Book Review: “All About Mia” by Lisa Williamson

Title: All About Mia

Author: Lisa Williamson

Published: February 2nd, 2017

Publisher: David Fickling Books

Find the Author: Goodreads

I received this book for review on my blog! As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

One family, three sisters.

GRACE, the oldest: straight-A student.

AUDREY, the youngest: future Olympic swimming champion.

And MIA, the mess in the middle.

Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends – not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers.

When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves.

But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control – boozing, boys and bad behaviour – and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it All About Mia might put at risk the very things she loves the most.

First Thoughts

I first heard about Lisa on the bookish scene when The Art of Being Normal came out and even though it was high on my TBR list, I haven’t quite got around to reading it. But when All About Mia arrived on my doorstep, something about it screamed READ ME, BECCA! I know that listening to that inner reader is always super important and even though it took me two months (really, Becca?!) I finally got around to delving into the pages.

Review

Mia Mia Mia. What a character. When I first got into the book, I was worried I might not totally identify with her because she is a middle child and I am the youngest child of my family. But even though we were different in that aspect, I totally loved her character and her presence in the story and identified with her in other ways. Mia sometimes feels like the mess of her family – the one who doesn’t have it all together. Her sisters; Grace (older than Mia and oh-so-perfect marks at School, never steps out of line) and Audrey (younger than Mia, destined to be an Olympic swimming genius), are totally different to her. Mia is outspoken and leads her friends into ambitious and creative ideas with carefree thoughts. She’s a selfie queen, loves styling hair and is a shining and beautiful mess – but all her teachers and Parents see is the mess part.

We all know a girl like Mia, or did at school. The girls who are loud and laughing and in your face. Mia should be unlikable, but it’s part of those intricate ways of her personality that grows over the course of the book that make us love her. Grace, Mia’s older sister, comes home one day with very abrupt news that sends All About Mia into a spiralling-out-of-control picture. It’s when Mia finds that it’s her time to shine, now that the attention is off her perfect sisters, that the truth about her raw character reveals itself. She isn’t the overly confident and wild person we were led to believe, but hiding a host of feelings herself about being left out and unheard.

If there’s any book that did a complete 180′ and made me totally question everything while I was reading, it would be this one. At first, I didn’t know what to think of Mia, but by the end, I just wanted to tell her that she was going to be okay. This is the kind of book you need. I thoroughly adored the family points, the character development and of course, Mia. 5 stars completely!

Rating