My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman

[description from amazon]

With Roz and Eva everything becomes a contest—who can snag the best role in the school play, have the cutest boyfriend, pull off the craziest prank. Still, they’re as close as sisters can be. Until Eva deletes Roz from her life like so much junk e-mail for no reason that Roz understands. Now Eva hangs out with the annoyingly petite cheerleaders, and Roz fantasizes about slipping bovine growth hormone into their Gatorade.

Roz has a suspicion about Eva. In turn, Eva taunts Roz with a dare, which leads to an act of total insanity. Drama geeks clamor for attention, Shakespearean insults fly, and Roz steals the show in Lauren Bjorkman’s hilarious debut novel.

Review:

My Invented Life was an unexpected treat. Going in to it, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I don't know what I was expecting, but what I got was a crazy, funny, totally awesome book.

Roz is definitely one of the most entertaining characters I've read about this year. She's wild; she's silly; and she can be a little impulsive, which leads to some fun shenanigans. The invented life she creates for herself- which I won't mention here, even though I knew what it was when I started reading and you can probably find out anywhere else- is a ridiculous and over-the-top, but Roz makes it seem realistic, as she is one fabulous actress. She also explains her reasons why she keeps up her invented life well, and the struggles she faces while in her invented life help to show why she keeps it up as well. I wish some of the other characters were explored a tad more, but they were still believable and their troubles seemed real.

The plot did center around Roz's invented life, yes, but there were a lot of topics addressed that are often overlooked in YA. I loved how many of the characters in the book had issues with their sexuality, but the book wasn't all "HEY LOOK OVER HERE I'M GAY AND I HAVE ISSUES!" It was dealt with in depth, but it wasn't over-the-top or in your face.

Wish some of the supporting characters were more developed and the ending a bit less cheesy, but I still loved My Invented Life. It's fun and crazy on the surface, but has a lot of depth to it.

8.5/10

Links: Lauren's site/blog/other blog

Henry Holt/Hardcover/$17.99/Amazon/B&N/Borders/IndieBound