From the initial concept of the book I was intrigued; a typed novel manuscript found on the shelf of a wealthy book collector after their death, and subsequently anonymously published, the irregular nature of this books publishing was alluring to me, and that somewhat romanticised bizarreness, was evidently present throughout the duration of the novel.

A strange philosophical journey, the story is narrated by the second person perspective of your own imagination, who craves to be ‘real’ in the way that you the reader are. ‘Your imagination’ submerses you in the world of the imaginary, and delves into strongly symbolic explorations of what it means to live purposefully, and what makes anything ‘real’. It is strongly focused on aspects of self, community, and control, as well as the lengths people would go to in the name of a perceived to be worthy cause.

The novel is honestly so unlike anything I’ve read before, and delves into surprisingly dark aspects of humanity, that it’s rather hard to know what audience to recommend the book to, and hard to know to what level I personally enjoyed it!

While the central idea of the book was interesting and definitely original, I could not connect with the book or get immersed in the narration.

The author manages to start a relatively interesting story within the framework of narration, but it did not click for me.

DNF at roughly 20%

2* for what appears to be genuinely original effort.

No reviews will be posted on GR.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me this fabulous work.
I really enjoyed this. The writing was immersive, and fast-paced (at least for me). I've always loved philosophical topics, so this particular book was just my cup of tea.
Greatly recommended.

I was intrigued and wondered if this would be for me because it’s different from what I usually read. Then I started it and couldn’t put it down- and was of course pleasantly surprised by the amazingness that this book is.

Well written, keeps you engaged and has you thinking.

Well worth the 5 star review, recommendation and so much more!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review!

‘This Was Written For You’ is a story that was found among the possessions of a wealthy book collector after their death. Typed in a leather journal and discovered next to first editions of very well-known works of literature, no other copy of this specific text is known to exist. This is the first time it has been made public.
This book is truly unlike anything I have ever read. The story is creative beyond measure and breaks the fourth wall by speaking and referencing the reader as “you” throughout. The MC is a character of your imagination, who is not real but desperately wants to become real and experience reality. There are clearly hidden meanings and messages behind some of the events in the book which I appreciated. Imagination is so important and we should not lose sight of it in order to fully immerse ourselves in reality, especially when reality can be so dark and depressing. This is one reason I love reading so much!
I do think the book dragged a bit in the middle and I had to take breaks so it took me a little longer to read. The ending felt a bit abrupt and I wish there had been more explanation or more of a full circle moment. Overall, the book is a very thought-provoking and exceptional read. I am very glad I read it and would definitely recommend it if you are looking for something creative and different!
I want to say thank you to the anonymous author who wrote such a unique and thought-provoking read and will unfortunately never receive direct credit for their creativity. Thank you to NetGalley, Explore Unguided, and BooksGoSocial for the gifted ARC in an exchange for an honest review.

All in all a great read. The style and structure were inventive and poignant while also providing a nuanced tale.

The origin of this book, found amid a collection of other first editions, is almost as fascinating as the story itself. The author is unknown, adding to the air of mystery, and the subject is open to your own interpretation. Keeping this in mind I eagerly started to read and found an intriguing philosophical debate on what it means to be real and the search to find the answer within ourselves.

This self-propelled journey is not always comfortable and the path to enlightenment contains many flawed thought patterns, but the exploration of potential and method is interesting as well as a little confusing and disturbing at times. There is a scene that was hard to read that is brought up again later that could be a trigger to sensitive readers and those impacted by sexual assault.

The writing style is engaging and flowed smoothly allowing me to become completely immersed in the world the author created while also imagining my own thoughts on the topic. While I can't pretend to completely understand the novel or what exactly I was supposed to get out of it, I enjoyed the wild ride and entertaining the possibilities of what is real and what makes it so.

A quirky little book- the premise interested me quite a lot and I found it curious so decided to give it a go and I was not disappointed! It really makes you think about your self and your inner thought, it's a very reflective read- full of nice quotes and quite poetic but also very ironic, couldn't put it down! Trigger warning for SA

I found this book disturbing and decided to stop reading. The sexual assault account seems gratuitous and I found it unsettling.

The idea behind the book sounds super interesting. A book, whose author is unknown, written for me? A tale about my imagination being concious of being a concept of me? Sounds quite trippy but interesting! I think the first and last chapter of the book capture quite well the kind of vibe I wanted and waited from the book but sadly these two are quite independent from the rest of the narrative.

First and last chapters focus on Imagination talking to us almost from a philosophical point of view, trying to explain how we are connected, how they make us what we are, make us real, are more real than us, etc. while the 95% that is the rest of the book ends up being the tale of self discovery Imagination went through. It just feels very disconected from the first and last chapters because they are so different. The narrative voice is completely different and the deeper questions asked at the beggining and at the end are nowhere to be seen in the middle part.

I feel like the idea is nice, but the execution was not adecuate to fully bring to life the idea. This would have been better in my opinion as a short story or something like a fictional essay written by Imagination, while they mulled over and over the ideas of being a figment of our imagination.

*Thank you to the publisher of "This was written for you" for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*

I feel like "This was written for you" was, well, written for me. I read voraciously and always have. From the time I learned to read, I constantly kept a book in my hands. Often enough, I held more books than I really could carry.

In this short, yet wonderfully crafted work, we follow the path of an anonymous soul, who much like our anonymous author. spends their time searching for reality in a world that defies true explanation. We watch our hero learn the power of creation and destruction. We grieve with them as they discover the close relationship between pain and joy, of love and loss.

By the end, we wonder how our anonymous friend grasped our own souls and our own sense of time so vividly and deceptively strongly.

I thoroughly enjoyed "This was written for you." I highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that element that I was looking for from the description and did have that magical element that I was looking for. This was written for you was able to have a philosophical element to it and was glad I got to read this.

Immediately this book felt so immersive to be pulled into a story like this, overall it kept me invested the whole way through,

Thank you to Net Galley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC. The concept sounded really cool but unfortunately the execution was so dry and boring. Stuff happens but I couldn't care about it or get invested into the story because I felt no connection and the narrative voice was slow and boring.

I went into This Was Written for You expecting a wild, philosophical journey based on the description, but it didn’t live up to that for me. The idea of a character jealous of your reality sounded intriguing, but the story itself felt more like a confusing blend of ideas than the captivating, boundary-breaking experiment it was described to be. I struggled to stay engaged, and the concept didn’t hit as deeply as I had hoped. While it may appeal to others, the description led me to expect something different, which affected my overall experience.

This was a really good book with a fantastic concept! I think the idea of the book collector and the leather journal added such a fantastic new spin on this type of book, i Loved it!. It was keeping me interested throughout the whole book, it had some good twists, and it was very enjoyable!!


Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This book explores characters that live inside of the readers subconscious. The main character begins to gain jealousy of the person it inhibits because they begin realize that they’re not real on the same sense of the person they inhibit being real.

When I first saw that this was available on NetGalley I was immediately drawn to the story. From page one all the way to the very last page this book held my attention and took me on an incredible journey. This is mind blowing and such a great book that I finished it the same day that I started to read it without taking a break.

Trigger warning:
-One of the main characters gets S/A (on page) towards the beginning of the book. This incident gets brought up a few times throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.