Teen Fiction - Family & Relationships, Teen Fiction - Sexuality

My Invented Life

Name: My Invented Life
Author: Lauren Bjorkman
ISBN: 9780805089509

by Lauren Bjorkman

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Overview

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.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

It's bad enough that Roz's older sister, Eva, dumped her as a best friend; on top of that, Roz is in love with Eva's boyfriend, Bryan. But Roz begins to suspect that perfect “Eva the Diva” might be a lesbian, so she pretends she is a lesbian and reports back to Eva about what it's like to come out, hence Roz's “invented” life. (Roz comes out in response to a dare on Eva's part, though her decision never feels entirely believable. Is this an attempt to get back in her sister's good graces? A snap action born out of anger?) However, what begins as a lie soon turns into a genuinely eye-opening experience. Bjorkman sets her debut amid the high school theater crowd, peppering Roz's internal narration with imagined scenarios and Shakespearean humor, evoking all the drama inherent in putting on a play. Roz's voice is witty and genuine as she moves through the ups and downs of coming out (and eventually coming clean). Evocative of Boy Meets Boy and Dramarama, this makes for fun, thought-provoking reading. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

About the Author, Lauren Bjorkman

LAUREN BJORKMAN grew up on a sailboat, sharing the tiny forecastle with her sister and the sail bags. She now lives in Taos, New Mexico, with her husband and two young sons. This is her first book.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

“Bjorkman sets her debut amid the high school theater crowd, peppering Roz's internal narration with imagined scenarios and Shakespearean humor, evoking all the drama inherent in putting on a play. Roz's voice is witty and genuine as she moves through the ups and downs of coming out (and eventually coming clean). Evocative of Boy Meets Boy and Dramarama, this makes for fun, thought-provoking reading.” —Publishers Weekly

“Narrator Roz is funny, well intentioned, and likable despite her cluelessness, and she is surrounded by a realistic cast of adult and teen characters representing a wide variety of viewpoints and sexual preferences. This is an enjoyable read that will be especially appealing to theater aficionados.”—School Library Journal

“This debut is a supportive, enjoyable read.”—Booklist

Publishers Weekly

VOYA - Jenny Ingram

Roz is a high school junior in her small California town. Her cheerleader sister Eva is a senior and has what Roz wants: more acting talent, a better figure, and the boyfriend Roz likes. The sisters were best friends until Eva recently shut out Roz, who is mystified and hurt by her sister's withdrawal. When Roz finds a lesbian novel hidden in Eva's room, she wonders whether her sister is a lesbian, and in her typical candid manner, confronts Eva. Garnering no information this way, Roz announces that she herself is a lesbian and pokes her nose into the lives of her friends and classmates in an attempt to find out who is gay, leaving a wake of chaos behind her. Roz does discover some interesting things about the people in her community, but she learns to keep her mouth shut. The tone of the book is lighthearted, set by Roz's narration of the story, which is flighty at times. She can be aggravating, and she is painfully real in her emotionally driven quest for information. Along the way, Roz learns about some of the bad things that happened to historical gay figures, giving weight to the book. Her typical high school experiences with teachers, the drama club, and dates will generate appeal for a broad audience. Reviewer: Jenny Ingram

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—Self-proclaimed drama geek Roz Peterson has an active fantasy life, which she often confuses with reality. She thinks that her sister Eva, who is no longer confiding in her, is a lesbian and in love with her friend Carmen. Roz dreams of Eva's boyfriend, Bryan, reciprocating her longtime crush. In an effort to encourage her sister, Roz decides to come out at school and invent a new sexual identity for herself as a lesbian, the only problem being that she is basically heterosexual. The hapless Roz is an exceptionally unreliable narrator who makes clumsy attempts to figure out what is going on with all the other people in her life. All this real-life gender-bending takes place during the drama club's production of As You Like It. This novel is particularly good at evoking teenage confusion about sexual preference and identity, and Bjorkman's depiction of the drama-club crowd is absolutely spot-on, especially the characters' trading of Shakespearean insults online and the practical jokes they play on one another. Narrator Roz is funny, well intentioned, and likable despite her cluelessness, and she is surrounded by a realistic cast of adult and teen characters representing a wide variety of viewpoints and sexual preferences. This is an enjoyable read that will be especially appealing to theater aficionados.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

Kirkus Reviews

A high-school production of As You Like It forms the backdrop for this romantic comedy that echoes the farce of Shakespeare's play in an energetic but ultimately strained tale of two sisters and their friends. When Roz's older sister Eva begins to freeze her out, Roz suspects that it may be because she is trying to conceal her lesbianism from her. For reasons that are never entirely convincing, Roz decides to fake that she herself is gay and "comes out" to people at school, describing her experiences to Eva in a synopsis she terms "The Lesbian Report." Bjorkman's speedy pacing and Roz's frenetic first-person voice may initially draw readers in, but the narrative is occasionally confusing. Witty turns of phrase are plentiful but sometimes fall flat: "After a night of patchy sleep, my eyelids feel as squishy as overripe apricots." Still, the lighthearted treatment of sexuality is intriguing, and this may well find an audience among teen drama geeks with a taste for Shakespearean insults. (Fiction. 13 & up)