Downside Up by Hayley Long

How did I get the book?
I bought it.

Genre: Contemporary

Synopsis: Ronnie is totally bored. She lives in a crap, boring town with her crap, boring family, and all she wants is to escape and have the kind of life she reads about in magazines. Sometimes Ronnie makes stuff up, just to keep things interesting. Not lies, exactly, more like massive, outrageous, whopping great fibs. The thing is, people have stopped believing anything she says – she’s turning into The Girl Who Cried ‘Beyonce is Totally My Cousin’s Best Friend’. Then one day Ronnie gets knocked out in a head to head dodgem collision. When she wakes up, her life has been turned uʍop әp!sdn and nothing will ever be the same again…

200words (or less) review: Firstly – So much fun!
Downside Up is the first book by Hayley Long I’ve read but it won’t be the last.

Ronnie is not happy, her father abandoned his family for someone else and hasn’t been heard from. Since then Ronnie has stopped caring. She struggles out of bed in the morning and when she does get to school she gets into trouble. Life in her imagination is just so much better so Ronnie retreats there.

I couldn’t put this book down until I’d finished it. Ronnie is one of those characters you can’t help but love. While Downside Up is hilarious at times there are also some very emotional bits as well.

Another thing that is brilliant is the design of this book; thought bubbles, drawings, having to turn the book upside down and then sideways to read. It’s really quirky and works so well.

Downside Up is one of those books I’d recommend to anyone. It has everything you need; characters to love, growth, laughter (seriously my sides were hurting) not to mention some really stellar writing from of Hayley Long.

Recommend it?

Absolutely