Fake it Till You Make IT!

Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon

Publication Date: November 17, 2020

Summary from Goodreads:

When Sunny Dae—self-proclaimed total nerd—meets Cirrus Soh, he can’t believe how cool and confident she is. So when Cirrus mistakes Sunny’s older brother Gray’s bedroom—with its electric guitars and rock posters—for Sunny’s own, he sort of, kind of, accidentally winds up telling her he’s the front man of a rock band.

Before he knows it, Sunny is knee-deep in the lie: He ropes his best friends into his scheme, begging them to form a fake band with him, and starts wearing Gray’s rock-and-roll castoffs. But no way can he trick this amazing girl into thinking he’s cool, right? Just when Sunny is about to come clean, Cirrus asks to see them play sometime. Gulp.

Now there’s only one thing to do: Fake it till you make it.

Sunny goes all in on the lie, and pretty soon, the strangest things start happening. People are noticing him in the hallways, and he’s going to football games and parties for the first time. He’s feeling more confident in every aspect of his life, and especially with Cirrus, who’s started to become not just his dream girl but also the real deal. Sunny is falling in love. He’s having fun. He’s even becoming a rocker, for real.

But it’s only a matter of time before Sunny’s house of cards starts tumbling down. As his lies begin to catch up with him, Sunny Dae is forced to wonder whether it was all worth it—and if it’s possible to ever truly change.

Confession:

“I just realized that I had spent my whole life thinking I was better and smarter and more clever than all the other idiots on the planet, when really I was nothing more than afraid. Meanwhile, all the other idiots on the planet were busy running around having fun.”

This was such a fun and wonderful romcom, I just loved it! I think David Yoon is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. He just gets teenage boys and does a fantastic job of relating all of the issues teenagers face when it comes to friendship, romance and family.

Sunny Dae is such a dork, but I mean that affectionately. At the start of the story he is comfortable and happy with his life, for the most part. But then he meets Cirrus and things just stop making sense to him. He wants to impress this girl who has been everywhere and seen everything, who wouldn’t? But, oh Sunny, goes all in and drags his friends and brother along with him. But there were times when he was actually enjoying all of the attention he was getting pretending to be a rock star. I especially liked that he got to know and become friends with the kid who had been bullying him since middle school.

“People, I realized, rooted for teams not necessarily because one was somehow fundamentally better than the other. They did it mostly just to belong. Because it was nice to belong to something, or someone.”

Sunny has many ah ha moments through out this book, such as realizing that being a rock star is kind of like larping, (live action role playing). Or that the bully who has been tormenting him for most of his life, has issues too. And that it is not a bad thing to be who you are, even when that includes embracing your inner nerd. I also didn’t see his ‘lying’ as really lying. I think Sunny stayed true to himself in more ways when he was ‘pretending’ to be someone else. He just wasn’t ready to admit it.

The main focus of this book, beside the romance, was friendship and Jamal and Milo were wonderful friends. They had Sunny’s back, even when he maybe didn’t deserve it. They also had some great banter between the three of them. I think they too enjoyed the rock star life, but really wanted to have things go back to normal.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m just appearing in the same place. Again and again. Just alternate realities in an infinite multiverse.”

Up until this point in my young life I had never heard anything more romantic.”

Cirrus was an interesting girl. Her parent’s job take them all over the world and they drag their daughter with them. There is a wonderful scene where she is showing Sunny her memory box of the places she has been, this really showed how lonely her life has been. There were times I didn’t like her though, she did seem a bit shallow, especially when the big reveal happens. But I think I did like her in the end.

The plot here is nothing too new, boy meets girl, boy wants to impress girl, boy lies his head off, boy looses girl, etc. But the writing is what makes this such a wonderful story. Also, adding in the issues with his family and especially his brother Gray’s emotional issues and depression was nicely done. The Dae’s are not the perfect family, but they try really hard.

If you enjoyed David Yoon’s first book, Frankly in Love, then you are going to love this one. There are some laugh out loud moments, some very sweet and beautiful ones too. You are going to fall in love with Sunny Dae and his friends.