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jenhurst's review against another edition
4.0
Apparently the author wrote this in high school? I thought the writing was fine and was surprised by that. It’s obviously not going to win awards, but the simplicity managed to convey a lot of emotion. The characters got developed more than I expected and it handles the touch topics well.
Trigger warning: suicide.
Trigger warning: suicide.
edobis84's review against another edition
1.0
Incredibly dull. Characters are unlikeable. At least it was short.
emmalemonnz's review against another edition
4.0
A starkly realistic portrayal of depression. I didn't much like any of the characters, but then, that's what depression does to you: it makes you see everyone's failings (especially your own) without allowing any goodness in.
stuckinafictionaluniverse's review against another edition
4.0
Because Liz Emerson held so much darkness within her that closing her eyes didn't make much of a difference at all.
4.5
What a cruel little book this is. If I could use one word to describe it, it would be heartbreaking.
One day the most popular girl at school takes her car and drives off a cliff.
This is Liz Emerson’s story, equally loved by everyone and equally hated by them.
It is told by an unknown and very surprising narrator.
What I love the most about Falling into place is that it constantly surprised me. It’s not a journey back to point out at what exact point Liz cracked.
People seem to think there’s The One Thing that drives people to end their lives. It’s not. It’s all of these small things, that eventually tip over into something too large to handle. I think this book paints an excellent portrait of that, without shying away from the darkest details.
Liz's journey to making this serious decision happened slowly, but the whole book has a very sad undertone.
There are barely any moments of happiness and you can see why Liz feels so lost.
Every single character is flawed, bitchy, terribly unlikable and real.
They seem shallow at first, nothing but stiff stereotypes but there’s so much more to them. They're all fucked up in some way, and they know it. It’s high school, the teenagers are out of control and vicious and unapologetic. They’re ignorant.
There’s slutshaming, life-altering revenges because of petty things, and a lot of bullying. Most of these are done by the main character.
This is where you ask, ’’Why would I want to read a book about unlikable people who do awful things?’’
The above are huge pet peeves of mine, and even though these actions are terrible and something that shouldn’t be easily forgiven, I think it was more understandable within its context.
Because it will make you think about how no matter how horrible they are, they actually deserve better. This is a great example of how you can assume things because you don't understand them. These teens have been neglected and had to fight on their own in a world that bends you until you break. Their values are fucked up, and it would be weird if they weren't.
This next quote sums it up perfectly.
The truth is, Liam has always thought of Kennie as a slutty, stereotypical Barbie with even less intelligence.
Because that’s what he’s been told.
Now he looks at the grimy tracks of makeup on her cheeks and the broken girl trapped in her eyes, and he realize that he’s an asshole.
Can you see it? That's called character development and there is a lot of it in this book, sometimes very subtle.
The story itself is heartbreaking, helpless and dark.
It’s about the things you want to do, but can’t. The actions and words that could save someone.
Because if someone asked Liz, really paid attention to her, maybe she wouldn’t have driven her car off the road that day. Maybe she could’ve gotten help. But things don’t magically resolve like that.
The MC ruins so many peoples’ lives and she knows it, but she can’t stop. She doesn’t know how to apologize or ask for help, which is what she needs.
Liz looked back and counted the bodies, all those lives she had ruined simply by existing. So she chose to stop existing.
The writing is some of the best I've seen in YA contemporary for a long time. It's stunning and captures how empty Liz feels. Never did the third person PoV bother me, because it's so well-written and actually made me love the book more.
The perspective gives us an incredibly wide look at all the side characters who are just as important as Liz.
I watched her carve her mistakes in stone, and they arranged themselves around her. They became a maze with walls that reached the sky. Because she learned from so few of them, she was lost. Because she didn’t have faith in anything, she didn’t try to find a way out.
I was infuriated by how the adults acted in this book, and yet didn’t think it was surreal.
There is one scene that hit me particularly hard. Not to spoil anything, but Liz tries to hint at her mental state to an adult and is misunderstood and told that you just need ’’the right motivation’' to get better and change. Like it’s easy.
It’s fucked up how someone can be quietly screaming for help and heavily hinting at that they’re depressed without anyone knowing and many people in the world are going through the exact same thing.
This book hit me much harder than I expected.
4.5 stars because it took so long for me to feel the characters were more than just mean and sad without any redeemable qualities and the ending was underwhelming.
I highly recommend this to those who enjoyed [b:Some Girls Are|6624871|Some Girls Are|Courtney Summers|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317791700s/6624871.jpg|6819111].
My problem with that book is that the story and drama went a little overboard, and felt like it was just going for shock factor.
The same goes for Falling into place, hence the removal of the half star.
I’m still amazed by the fact that this is a debut novel and that the author wrote it while in college.
Final verdict: No matter what you think of this book, I doubt that it will leave you unaffected.
Amy Zhang is an author to watch, and I’m already dying to get my hands on her next book. I'll just need some time to piece my heart back together.
She wanted to go back. She wanted to be the little girl again, the one who thought getting high meant being pushed on the swings and pain was falling off her bike.
4.5
What a cruel little book this is. If I could use one word to describe it, it would be heartbreaking.
One day the most popular girl at school takes her car and drives off a cliff.
This is Liz Emerson’s story, equally loved by everyone and equally hated by them.
It is told by an unknown and very surprising narrator.
What I love the most about Falling into place is that it constantly surprised me. It’s not a journey back to point out at what exact point Liz cracked.
People seem to think there’s The One Thing that drives people to end their lives. It’s not. It’s all of these small things, that eventually tip over into something too large to handle. I think this book paints an excellent portrait of that, without shying away from the darkest details.
Liz's journey to making this serious decision happened slowly, but the whole book has a very sad undertone.
There are barely any moments of happiness and you can see why Liz feels so lost.
Every single character is flawed, bitchy, terribly unlikable and real.
They seem shallow at first, nothing but stiff stereotypes but there’s so much more to them. They're all fucked up in some way, and they know it. It’s high school, the teenagers are out of control and vicious and unapologetic. They’re ignorant.
There’s slutshaming, life-altering revenges because of petty things, and a lot of bullying. Most of these are done by the main character.
This is where you ask, ’’Why would I want to read a book about unlikable people who do awful things?’’
The above are huge pet peeves of mine, and even though these actions are terrible and something that shouldn’t be easily forgiven, I think it was more understandable within its context.
Because it will make you think about how no matter how horrible they are, they actually deserve better. This is a great example of how you can assume things because you don't understand them. These teens have been neglected and had to fight on their own in a world that bends you until you break. Their values are fucked up, and it would be weird if they weren't.
This next quote sums it up perfectly.
The truth is, Liam has always thought of Kennie as a slutty, stereotypical Barbie with even less intelligence.
Because that’s what he’s been told.
Now he looks at the grimy tracks of makeup on her cheeks and the broken girl trapped in her eyes, and he realize that he’s an asshole.
Can you see it? That's called character development and there is a lot of it in this book, sometimes very subtle.
The story itself is heartbreaking, helpless and dark.
It’s about the things you want to do, but can’t. The actions and words that could save someone.
Because if someone asked Liz, really paid attention to her, maybe she wouldn’t have driven her car off the road that day. Maybe she could’ve gotten help. But things don’t magically resolve like that.
The MC ruins so many peoples’ lives and she knows it, but she can’t stop. She doesn’t know how to apologize or ask for help, which is what she needs.
Liz looked back and counted the bodies, all those lives she had ruined simply by existing. So she chose to stop existing.
The writing is some of the best I've seen in YA contemporary for a long time. It's stunning and captures how empty Liz feels. Never did the third person PoV bother me, because it's so well-written and actually made me love the book more.
The perspective gives us an incredibly wide look at all the side characters who are just as important as Liz.
I watched her carve her mistakes in stone, and they arranged themselves around her. They became a maze with walls that reached the sky. Because she learned from so few of them, she was lost. Because she didn’t have faith in anything, she didn’t try to find a way out.
I was infuriated by how the adults acted in this book, and yet didn’t think it was surreal.
There is one scene that hit me particularly hard. Not to spoil anything, but Liz tries to hint at her mental state to an adult and is misunderstood and told that you just need ’’the right motivation’' to get better and change. Like it’s easy.
It’s fucked up how someone can be quietly screaming for help and heavily hinting at that they’re depressed without anyone knowing and many people in the world are going through the exact same thing.
This book hit me much harder than I expected.
4.5 stars because it took so long for me to feel the characters were more than just mean and sad without any redeemable qualities and the ending was underwhelming.
I highly recommend this to those who enjoyed [b:Some Girls Are|6624871|Some Girls Are|Courtney Summers|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317791700s/6624871.jpg|6819111].
My problem with that book is that the story and drama went a little overboard, and felt like it was just going for shock factor.
The same goes for Falling into place, hence the removal of the half star.
I’m still amazed by the fact that this is a debut novel and that the author wrote it while in college.
Final verdict: No matter what you think of this book, I doubt that it will leave you unaffected.
Amy Zhang is an author to watch, and I’m already dying to get my hands on her next book. I'll just need some time to piece my heart back together.
She wanted to go back. She wanted to be the little girl again, the one who thought getting high meant being pushed on the swings and pain was falling off her bike.
freadomlibrary's review against another edition
5.0
Check out my full video review here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACD38OtiYbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACD38OtiYbo
lastpaige111's review against another edition
5.0
Worth it
At first I thought it was all about mean girls learning their lesson. It is so much more, and some of her passages are like poetry.
At first I thought it was all about mean girls learning their lesson. It is so much more, and some of her passages are like poetry.
mehsi's review against another edition
5.0
This was a book that hooked me from the first few pages, a book that I immediately bought after having only read like 10 pages. :) And the rest of the book is equally awesome and beautiful.
I really liked how the chapters were done, it was very creative, though I have to admit, also a bit confusing. I had my suspicions about who was talking, but it was only till the end that it was revealed. It was a nice touch (and original), but again confusing to let it be from her/him POV at times.
We have various characters who get a chance to speak. Kennie, Julia, Liz's mom, Liam. They all got their chance to speak and Amy Zhang really made us like them, made us understand them. I really like it when a book makes the side-characters as important as the main character.
Liz is not an easy main character. At the surface we see a girl who will do anything for popularity, she is an enormous bitch (to friends and family and everyone else), but deep down we see she isn't that shallow. That she is actually depressed, worried and doesn't know where she stands. She feels alone. At the first pages and also the first few times we heard about Liz, I didn't like her (and wanted to smack her), however, I grew to love her. In the end I was cheering for her, cheering for her to wake up, to live her life. To seek help when she needs it.
The book touches a lot of subjects, suicide, pregnancy, bullying, popularity and several other things. It was really interesting to see those subjects come together in one book.
Also, that ending, I just cried. It was sad, it was beautiful. So if you are planning to read this, bring tissues.
All in all, I would really recommend this book to everyone!
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I really liked how the chapters were done, it was very creative, though I have to admit, also a bit confusing. I had my suspicions about who was talking, but it was only till the end that it was revealed. It was a nice touch (and original), but again confusing to let it be from her/him POV at times.
We have various characters who get a chance to speak. Kennie, Julia, Liz's mom, Liam. They all got their chance to speak and Amy Zhang really made us like them, made us understand them. I really like it when a book makes the side-characters as important as the main character.
Liz is not an easy main character. At the surface we see a girl who will do anything for popularity, she is an enormous bitch (to friends and family and everyone else), but deep down we see she isn't that shallow. That she is actually depressed, worried and doesn't know where she stands. She feels alone. At the first pages and also the first few times we heard about Liz, I didn't like her (and wanted to smack her), however, I grew to love her. In the end I was cheering for her, cheering for her to wake up, to live her life. To seek help when she needs it.
The book touches a lot of subjects, suicide, pregnancy, bullying, popularity and several other things. It was really interesting to see those subjects come together in one book.
Also, that ending, I just cried. It was sad, it was beautiful. So if you are planning to read this, bring tissues.
All in all, I would really recommend this book to everyone!
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
teresaalice's review against another edition
4.0
Wasn't sure what to think of this book from the cover when a friend leant it to me, and I honestly put off reading it, but once I started it I was done in two days. A good read for the YA loving set.
anamustacho's review against another edition
4.0
Although some things are typical and predictable, I can't deny that perhaps it is because these settings can happen. Near the middle amd end of the book the constant mentioning of physics made me think of the butterdly effect.
I appreciate that the author ends it with resources to find help if you need it. #mentalhealthawareness
With that said here are some possible triggering topics:
Addiction, suicidal, depression, drugs and alcoholism, abortion, bullying, accidents
I appreciate that the author ends it with resources to find help if you need it. #mentalhealthawareness
With that said here are some possible triggering topics:
Addiction, suicidal, depression, drugs and alcoholism, abortion, bullying, accidents
dherzey's review against another edition
4.0
"She wished they had talked more about how all of the equations were derived. She wanted to know how Galileo and Newton and Einstein discovered the things they discovered. She wanted to know how they could have lived in the exact same world as everyone else but see things that no one else did."
This book is like somewhere between [b:If I Stay|4374400|If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)|Gayle Forman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347462970s/4374400.jpg|4422413] and [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361044695s/6482837.jpg|6674135] (although more on the former). It tells a story of Meridian High school's most popular girl, Liz Emerson, who on a cold fall night, attempted to commit suicide by running her car off the road. Truly, it was a heartbreaking story and I love how the author creatively incorporated Newton's Laws of Gravity. Of course, the concept of the story was used several times before but despite that, in its own right, it was a great read with an even greater theme. Unfortunately, the only thing that make this novel a step back than the other books is simply because its main character is hard to come to terms with.
Even from the start, I hated Liz Emerson. I know that she's not really one of those characters the author wanted the readers to like. I know that she is that way because of her past. But there are some characters from other books, who despite being fucked up and completely lonely, makes me empathize with them. Makes me care. Liz is not one of them. She is just too hopeless and pessimistic and static throughout the whole book and I just can't tolerate bullies like her -- especially what she did to Liam. She just blames everything to herself and her broken life without even -- just once -- ever doing something to remedy that.
Perhaps I was being unfair or cruel. I know there are people out there suffering the same thing. But I can't just sympathize with Liz, as a reader. I just don't know much about her or even felt much about her past to see reason why she is the way she is. All things aside, her character seems shallow. And I just think that her past is not enough excuse to have (for I felt it is distantly portrayed) to comfort and remind herself with -- over and over again -- to do the things she do at the present. But anyway, by the end of the novel, I think I sort of got Liz. After reflecting back on the events that happened, I realize that I may not have the necessary feelings to empathize with her, but I can still see myself relating to her in other things. I know the horrors of being pressured, of being the person that everyone just expects you to be. Liz felt the same thing with how everyone looks up to her like she is invincible and incapable of breaking. I also know how to be that person who do nothing. Who just stood there, going with the flow even if all you wanted to do was take a stand and fight. But of course, you didn't, because you're a coward. We are all cowards. Liz Emerson is a coward. At that point, I get Liz. I sort of relate on what she might have been going through. True, I hated her and still is. But at the end, I also realized, objectively, that she is just human like me, like everyone else. And by that point, I start to liked this novel even more.
"She wanted to go back. She wanted to be a little girl again, the one who thought getting high meant being pushed on the swings and pain was falling off her bike."
This debut novel is depressing. Everyone seems to hide some problem -- may it be addiction, depression or even abortion. But I didn't mind because I liked the other characters. They may not be as multi-layered than I wanted to be but they are sturdy supports to the story. They are real characters with real problems and I like reading about them. Of course, there was also the "unexpected" narrator of the story. You could have guess who it is or perhaps may got a feeling on its identity. But I got to say, that the narrator is really effective. When I found out who it is, it just gives more of a bittersweet feel to the story.
Plus, Amy Zhang's writing style is absolutely gorgeous and heartfelt. This with the mixture of physics to drive the story just adds to its heartbreaking end.
"It struck him that perhaps she thought just as many thoughts in a minute as he did, felt just as many emotions, inhaled and exhaled just as he did. And it was then that he began to fall in love with her for the second time, for the same reason that he had picked up his flute again: because he believed in broken things."
Falling Into Place is both maddening yet uplifting, depressing yet hopeful. It was a novel about suicide, depression, addiction and many others. It is a story centered on unsympathetic characters, characters you want to hate yet want to show compassion. It was a book of conflicting emotions but most of all, it was a book that makes me believe in second chances.
Because that ending, that ending. Just perfect.