was such a nostalgic read for me! So many teenagers and young adults will completely understand the fandom of The Ark and be able to relate in some way to Angel and her infatuation with Jimmy and the rest of the band - we all probably had something or someone we were passionate about growing up.

Another thing that I really loved is how diverse the characters throughout the book are but how they're not defined by their race, gender, religion or health - which is how it should be! That's part of what made this book so brilliant; it effortlessly ticks all the boxes without shoving it in your face which I find can sometimes happen in YA. It's also got older teen characters which I haven't come across too much and, as an older reader, I really enjoyed.

I can't wait for more people to read this book and fangirl over it with me! It shows the importance of believing in yourself and is one you won't be able to put down.

I Was Born For This is, in many ways, absorbing, dynamic and nuanced.

Angel is a devoted fan of The Ark. She’s the conspiracy theorist to her friend and fellow fan Juliet’s cutting romantic, though they both spend hours hypothesising and shipping ‘their’ boys: handsome Lister, lyricist Rowan, and lead singer Jimmy Kaga-Ricci. Jimmy is Angel’s favourite – charismatic, elfin, perfect. In less than a week, she’ll be going to their meet-and-greet and seeing them perform live, and then she’ll be happy. Won’t she?

Unbeknownst to Angel, the band’s skyrocketing public fame is overlapping with a downward personal spiral. Jimmy feels surrounded by grabbing hands and unseen dangers. Rowan’s relationship with his girlfriend, who he’s had to keep secret from the press, is suffering. Lister’s drinking is becoming a problem. Their manager wants them to a sign a new contract so they can break America, and that means hitting the road for years. This is all Jimmy’s ever wanted. Isn’t it?

Oseman nails her hook in I Was Born For This. Fuelled by Angel and Jimmy’s distinct alternate narration and plenty of interwoven, character-focused subplots, it makes for compelling contemporary. The short timeframe is intense and chaotic, but it is mostly engaging and readable - the book gets you on side and I read it in one sitting. By turns glitzy and serious, Oseman’s straightforward prose takes a sharp, unromanticised look at boyband culture, wealth and fame. Angel and Jimmy are two of the more likeable characters in a flawed, imperfect cast, which includes multiple LGBTQ+ characters. The best - certainly the most well-rounded - character was sweary, ambitious, vibrant Bliss, though Jimmy’s kind-hearted grandfather Piero should get a nod too.

I Was Born For This is an unexpectedly thematic book. It explores modern fandom, the perils of idealisation, and what happens when obsession blinds people to their own potential. Sometimes it’s subtle as a spider’s web and sometimes it’s about as subtle as being hit over the head with a frying pan, but both are, to be fair, effective in their own way. I was particularly surprised by the prominence of different faiths and prayer. There’s a Joan of Arc motif (taken a bit out of context, but still) and an attempt to explore fandom as a kind of substitute for or relative of religion. There’s only one minor romance in the book, but I actually didn’t notice until I’d finished, as Oseman finds plenty to mine from friendships and family relationships.

Admittedly, there are too many rhetorical questions in the latter half where an author could be attempting to provide answers, and for a book all about bands and music, we hear more about The Ark’s fame than the music behind it. Some major incidents happen and are then never explored again, probably due to a constrained timeline. Even when highlighting fandom’s positive effects, on balance the book is still ultimately fan-negative. The dialogue is stylised and, along with the many social media references, will mean the book will date quickly. Its confused closing stages see characters kept in close proximity for inexplicable reasons. However, I can see what Oseman was trying to do, and if you’re looking for boyband lit that keeps you reading while getting its thinking cap on, this may be the book for you.

An expanded version of this review will appear on my blog closer to publication.

Reviewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gb5WBi32Mxs

Wow! I must admit that I've never read a book this complex connected with the topic of fandom and boy bands. The novel shows both sides of a boy band existence - glamour and anxiety, but it also gives a lot of information about fandom - how different fans can be, and how crazy they are for their favourite band - they could sacrifice their own life for band members whom they have never met. It explains the whole fenomena of being a fan. With flesh and bone characters and gripping plot the book is a perfect reading material for all fans or fans to be! The book is the masterpiece of its kind!

Angel Rahimi is in for the best week of her life. She's going to meet her internet friend Juliet, stay with her in London for the week, and finally see the Ark. The Ark are her favourite band in the world, in fact, favourite is probably an understatement; the Ark and their fandom are her entire world.

Jimmy Kaga-Ricci is one third of the Ark, but he's got far more going on than the fans know. His anxiety is getting harder to control, and his thoughts are spiralling.

When they meet by chance- and not in any way Angel had ever imagined- they both have to deal with reality crashing down around them.

If I'm reading a book which I know I'm going to write a blog post for, I keep notes on my phone so that I remember important thoughts and details. I meant to write notes on this book as I read it, but I was too busy devouring it to do anything other than write one thing in the note I had created for this book:

"TRANS ICON KIMMY KAGA-RICCI"

That's probably all the thoughts you need to know about this book, thank you for coming, bye.

Plot

Okay, I'm kidding, there's a rest of this post (if I let it get away from me there would probably a thousand more words in this post than there are, but, for the sake of restraint). Plot-wise, I went in expecting the sweet nourishment of boyband lit, and came out of this book in heart-rending pain. You think you know what you're going to get with boyband lit, but subtract the usual romance, and add in some real-world knowledge about how fandoms really work, and you'd be a few steps closer to what this book really is. Most importantly, these boys aren't One Direction, nor are they Hanson, Take That, or any other boyband you care to mention. They are their own people, and it's a credit to Oseman's writing that you come to care about them all so quickly.

Characters

I want to call the Ark my sons, but also this book made me feel weird about calling any famous people I don't know my son, let alone members of a fictional boyband. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci not only has an excellent surname, but is a realistic portrait of anxiety.

I have never been as consumed by anything as Angel is by the Ark's fandom, but it's a very grace of God situation. This is a great look at the coming of age story through the perspective of fandom, and Alice Oseman really knows and understands what she's writing about.

This book brings a thoughtful dimension to a usually light-hearted genre, and if you've ever been in any fandom it will strike home.

I picked up this book without really knowing what it was about - I loved Radio Silence so much that I would probably read Alice Oseman’s shopping lists. This book is so different and yet so similar in theme to Radio Silence - if you haven’t picked up any of Alice’s books yet, you should. She is one of the few (if not the only) authors talking about teenage fandoms, internet culture, Tumblr, and the soul-crushing and dream-destroying expectations put on teenagers today.

I devoured I Was Born For This in an evening (something I almost never do). The story is told through dual perspectives. Angel Rahimi is a hijabi travelling to London to meet her best ever internet friend for the first time, so that they can both see their favourite band, The Ark. Jimmy Kawa-Ricci is the transgender frontman of The Ark, struggling with anxiety and debating whether to continue with the band. The book takes place over one week in their lives, where they are thrust together in unexpected circumstances.

This is UKYA at its best - distinctly British characters who are both relatable and realistic, dealing with issues such as anxiety, making friends over the internet, being part of a fandom (or being the subject of many fans), and the pressure to succeed. It’s not often you come across these issues, even in teenage fiction - and the diversity of characters in this book didn’t feel forced or tokenistic.
Each character’s voice was distinct, and I was rooting for both of these characters throughout the book.

A unique and incredibly readable read, and one that should be on your pre-order list as it is essential UKYA fiction. If you haven’t checked out Alice’s other books, now is the time.

Gosh I love the feeling after reading a book by Alice Oseman.

Actually, it's a mixture of love and hate. I love the way she makes me feel things. I end up falling in love with all the characters (maybe bar a few) and simultaneously want to adopt them and protect them from the world. But sometimes, I'm angry, because Oseman's novels can be so relatable that I can see myself in the characters or the story, so I get sad that she's made me self-reflect like that when I was PERFECTLY FINE ignoring my problems thank you very much!

Boy band lit is something I very rarely read, however it's something I love to write about and have had minor success with when it comes to posting stories online (fanfiction excluded!). Usually when I find a boy band lit plot, it's something that I'm just not interested in; it's about a member of a boy band falling in love with the teenage female protagonist and all other variants of that plotline. While I think boy band lit is something I would definitely enjoy, there's just not enough diversity in the genre. But HEY, THANK GOD ALICE OSEMAN WROTE ONE.

I loved I Was Born For This, and while I felt a little less dread and hopelessness after it, unlike after reading Radio Silence and Solitaire, I still felt that overwhelming you get after reading an Alice Oseman book, which is NOTHING IS REAL ART IS LIE HERE'S ALL OF THESE FEELINGS.

Fan culture and obsession over boy bands/celebrities is something I've been interested in for a long time. I've written essays about it, discussed it in my own stories, and love reading other people's perspectives on it. I remember when that documentary about the fans of One Direction came out on Channel 4 years ago and how it divided the public, even the fans. I think fan culture is such a large part of our lives that it's strange that there aren't that many published novels on the topic, or even articles that aren't degrading and downright rude.

But let's get back to I Was Born For This.

Angel is a wonderful character. Despite not being a teenager anymore (and getting to the point where I'm not In The Know about how teens speak/act), Angel felt like such a realistic British teen, and that's what Oseman is so great at writing. It's authentic, it comes from experience. She has worries and fears that aren't uncommon but are often overlooked in contemporary YA, or may not even be relatable when it comes to USYA. I loved Jimmy too, and found myself shouting 'me too!' when his anxiety about the small things overpowered him so much that he didn't feel safe outside of his own home and sometimes even inside it (very me). Oseman's stories are always very character driven and I loved that each character in I Was Born For This felt like a living, breathing person who felt so real that if I stopped reading and googled them, there they'd be.

And to be honest, I'm kinda sad that the band The Ark don't exist. I would stan hard - but not too hard that I invade privacy or ship them. Help I just wanna be a good fan!

A fantastic look at fame, fandom and friendship. I love that the fandom isn't just about the band, it's also about supporting each other without judgment. It also points out the difficulty in translating internet friends to real life friends...I went through that a few years ago and it is strange!

I liked the characters, and felt very sorry for Jimmy. I don't think I'd deal too well with that kind of fame, either. I'm glad things seemed to be looking up for him and for everyone by the end. I'd love a follow up to see what happens to them all down the road.

Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

I've been following Alice's career (and Tumblr!) since late 2015 and I've found during that time that, not only is she a lovely human being, but her books just keep getting better and better! <i>I Was Born For This</i> has that signature Oseman writing style that manages to capture an authentic teenage voice in a refreshingly unique way. Alice's style grows with her books, and with us, and I can hear her characters' voices as clearly as if they were my own friends talking to me at college.

When I first heard that IWBFT (forever titled 'book 3' in my heart) was tackling 'band fandom', I was excited because of how under-explored that theme is. Usually the furthest we get is a mention of 'fangirling', but having 'fandom' as a whole explored in depth is rarely done, and I knew that if anybody could do it and do it well, it was Alice- I wasn't disappointed! I especially appreciated the relation between fandom and (heavily implied) mental health issues; we hyperfixate on things like bands, books, tv shows because they let us escape from our negative thoughts and feelings, and Angel's relationship with The Ark's fandom really shows that.

The book takes place over a week, and it definitely reads as fast paced- no spoilers but during the ending I literally couldn't stop reading because I was that anxious about what was happening. My favourite aspect of IWBFT, my favourite aspect of all of Alice's books, was the depth of her characters who I unsurprisingly love with all my heart. The characters are lovable, and funny, and above all, humanly flawed. Alice has a way of writing personal relationships that make them so real, and I can't help but have emotionally charged reactions to them.

I could sit here and type an essay about all of the different relationships in the book because I love them all but instead I'll focus on (for me anyway) the two most important: the quiet understanding between Angel and Jimmy, and Rowan, Jimmy and Lister. There's an unspoken connection between Angel and Jimmy, and a certain calmness to them together that I can only really describe as comforting. <spoiler>The scene where Angel helps Jimmy calm down from his panic attack in the bathroom was really profound for me- also it mirrored Rowan doing the same earlier in the book and I'm about to gush about them so I'll stop but YEAH.</spoiler> Then the boys. The love they all have for each other is so pure and whole, and the gentleness in the way they interact - soft touches, gentle words - just makes me feel so warm inside. Reminds me of my own best friend and I am definitely here for this deconstruction of toxic masculinity.

I could say a lot more and who knows, I might actually right an essay length commentary closer to the release date, but for now I'll leave it at this; <i>I Was Born For This</i> has everything we've all grown to love about Alice Oseman's work -naturally diverse, uniquely quirky, authentic relationships - but it's also completely its own work. Refreshing and wonderful and I already want to read it again, so if you haven't already added it to your list you should definitely keep an eye out when it's released on May 3rd.

Alice Oseman gets better with every novel she writes, and that's an indisputable fact. I WAS BORN FOR THIS is the story of Angel - megafan of The Ark, and in particular, of Jimmy, the sweet, compelling heart of the band. She's all set for a week in London with Juliet - the best friend she's about the meet offline for the first time - culminating in them meeting the band before a huge concert at the O2. Meanwhile Jimmy is trying his best to hold it together, as anxiety threatens to destroy him. Life in a world-famous band isn't all it's cracked up to be, and both Angel and Jimmy are about to find that out the hard way.

Once again, Alice has taken themes that other authors might easily, accidentally butcher, and treated them with care, respect and love. Fandom, mental health, friendship, sexuality, gender - all feature in the most delicate, realistic ways. Nothing is heavily handled. At no point is it preachy. It doesn't deal in Life Lessons, and the broad spectrum of characters never feels like lip-service. In less capable hands it could easily have become 'after school special'. But it never comes close to that. So what you end up with is an on-the-nail story about a boy and girl on seemingly very different paths, gently hurtling towards each other, and disaster. Supported by a colourful cast of bandmates, industry professionals, journalists, parents, grandparents and of course, superfans, it's a beautiful, heartbreaking look at how things aren't always what they seem.

I hope in future schools have Alice's books on the GCSE curriculum. Actually, they should have her now