Let me have my fantasy...

When Celeste moves from Montreal to Montana, she doesn't fit in to the close-knit town of Kray. She quickly befriends Vivvy Kray, another social outcast, despite descending from the founding family of Kray. The girls begin writing fanfic-esque stories about their classmates, the dreamboat Joss and the brooding stoner Seth. Their stories go from sexy fantasies to a nightmare when Vivvy keeps pushing Celeste to make them come true. In an attempt to make their work a reality, things heat up between Celeste and Joss. When Joss is found dead the next day, a murder investigation is opened in the small town. There is a black hole in Celeste's memory of that night, and even Vivvy thinks it could have been her who killed Joss. By doing some sleuthing of her own, Celeste discovers that Joss, along with the rest of the town, had some dark secrets to hide. Will revealing the secrets reveal the killer?
I devoured this story, only putting it down when I absolutely had to. I loved the way everything was described in this novel, from the town, to the people, and everything in between. I liked the snippets of Celeste's past that were sprinkled here and there, and I felt so sad and angry about everything she went through. This story went back and forth between before the murder and after, and I loved the gradual build to what really happened that night. I highly recommend this dark YA thriller to anyone looking for a compelling read!

Please note that this book can be triggering for survivors of sexual abuse.

I was pleasantly surprised by how instantly I was hooked into this and I could barely put it down. Needless to say, I read this within a few hours. I needed to know what was going on and what was going to happen.

I have to admit when I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to read the book because one of the main characters Celeste is moving to Montana from Montreal. I mean how could I pass this up. Although sadly there really isn’t much about the city a few places I know and have visited were mentioned.

The book is told in a dual timeline that is between now ( November 16th) and then (August 29th). It’s told in alternating chapters. This was done so beautifully and it worked for the storyline.

The storyline follows five characters throughout the book, Celeste (who has just moved from Montreal to Montana), Vivvy, Seth, Joss, and Bram (Vivvy’s brother).

The book opens up with Celeste, Vivvy, Seth, and Joss playing a game of spin the bottle and drinking in a cave. Celeste is not only drunk but has blacked out and can’t recall what happened apart from making out with Joss. She wakes up the next morning on a park bench. As Celeste is waiting to hear from Joss she soon finds out he is dead. She begins to question herself thinking that perhaps she did it. As the story progresses we see Celeste is trying to figure it all out. She would rather figure it out before the police come knocking on her door especially if she is behind it.

As the story progresses not only is everyone acting weird and suspicious but everyone has a different event of what happens. You also soon realize that this little town has a lot of deep dark secrets that they would like to remain secrets but will Joss’s death bring them to light?

I think I have only one critique about the book and that is I wish there was more of a backstory on Celeste. With all that, she went through I was curious to know what happened, in the end, to make her leave Montreal with her father.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the book and I loved trying to figure it out, to be honest, I was back and forth the entire book, although I did have my suspicions about one of them because as I was nearing the end I was thinking it was making sense but I was completely wrong. I love reading these kinds of books because they have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I love books that make you think and this certainly did that.

We Made It All Up by Margot Harrison is a chilling look into how people can confuse fantasy with reality and how trauma shapes who they become. The story follow new friends Celeste and VIvvy as they begin writing a steamy fanfic about the local jock and outcast. As the fanfic progresses it gets more and more unsettling and begins to drive a wedge between the girls. Soon everyone has secrets and someone ends up dead. This book was very unsettling, but in a good way. It showcased the way small town secrets can hurt many people and end up affecting their lives down the road. I couldn't put it down and the ending blew me away.

We Made It All Up is an explosive, page-turning novel! It’s incredibly intense and dark! Maybe a little too dark for young readers? This Upper YA Thiller is so twisted!

So, please don’t get it twisted when I say that I had a difficult time falling into the flow of this book. The story is structured in such a way that slowly builds to gain and to hold the reader’s attention.

Initially, the book was difficult for me to latch onto. But only in the beginning. The story is told from one perspective, but every other chapter is a flashback. Once I got into the rhythm of the structure, I didn’t put the book down until the last page. Our main character can’t remember the past few hours of her life and Celeste’s missing memories may hold the key to finding a murderer.

For me, the downside to this book is that I figured out who the murderer was very quickly.

Thank you to Netgalley, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and TBR Tours and Beyond for the opportunity to review this amazing young adult novel.

Thanks to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley to read and review.

CWs: violence, death, stalking, student/teacher relationship, SA (no details), talk about abusive relationships and being a victim, blackmail, hazing

3.75 stars

This was an interesting book. It’s told in two timelines, Then and Now. The Now timeline is a pretty straightforward mystery where Celeste (our narrator) has a blank in her memory and she might be the last person to see Joss alive. I found it compelling and interesting. I didn’t want to put the book down, and I had to get answers about what had happened to Joss. I liked Celeste’s character in this timeline of the story, and I liked watching her investigate the secrets of this small town and the other characters around her.
The Then timeline was a bit weird for me. The whole idea of Celeste and Vivvy writing fan fictions about two of their classmates, Seth and Joss, was off-putting. It just felt creepy, and I got an overall bad vibe from Vivvy’s character. While I wasn’t as in to this timeline, I still found it moved pretty quickly and I was still interested in the story. I did like that Celeste was able to use the storytelling as an outlet for her own trauma, but it was still weird and I couldn’t get behind these fantasies they created.
I wish that we’d gotten more concrete answers about what exactly had happened to Celeste in Montreal, and I would have liked to see her going to therapy or doing something to learn how to cope with her trauma instead of having it all bottled up and not telling everyone.
Overall it was a decent mystery with a compelling writing style and a fast pace. The characters were interesting, and I read this one in a couple of hours.

This book gave me strong Karen M. McManus vibes. It was beautifully twisty, and the use of fan fiction was super interesting.

I was able to guess the ending about halfway through but that still didn't take away from the journey of getting there. Overall enjoyable and would recommend to fans of YA mystery.

I love a good YA thriller, and I was intrigued by the summary of We Made It All Up, so I was excited to take part in this tour. This is my first book by Margot Harrison, but I’m definitely going to look at her backlist books now, too!

This book had a definite creepy, gothic vibe to it -- small town, creepy old house, and rich orphan twins whose family founded and named the town -- which is something I definitely liked about it. As with any mystery/thriller, it’s hard to review this book without giving anything away, but I will say that I really appreciated the storytelling method. It was told in alternating “then” and “now” chapters, of which I’m a big fan (the book I’m currently reading has the same setup!). In my opinion, it’s the perfect method for this story; since Celeste can’t remember anything past a certain point from the night Joss was murdered, we are discovering right along with her what happened that night and at the same time learning about how she first met Vivy, Sean, Bram, and Joss when she moved to the town a few months prior. It’s a great way to let the story play out and the facts trickle out. I will say the ending didn’t play out quite as I had guessed, and since I read so many thrillers, I always appreciate when an author can surprise me!

I really enjoyed this solid YA thriller with a creepy gothic vibe, and you shouldn’t hesitate to pick it up!

Rating: 4 stars!

**Disclosure: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

At several points this year have I pondered a perennial question, which many millennials will likely be familiar with: Am I too old for YA? Here is the thing: I love YA fantasy, but I am seriously beginning to question if I have reached my tolerance for rom-com, thriller-hype, coming-of-age stories. We Made it All Up had me asking this question many, many times.

We Made it All Up is a thriller-ish story of what can happen in small towns when groups of teens grow up together. It shares the anxiety of joining a new school, escaping past trauma, and finding friendships and first loves. However, it never really delivers on any of those promises fully.

As we are introduced to our narrator, Celeste, we also come to learn that she struggles to trust because of past trauma inflicted by an unknown, most often under-described person. On her first day at her new school, Celeste meets Vivvy, a social pariah whose family founded the small Montana town of Kray’s Defile. As Vivvy and Celeste become friends they also begin writing a queer love story between the most popular boy in school and the school stoner. Here is already where I began to wonder if I’d finish this novel. I texted a friend asking, “Would anyone actually do this?” For, as much as I fantasized about popular boys in high school, I never committed these fantasies to the page, much less shared those fantasies with my friends. Even by the last chapter, I was never rooting for any of the characters.

I rarely write negative reviews of books because truly I am in awe of the talent and stamina it takes to create a story, pour your heart into writing it, and then seek publication. Truly, I am in desperate and eternal admiration. And I am hesitant to write anything too negative about We Made it All Up. When I began completing not finishing the book, I did what I always do: I turned to Good Reads. The reviews on Good Reads are truly impressive, with high praise and recurrent five-star ratings. So, this leads me to believe that my dislike for this book isn’t the book’s problem, and certainly not the author’s issue: it’s fully on me. As I navigate the world of being in my 30’s little of the content rings true for me. In fact, throughout We Made it All Up, I found myself rooting for Celeste’s dad, a scholar and researcher studying bats. Yes, I became that person.

Without revealing too much of the books’ plot, that is my review. Should you read this? It depends! Are you a jaded 30-year-old? Maybe not! But, if I was 15 years old again, suffering through high school drivel and social anxiety, maybe I would have devoured this book in two days. Who knows! What I do briefly want to share, before this review wraps up is that this book contains some serious trigger warnings

This book deals with themes of:

Sexual assault on minors
Child pornography
Incest
Stalking
Self-hatred and self-harm

DNF @32%

Content Warning: Mentions of past Sexual Assault, Talk of Homophobia (no slurs), Stalking, Slut Shaming

Overall this just wasn't for me and I am not sure if it was my mood or if the content just didn't do it for me.

An interesting told-in-two timelines story, with relatable characters and a have-you-guessing twistiness.

The whole idea of Celeste and Vivvy writing fan fiction about two of their classmates, Seth and Joss, was unique.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: We Made It All Up

Author: Margot Harrison

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Diversity: m/m romance… kinda?

Recommended For...: young adult readers, thriller, mystery, murder mystery

Publication Date: July 12, 2022

Genre: YA Thriller Mystery

Age Relevance: 16+ (romance, cursing, abelism, underage alcohol consumption, sexual content, bullying, death, parental death, child abuse, child sexual abuse, gore, fetishization, homophobia, suicide, sexual assault)

Explanation of Above: There is some romance in the book. There is a lot of cursing and some mentions and showings of underage alcohol consumption. There is some slight abelism mentioned, child abuse mentioned vaguely, child sexual assault mentioned vaguely, slight homophobia, and one mention of suicide. There is a very brief scene of sexual assault mentioned. There is some bullying shown in the book and death and parental death are mentioned. There is some blood gore shown in the book. Finally, there is a LOT of fanfic about these two boys and it leans into fetishization of the characters as them being in a gay relationship with each other but with the MC and another girl constantly wanting them to get together/seeing them as a sexual object/using their stories about them to write about their own personal trauma and personifying it onto them.

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 370

Synopsis: Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.

Celeste doesn’t remember the end of that night and can’t be sure she didn’t deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn’t as innocent as it appears.

Review: This was an ok but strange book. For the most part I thought the book had an ok plot line and the story would have been great if a few things had changed in my opinion. I liked the creepy atmosphere of the book and I thought that the book did well to show how obsession can lead to some bad things.

However, this book was an absolute train wreck. The book is told in this back and forth style and it gets so confusing so quickly. It would have been better if a few chapters were in the past then one or two in the future, but constantly switching was awful. The book is also really hard to get into, but it’s also really hard to get back into. I left the book for a couple of days and when I came back, I couldn’t figure out what was going on for the life of me. The story didn’t stick with me and even with all of my notes I was completely at a loss as to what was happening and who people were. It’s an easily forgettable book in that regard. The book also made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t like the fetishization culture that was happening in the book and the book didn’t really resolve that issue in my opinion. The way the MC was writing about these two boys and then fetishizing them in public was awful and for it to be unresolved really made me not like the author. There’s a huge problem with fetishization in the book community and I just think that it could have been better done as a cautionary tale.

Verdict: Overall, I didn’t like it. I think that there are some salvageable aspects and this book could be something great, but it was not put together in my arc so I don’t have hope for it in the final version. It’s definitely not for me, but it could be for you!

We Made It All Up by Margot Harrison
🍾🍾🍾🍾/5 Four outta 5 spinning bottles

Oh come on, we all played spin the bottle back in the day.

Right?

This book was a trip and I'm not sure why but I seem to accidentally be picking books with a cave themes lately. This one is no exception. 🤔

A girl from Canada moves to Montana after a "traumatic event." The story starts with partying in the woods and a game of spin the bottle in her new town. Playing with the popular boy and wondering how she got so dang lucky, basically. Oops, popular boy dies and she has no idea what happened.

From there the book flows with a then-and-now storyline. The back and forth is expertly done with tiny bits of new info being fed to us either thru flashbacks or fanfic the characters were writing.

I enjoyed it, honestly. For the first time in a long time I was wrong about the "bad guy."

I think.

The book left me guessing and kinda playing with the conclusion, trying to make pieces fit or complete a web not quite fully woven. I love that! I love being surprised or left thinking.

I did feel like the book had a slow start with me almost making me wanna hit fast forward to get more info. About half thru I didn't wanna put it down, though. 🙃

Recommend this book for thriller/mystery fans.

Triggers: blackouts, alcohol, drugs, assault, death, loss. PTSD, anxiety, self-harm. Sexual assault & homophobia. None overly graphic but could affect some readers.

Review: I was drawn into this book from the very start. I couldn’t wait to read it do learn about Celeste and her attempts to fit in after moving to a new small town. She seems so small, and so sad, and you just know something bad has happened to her. I wanted so badly for Celeste to have someone on her side, soon cheering for her instead of a judging mother and an absent father. As things start to happen, I just wanted to yell to her to be careful, and think about what she was doing. I loved the twists in this book, and didn’t guess the who-done-it until the very end. I will definitely be reading more by Margot Harrison!

Favorite Quotes: “Sometimes where you are is just a step on the way to somewhere else…”
“My feelings tended to make themselves known by wrapping around my neck like pythons, never announcing their names.”
“Joss whistles behind the cedars, and his whistle splits the fabric of the world, fire and trees and sky. It splits me into two people, now and then. Before, I was watching; now I’m part of the story.”
“Grandstanding, eccentric people make it easy to be invisible; they suck up all the attention.”

I was drawn to We Made It All Up as soon as I saw that cover. Then I read that it was a YA thriller about small town secrets and murder and knew I had to jump on the blog tour. This book explores Celeste as she moves from Canada to a quiet town in Montana and falls in with a girl who is descended from the town's founders. Their bond is threatened by their mutual fascination with the town golden boy, Joss, which leads to a night of drinking and Joss ending up dead. Celeste struggles to piece together her lost memories of that night and begins to wonder if she is actually the killer.

I enjoyed this book a lot, probably a lot more then I maybe thought I would. YA thrillers can often teeter on the edge of being too unrealistic and overly dramatic but the author manages to perfectly balance that line of teenage drama and murder.

The plot itself is probably my favourite aspect of the book. I loved this exploration of small town boredom, private traditions and teenage obsession. This book isn't afraid to go to some dark, uncomfortable places which sets it apart from a lot of similar books in YA. It sometimes felt like a plot in an adult thriller but is well adapted for a teen audience. It does contain scenes that allude to sexual abuse and self-harm so something to be aware of.

I really liked the character of Celeste and her determination to discover her role in the death. Her friendship with Vivvy felt credible, these two outsiders who bonded over a mutual crush and spinning stories. I particularly enjoyed the scenes that conveyed how obsession can grow and mutate. I completely understood how these teenage girls were building up their own image of the popular kids in their heads. Wanting to be part of this circle but this being the only way to fit themselves in.

This book also contains a sort of fan fiction element where Celeste and Vivvy are writing about their own version of Joss and other people they know. It did make a little uncomfortable at times cause for them they were real people, not fictional and it did feel weird especially with the relationship they were writing about. But again, it plays into how teenage girls are and how fixation can blur the lines of fantasy and reality.

This was a really well written mystery that had me feeling extremely tense and claustrophobic at times. The alternating timelines helped to build up that tension and keep me guessing about who actually committed the crime. The story is well constructed, with an authentic voice and had me reading on long after I needed to go to bed! Definitely up there with the best YA mysteries of 2022.

keep telling myself to not go for stunning book covers and what do I do well on this occasion it was also the synopsis that got my attention.

The Main Character Celeste to me was a bit weak to start with but you soon realise that there are reasons for this. When Celeste moves to the town of Defile thinking that it was a small town where nothing happens. She becomes friends with Vivvy who is the complete opposite or so Celeste thinks.

There is so much I could talk about but since never do spoilers this is not going to happen but what did impress me was the Now and Then timeline which not only gave the date but how long it had been since that event. I liked Margot's writing style and would try some more of her books and so I am giving this very interesting book 4 stars

It was difficult for me to get through this book. I really wanted to like it based on its summary, but could not connect with any of the characters and the jumping around back in forth with the timeline. I ended up having to skim read the rest just to finish.

We Made It All Up is a young adult mystery about a young girl named Celeste who has moved to a small town in Montana and finds herself in a new friendship with Vivvy. Together they begin a fanfic about a couple of boys at their school. But when one of the boys is found dead, fingers start to point, rumors are spread, and everyone is looking at Celeste. It has two timelines, now and then, which really brings the story together. Celeste is an interesting character! You can't really tell if she is the one that killed the boy or not but this really adds to the mystery and the suspense! It's a fast paced read with a little bit of a darker side and it's very easy to get caught up in! Thank you TBR and Beyond Tours and Margot Harrison for sharing this book with me!

This book had so much promise, but was ultimately a big disappointment. Despite having an interesting “then” and “now” narrative schema, there were too many ideas that never blended or were fully fleshed out. One second we are really embarrassed by teenage fanfic, and then we are touring the intrinsic cave system crucial to this rural community and to the main character’s father’s bat career (which gets mentioned every now and again but it’s never explained?), and then we are horrified about <spoiler> a cult featuring child molestation where no member feels regret about the initiation and there is no consequences at the end?!</spoiler>. It just seemed like these ideas should have been the stars of their own stories and not jammed into one, especially since the murder… <spoiler> literally had nothing to do with anything else that happened in the story except for a very weak love plot. I mean why have the cult at all?? </spoiler>.
Look, there are so many similar YA thrillers out there now that have a tighter story and deeper characters. I think if there is a teen who will read this genre and only this genre, they will probably pick this up and really enjoy it, but for those who read a variety of stories, I would suggest other YA thrillers over this one.
Thank you to NetGalley, Margot Harrison, and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a honesty review!

This is a super weird book, and I mean that in a good way. The character relationships are twisty and complicated, the setting feels just as sinister as it turns out to be. That's really the best word for it: sinister. I thought the mystery was well executed and certainly compelling.

The stories Celeste writes about Joss and Seth were a really interesting plot line to me, especially as the book goes on and the reader discovers why she's so willing to do something that she admits is weird. The idea of using fanfiction (and regular fiction) as a way of understanding trauma is something I see all the time in fan spaces, but I never really thought about it outside of that context. It definitely surprised me to see the author touch on it at one part of the book.

I also really really loved Celeste as a character, and the journey she goes on. Her insecurities about relationships, her experiences with them, and her fear of never being lovable felt very real. This goes hand in hand with my other favorite part of the book, which was just how messy all the characters were. Not in a shady way, but in a "wow they have no idea what they're doing way", and considering they're all teenagers, this rang incredibly true.

One thing that did surprise me was how dark parts of the book get. Sexual abuse and violence is made a plot point, and while nothing gets incredibly explicit, I definitely wasn't expecting the plot to go in certain directions. It felt shocking because of how realistic it was, rather than because it was unrealistic. It was disturbing because I could imagine what was implied all too well, which I imagine was probably part of the point.

I don't have any gripes with this book. I liked a lot of it, but it didn't blow me away.

Thoughts and Themes: I wanted to read this story from the minute that I read the synopsis and how fan fiction was going to somehow play a role in the story. Fan fiction was such an important part of my life as a teen so I enjoy books that use it to tell a bigger story. The way that fan fiction is used in this book is similar to the purposes in why I used to write before, sometimes fictional words on paper are easier to deal with than the truth.

Something that I really enjoyed about this book was the way that fan fiction was used to reveal things about Celeste’s past. I liked that she was willing to share pieces of herself through her writing but only if she got to be someone else in that story. I liked how this made it seem like it was detached from Celeste but as we get to know her you learn that this is her story that she is finding a way to tell.

Characters: In this book you are introduced to several characters through their interactions with Celeste and through her memories of them. You get to meet her friend, Vivvy, Seth, Joss, and more. You also get glimpses into the Seth and Joss that are a part of Vivvy and Celeste’s world through their shared fan fictions.

I really enjoyed getting to know more about each of the characters and that some of these characters we only know through the memories that Celeste has of them. I thought the friendship between Celeste and Vivvy was done quite well even if I wouldn’t say it was a good friendship. I liked how we get to see a side of Vivvy that only Celeste can see because the others have been around her too long now.

Writing Style: This story is told in first person through the perspective of Celeste with bits of the fan fiction written by her included. I liked that everything was told through Celeste’s perspective because she was an unreliable narrator since she didn’t recall much of the night in question. I liked that we were learning things alongside her about the incident but that we were also learning about her.