Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    You Look Different in Real Life
    You Look Different in Real Life
    You Look Different in Real Life
    Audiobook8 hours

    You Look Different in Real Life

    Written by Jennifer Castle

    Narrated by Samantha Quan

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Readers of John Green, Sarah Dessen, and Laurie Halse Anderson will be touched by the emotional depth and realistic characters of Jennifer Castle's teen novel You Look Different in Real Life.

    Justine charmed the nation in a documentary film featuring five kindergartners. Five years later, her edgy sense of humor made her the star of a second movie that caught up with the lives of the same five kids. Now Justine is sixteen, and another sequel is in the works. Justine isn't ready to have viewers examining her life again. She feels like a disappointment, not at all like the girl everyone fell in love with in the first two movies. But, ready or not, she and the other four teens will soon be in front of the cameras again.

    Smart, fresh, and funny, You Look Different in Real Life is an affecting novel about life in an age where the lines between what's personal and what's public aren't always clear.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 4, 2013
    ISBN9780062291141
    Author

    Jennifer Castle

    Jennifer Castle's first novel, The Beginning of After, was named an American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults selection and a Chicago Public Library "Best of the Best" Book. She wrote many unproduced movie and TV scripts before returning to her first love, fiction . . . but she's still hooked on film and the way we can find and tell our stories with images. She lives with her family in New York's Hudson Valley.

    Related to You Look Different in Real Life

    Related audiobooks

    YA Family For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Minders

      Oct 7, 2020

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author John Marrs Publisher Del Rey John Marrs’s latest near future, high-concept techno-thriller isn’t so much a sequel to The One (DNA dating app has dark secret) and Passengers (autonomous ca

      1 min read

    • Article

      Lol!

      Oct 7, 2021

      Lol!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      I Confronted My School Bullies

      Jul 3, 2019

      I Confronted My School Bullies
      6 min read

    • Article

      Why, Dad? Why?

      Oct 2, 2022

      Why, Dad? Why?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      YA of Yore: Annie on My Mind

      Jun 3, 2019

      In her monthly column, YA of Yore, Frankie Thomas takes a second look at the books that defined a generation. Here’s the mystery of Annie on My Mind, the 1982 young adult novel by Nancy Garden: I’ve never met a straight person who’s read it. As far

      10 min read

    • Article

      Keeping A Low Profile

      Jun 30, 2020

      Keeping A Low Profile
      6 min read

    • Article

      Quarantine Album

      Sep 8, 2020

      It all started with a very simple request: I asked my mom, when she had time, could she look through old photos to see if there were any of pint-size me decked out for Halloween—primo Instagram content for my show Scream, Queen! (a podcast about scar

      4 min read

    • Article

      Breaking POINT

      Nov 1, 2022

      Breaking POINT
      6 min read

    • Article

      LOVE, Virtually

      Feb 16, 2020

      LOVE, Virtually
      5 min read

    • Article

      Diary Of A Country Mouse

      Mar 3, 2020

      THURSDAY, 10 DECEMBER. Giles shows us the sample mice and I am, as if for the first time, overcome with joy. Perhaps when I was a child I had feelings like this—but not in many years. I look, for instance, at a small gray mouse, smaller than the othe

      17 min read

    • Article

      La Bohème

      Mar 1, 2022

      ON A SATURDAY or Sunday afternoon in the cold early months of 1988, I sat alone at a table for two in a Greenwich Village diner, twenty-four years old, hopelessly young, my notebook open in front of me. At the table next to mine were three people, al

      13 min read

    • Article

      After “The End”

      Oct 10, 2022

      I walked down the road with a hunched back and a wet cigarette in my mouth—the fire had died a while back. My hands were tucked into the pockets of my jacket, and my hair fell over my face, limiting my sight. But I wasn’t really seeing where I was go

      10 min read

    • Article

      Not Just For CHRISTMAS

      Nov 24, 2021

      Not Just For CHRISTMAS
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Duplex

      Jun 9, 2020

      I moved to Los Angeles to sing. When was this? August? June? I was twenty-nine, and those were shapeless months, when the days blended together and I refused to pull them apart. My landlord was unusually close to her adult son. His name was Jeffrey,

      21 min read

    • Article

      Henry Winkler

      Jan 8, 2024

      Henry Winkler
      6 min read

    • Article

      Corsicana

      Mar 15, 2022

      Corsicana
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for You Look Different in Real Life

    3.5/5

    47 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Why did I read You Look Different in Real Life?
      When I read the blurb about this book it sounded like something I would love. All of a sudden I thought back to my Freshman Intro to Sociology class and the Frontline video we watched, A Class Divided. This video explored an experiment a teacher conducted within her class the day after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. She wanted her student to understand discrimination. What was especially cool to me was the fact that it contained a followup 14 years later so you could see where those kids were and what they thought. You should really just go watch it.The blurb for this book excited me so much because I thought that I would finish the book with the same hopeful feeling I had when I watched that special. I thought I would feel incredibly invested in each of the characters and their stories.

      Was this what I was expecting?
      Not so much. I didn't have the feelings I had been hoping for and while I enjoyed myself I wasn't really all that invested in the characters. In fact it seemed as if I knew hardly anything about some of the group which is weird since they are all being "filmed" for this movie. Then there was the random romance. I just didn't really think there was enough of a buildup or really any indication that the romance was there until it randomly happened. I appreciate that this book tried to deal with some hard issues such as accepting one's sexuality and the autism spectrum, but even those felt a tad PSA-campy to me.

      What could have made this better?
      I think it could have been beneficial to have alternating point of views with less characters. I have a feeling that could have made me feel much more invested in the characters and their stories.
    • 4/5
      I really, Really, REALLY enjoyed this book. It was fresh and refreshing, and I want Justine to be my BFF.
    • 3/5
      Can you imagine having your life growing up on camera? The good times and bad times that comes with tears, to your first heart break? That is just what Justine, Rory, Felix, Keira and Nate go through. What’s happened, changed, and what are they doing now? All of these are answered, and it isn’t hard to get swept up in their story.

      Justine is our main character and narrator. All though, she just wants to be a normal teenager, she really isn’t. Most of her life has been laid out for the world to watch and most everyone know who she is. Justine isn’t where she thought she would be and at first I was just so irritated with her for her behavior, but as the story went on, I began to see through her eyes how invasive it all was, and understood her a little better. She takes charge when there needs to be a leader and does so that so well. I ended up enjoy her character a lot. The others, Felix, Keira, Rory and Nate were all part of the lime light too. Each having their own struggles with growing up. But, Justine and Felix remained close even in between the tapings, while other friendships fell apart. I enjoyed each character for what they were and what they each brought to the story.

      The story behind these kids was interesting and definitely insightful. We see all the reality T.V. shows and they all look they have perfect lives, and perfect worlds, but that is always not the case. There was so much for these teens to live up to, or so they think, because that is what they believe the producers want from them. I found that just following them on their own journey’s to be so much more enjoyable. The parents involvement was one thing I found to refreshing, they weren’t the picture perfect parents either, but the were there and part of the kids lives, and that is something that is sometimes far and few between when it come to YA books. This group of kids each had their own issues to deal and learn from, fears of acceptance to the expectations of parents and school. There is a slight romance, but it didn’t play a big part, that wasn’t what this about. But, it was a sweet one. The ending was wonderful, watching them all grow so much and I was pleased with it.
      Overall, You Look Different in Real Life is another great YA contemporary, it was a fun and enjoyable story of self discovery.
    • 5/5
      Unexpected teary eyes, plenty of laughter, and a solid ending.
    • 4/5
      Five children who were randomly chosen while in kindergarten to be followed by documentary cameras, have already reunited at eleven for a sequel. As the months pass, no one is sure what will happen at sixteen, but then the familiar filmmakers show up in Mountain Ridge to follow the group one more time. The main character, Justine, seems to be very disappointed in her life between eleven and sixteen, and feels she may have peaked already. The story took a while to get into, winding around subjects and memories until the five are sent off to a wilderness/bonding weekend, the filmmakers hoping for better communication between five kids who have navigated middle and the beginning of high school in different ways.
    • 4/5
      Have you ever met someone famous? Well I have. I met a person from a REAL WORLD season and ask them,” Hey, aren’t you…” I didn’t even get a chance to finish my question before this girl began rolling her eyes and muttering how she can never go no where without being asked that questioned. In all fairness, I was asking cause I wasn’t sure. And she didn’t have to be so rude about it. After that, I change my outlook on famous people. Not all are nice or even come close as they are made out to be.Plot: I really loved the idea of the story. A documentary of kids being followed as they grow up. Their all different and they grow up. gearing up to their next filming, I began to wonder what would happen. Some were reluctant to even being film, other had secrets that they wanted kept quiet and other were just fighting a hard past. If anything, I loved how to story unfolded, letting the reader see each story clearly and powerfully.Characters: Meeting and knowing people in real life is different from what you see on tv. Producers pick certain scenes, attitudes of characters traits to show so that the film makes it. Each characters has something to bring to the table. The reader gets a pretty clear vision of every character as soon as a certain someone gets behind the camera. And let me tell you that this characters blooms. She knows exactly how to capture the right moment at the right time.Love: This was a pretty unexpected element. I honestly didn’t think that anything would develop being that there was so much going on between them as it is. Still, it’s a nice element that I felt gave the story some hope after all the drama went down.Anchored beautifully in the real world and on tv, You Look Different In Real Life has much to offer. Exhibiting life long friendships and overcoming fears, Castle gives the reader a real adventure. With raw material happening before your eyes, You Look Different In Real Life captures.
    • 5/5
      Very cool premise--five teens chosen to appear in a documentary film every five years--but it's the voice of the main character, Justine, that pushes this novel into what will surely be readers' Top Ten of the Year lists. Justine is insightful and brilliantly observant--mixed with a bit of biting snark. What's it like to grow up on film? To have your childhood memories edited and manipulated? Is it ethical to portray people's most intimate and heartbreaking moments for an audience's entertainment? Absorbing read that you'll be thinking about long after you finish.
    • 4/5
      I liked Justine and connected with her right away, I felt confused for the first part of the book. I knew the premise but it just felt like everyone was going around knowing something that I didn't. Why Justine had changed, why she felt like such a disappointment, and what had changed at school. But I think that was the whole point. Because as you get into the story, Justine remembers the moments as the film crew is there again, and things all begin to fit together. One of the themes is that Justine is disappointed, and it comes out as anger. She is disappointed that she didn't live up to what her eleven year old self thought she would be. But then she begins to see what is special about her, what makes everyone special. That we all have a story to tell. It may not be one that makes millions, and then again, maybe we aren't looking at it the right way. But I loved each moment where something clicked for her. Where she realizes that it is okay to change, that she needs to love who she has become, and that she can always start working for another goal again. Another theme is friendship. How it can change or how some relationships just reach an end, whether natural or by a fight or other circumstances. I liked watching her with Felix, seeing how they encourage one another, how a true friendship should be and what we should strive for. Then there are the others that ended, and how Justine deals with the parts that were her fault. There was one part near the end where they were all together and had went through a lot, and she said that they helped make each other whole. They realized more about themselves and life by being together. The characters are all fleshed out well, and the pacing was good. The ending wrapped things up really well and I enjoyed the story overall. Bottom Line: A refreshing premise that delivers emotion, and shows the lives of characters that were changed both positively and negatively by being on screen.
    • 4/5
      I’ve never read any of Jennifer’s books before now so “You Look Different” was a good one to cut my teeth on. Justine has mixed emotions about the cameras that will soon be documenting her life again for the big screen. There’s too much to live up to and as she examines her own life, she realizes that she’s disappointed herself a little. Not living out the dreams or goals she had at eleven. Letting friendships go because they didn’t “fit” anymore, and drifting away from others for reasons she doesn’t really understand. So agreeing to the sequel of Five at is less than exciting. As she’s struggling to figure out what to show the camera and what the public wants to see, Justine ends up discovering herself. She finds out who she really is, who her friends really are and growing into the person she’s always been, but never seen. I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s fast moving, funny, and real. Castle did a fantastic job with Justine growing in each relationship with the other Five at stars, as well as each character growing on their own. Even though Justine is the center of the novel, the other characters are still given a fair amount of screen time. My Rating: 4/5 stars, worth the read.