While I suspect some of the humour either went over or under my head (it’s been a while since my high school days), and I have a few issues with the basic premise, My Invented Life was still a fun, crazy read.
There’s a bit more to their relationship that drives the story, but things really begin when Roz becomes convinced her sister is a closet lesbian, having foun a suspicious book in Eva’s room. When Eva denies being a lesbian, Roz pretends to come out of the closet herself, all in an effort to convince her sister that it’s okay to be a lesbian . . . so she’ll dump her boyfriend, and leave Roz to swoop in to catch him on the rebound.
While it’s handled respectfully, and is ultimately supportive, the very idea of the fake-lesbian storyline bothered me. It just doesn’t seem like something I could imagine a teenager really doing, no matter how much more accepting her peers might be than when I was in school. Of course, humour is most often borne out of absurdity, so I forced myself to just go with the flow . . . and actually enjoyed it.
Besides, there are more than enough LGBT supporting characters in the book to provide a welcome balance. After all, this is a story built around a drama club . . . not that I’m trying to stereotype anyone. (grin)
Roz is such a drama queen, with her Shakespearean insults and odd habit of rehearsing conversations (a quirk I share), it was hard not to like her. She’s ridiculously boy-crazy, going to extreme lengths to get her man, and crazily competitive as a sister, but she’s also a good person, at heart. In the end, once the challenge has gone too far, all she wants is to have her best-friend back in Eva.
Eva I found much harder to like, especially since she seemed to spend much of the novel sulking. It would have been a very different novel had she been allowed to take the lead, but as curious as I am how things would have looked through her eyes, it would have robbed us much of the fun.
Overall, a good book (even if it’s not one I would normally seek out to read), and one that kept me smiling, even as I shook my head in wonder.
♥
Love your honesty. Not my cup of tea. I think I would feel the same as you. I feel like you explain your reasons very well. It was a very helpful review.
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