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3.18 AVERAGE
3.18 AVERAGE
When Meredith Oliver is the lucky girl left behind after a robber abducts her eighth grade classmate Lisa Bellow, she is not the only one traumatized. The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo, looks at the aftereffects of trauma on Meredith and her family. She is the lucky one. Lisa Bellow is gone and her mother, Coleen, and her school friends are also struggling with their grief. The primary focus, though, is on Meredith and her mother Claire.
It’s not that the Oliver family didn’t have enough to deal with. Earlier that year, Evan, Meredith’s beloved older brother was blinded in one eye by an errant baseball, a simple accident with no one to blame. Evan did not just lose vision in one eye, he lost his possible baseball career, scholarships to college and the easy athletic primacy he enjoyed. Essentially, he lost the identity he had known and was struggling to find a new one for himself.
Claire and Mark Oliver seem to have the perfect marriage, so long as you don’t examine it closely. But trauma makes you examine everything and the flaws that were bearable become less so. Meanwhile, Meredith is drawn to Lisa’s circle of friends, mean girls who had no time for her before. She is also talking to Lisa. She knows what happened and is happening to Lisa with the kidnapper, that Lisa is being comforted by a little dog named Annie, that Lisa is being raped though it’s happening out of Meredith’s sight, she is also seeing what would happen if the kidnapper had chosen both of them. We know and Meredith’s parents know she needs help, but what kind and how?
The Fall of Lisa Bellow is an effective family drama, an exploration of the silences and absences of family life, the sudden chasms that erupt between people who love each other. It is also a book about family love, deep and abiding, even violent and superhuman. Claire loves her children fiercely, even when they are fighting her. There is a shocking scene where she exacts petty revenge against a child who bullies her son–and she’s not sorry. She will never be sorry. She understands Coleen Bellow’s anger and pain, even if she feels glad it’s not her pain.
This is a compulsive read that takes us from the first day of school until Christmas vacation, the Fall of Lisa Bellow, the Fall that fractures a family and offers hope that they will knit back together. When Perabo writes about the compulsive power of maternal love, she is at her most poetic and lyrical. This is the best writing in the book.
There is a troublesome suggestion when Meredith is imagining that the abductor has sex with Lisa, that it isn’t exactly rape, defining rape as someone jumping out of the bushes and tearing your clothes off. I don’t know how being abducted at gunpoint differs from jumping out of a bush, but Meredith is in eighth grade and clearly ill-informed about sex and rape and the difference between them. She thinks it must be unpleasant but not horrible. I am sure the author knows better, that sex and rape are not on the same spectrum, that rape is violence–about power, not sex. However, this never gets corrected. It would be one thing if there is any corrective to this idea, but there is not. Meredith is young, so are her friends, and she’s not talking to her family.
I would not recommend this book to young people without some serious discussion of this fallacy because it really sucks. The book is interesting and I cared about the people, but just because an eighth grade girl is likely to have internalized rape culture to the degree that she thinks an adult kidnapper forcing an eighth-grader to have sex is not exactly rape does not mean it should stand without correction. Yes, it’s very likely girls that age may think that. Someone needs to set it straight in the book. Uncorrected, uncontradicted, it’s dangerous and irresponsible.
The Fall of Lisa Bellow will be released March 14th. I was provided an e-galley for review by the publisher through NetGalley.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/9781476761466/
It’s not that the Oliver family didn’t have enough to deal with. Earlier that year, Evan, Meredith’s beloved older brother was blinded in one eye by an errant baseball, a simple accident with no one to blame. Evan did not just lose vision in one eye, he lost his possible baseball career, scholarships to college and the easy athletic primacy he enjoyed. Essentially, he lost the identity he had known and was struggling to find a new one for himself.
Claire and Mark Oliver seem to have the perfect marriage, so long as you don’t examine it closely. But trauma makes you examine everything and the flaws that were bearable become less so. Meanwhile, Meredith is drawn to Lisa’s circle of friends, mean girls who had no time for her before. She is also talking to Lisa. She knows what happened and is happening to Lisa with the kidnapper, that Lisa is being comforted by a little dog named Annie, that Lisa is being raped though it’s happening out of Meredith’s sight, she is also seeing what would happen if the kidnapper had chosen both of them. We know and Meredith’s parents know she needs help, but what kind and how?
The Fall of Lisa Bellow is an effective family drama, an exploration of the silences and absences of family life, the sudden chasms that erupt between people who love each other. It is also a book about family love, deep and abiding, even violent and superhuman. Claire loves her children fiercely, even when they are fighting her. There is a shocking scene where she exacts petty revenge against a child who bullies her son–and she’s not sorry. She will never be sorry. She understands Coleen Bellow’s anger and pain, even if she feels glad it’s not her pain.
This is a compulsive read that takes us from the first day of school until Christmas vacation, the Fall of Lisa Bellow, the Fall that fractures a family and offers hope that they will knit back together. When Perabo writes about the compulsive power of maternal love, she is at her most poetic and lyrical. This is the best writing in the book.
There is a troublesome suggestion when Meredith is imagining that the abductor has sex with Lisa, that it isn’t exactly rape, defining rape as someone jumping out of the bushes and tearing your clothes off. I don’t know how being abducted at gunpoint differs from jumping out of a bush, but Meredith is in eighth grade and clearly ill-informed about sex and rape and the difference between them. She thinks it must be unpleasant but not horrible. I am sure the author knows better, that sex and rape are not on the same spectrum, that rape is violence–about power, not sex. However, this never gets corrected. It would be one thing if there is any corrective to this idea, but there is not. Meredith is young, so are her friends, and she’s not talking to her family.
I would not recommend this book to young people without some serious discussion of this fallacy because it really sucks. The book is interesting and I cared about the people, but just because an eighth grade girl is likely to have internalized rape culture to the degree that she thinks an adult kidnapper forcing an eighth-grader to have sex is not exactly rape does not mean it should stand without correction. Yes, it’s very likely girls that age may think that. Someone needs to set it straight in the book. Uncorrected, uncontradicted, it’s dangerous and irresponsible.
The Fall of Lisa Bellow will be released March 14th. I was provided an e-galley for review by the publisher through NetGalley.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/9781476761466/
Oops! Somehow deleted my review on this, reposting!
I absolutely fell in love with Perabo's prose. It's lyrical without getting too poetic, and has touches of surrealism sprinkled throughout the narrative. She constructs Meredith and Claire's voices with grace, making each their own while maintaining the flow of the story.
As the story is told from both their points of view, it was essential to have them be distinct enough while also playing off one another. In Meredith, there's the side of adolescence and angst. Her trauma is magnifies this even more so, and consequently she lashes out at her mother.
This isn't the story of the fate of Lisa Bellow but rather the effect her disappearance has on not just Meredith, Claire but the rest of the community. On one hand, I was disappointed that it's never revealed, but it would take away from the effect of Meredith and Claire's processing.
Please read my full review on my blog, LittleGreatReads
https://littlegreatreads.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/coming-soon-the-fall-of-lisa-bellow
I absolutely fell in love with Perabo's prose. It's lyrical without getting too poetic, and has touches of surrealism sprinkled throughout the narrative. She constructs Meredith and Claire's voices with grace, making each their own while maintaining the flow of the story.
As the story is told from both their points of view, it was essential to have them be distinct enough while also playing off one another. In Meredith, there's the side of adolescence and angst. Her trauma is magnifies this even more so, and consequently she lashes out at her mother.
This isn't the story of the fate of Lisa Bellow but rather the effect her disappearance has on not just Meredith, Claire but the rest of the community. On one hand, I was disappointed that it's never revealed, but it would take away from the effect of Meredith and Claire's processing.
Please read my full review on my blog, LittleGreatReads
https://littlegreatreads.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/coming-soon-the-fall-of-lisa-bellow
When I read the synopsis for this story, I expected it to be more of a drama than a thriller. Which ended up being true. However, nothing happened. At all. The author definitely did a good job in writing this story in the perspective of a middle schooler. But seriously. Nothing happens. Meredith is a character I felt pity for at times but mostly, I was just bored with her and the entire story. There's only so much I can read about inane things in her life, like how bad her mom's pancakes are, and how she likes to sit in a certain spot in the car. While I don't think the story needed to be a thriller, I still think it could have been a bit more .... interesting. It's a sad story, but I felt that I was more drawn to Lisa Bellow than to Meredith and her family. In the end, this novel just didn't do it for me.
I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
For more reviews, visit: www.veereading.wordpress.com
I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
For more reviews, visit: www.veereading.wordpress.com
Netgalley ARC
After awkward teen Meredith witnesses the kidnapping of cruel, popular Lisa Bellow, both she , her family and her entire community must deal with the aftermath.
This book is an interesting exploration of adolescence and PTSD. Meredith is profoundly affected by the robbery and Lisa's disappearance. She not only has to confront the violence of the robbery and kidnapping, but her conflicted feelings about Lisa, who had been mean to her in the past. She also finds herself thrust into a new social sphere as Lisa's friends need answers about her disappearance.
The book deals with Meredith and her mother, Claire. Both perspectives are very realistic. The author really nails adolescence and middle age in a very real way. I have a lot in common with 13 year old Meredith, she comes across as a real person, not a generic teen. Claire also has a lot of her own issues, that seem very true to life. She's not a goody two shoes perfect mom. She was a very interesting character.
This book's strengths are the characters and their relationships. The plot gets a little convoluted about halfway through, but I was satisfied with the overall explanation and ending.
After awkward teen Meredith witnesses the kidnapping of cruel, popular Lisa Bellow, both she , her family and her entire community must deal with the aftermath.
This book is an interesting exploration of adolescence and PTSD. Meredith is profoundly affected by the robbery and Lisa's disappearance. She not only has to confront the violence of the robbery and kidnapping, but her conflicted feelings about Lisa, who had been mean to her in the past. She also finds herself thrust into a new social sphere as Lisa's friends need answers about her disappearance.
The book deals with Meredith and her mother, Claire. Both perspectives are very realistic. The author really nails adolescence and middle age in a very real way. I have a lot in common with 13 year old Meredith, she comes across as a real person, not a generic teen. Claire also has a lot of her own issues, that seem very true to life. She's not a goody two shoes perfect mom. She was a very interesting character.
This book's strengths are the characters and their relationships. The plot gets a little convoluted about halfway through, but I was satisfied with the overall explanation and ending.
Meredith and her nemesis, Lisa Bellow, are both at a Wawa-style convenience store when it's robbed. The armed robber takes Lisa with him, leaving Meredith behind.
This is such an interesting book but first a caveat: there is no resolution. We don't know what happened to Lisa. And we don't know for sure that Meredith will ever be OK again.
I loved this book. I think it'd be easy for other people to not love it (lack of resolution; weird aspects of the plot) but if you're comfortable with ambiguity, this is totally the book for you.
Recommended.
This is such an interesting book but first a caveat: there is no resolution. We don't know what happened to Lisa. And we don't know for sure that Meredith will ever be OK again.
I loved this book. I think it'd be easy for other people to not love it (lack of resolution; weird aspects of the plot) but if you're comfortable with ambiguity, this is totally the book for you.
Recommended.
Lisa Bellow & Meredith Oliver are not best of friends, they are schoolmates whose lockers are next to each others. Lisa Bellow is introduced as a mean person who is good at bullying other kids.
A masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, and Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the dirty floor,Meredith comes face to face with Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in her eighth grade class. In a span of few minutes the gunman orders Lisa to follow him and then the story spirals around the consequences to Meredith's mind thinking about Lisa's fate.
As Meredith is going through the turmoil of the consequences, her mom Claire is going through her own suffering between the injured son (Meredith's brother) and Meredith's helplessness!
What I liked - Meredith's character was well thought, but the rest of them could have been improvised better!
Her brother who gets injured in the eye and cannot play baseball was annoying, and the father was even worse though their roles are not as much as her mom and Lisa's mom's in the book.
What I didnt understand - why Meredith suddenly felt close to Lisa though she was ignored by Lisa & her friends!
also is there a 2nd book coming out as I felt the ending was very abrupt with unanswered questions - what happened after the abduction to Lisa???
A masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, and Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the dirty floor,Meredith comes face to face with Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in her eighth grade class. In a span of few minutes the gunman orders Lisa to follow him and then the story spirals around the consequences to Meredith's mind thinking about Lisa's fate.
As Meredith is going through the turmoil of the consequences, her mom Claire is going through her own suffering between the injured son (Meredith's brother) and Meredith's helplessness!
What I liked - Meredith's character was well thought, but the rest of them could have been improvised better!
Her brother who gets injured in the eye and cannot play baseball was annoying, and the father was even worse though their roles are not as much as her mom and Lisa's mom's in the book.
What I didnt understand - why Meredith suddenly felt close to Lisa though she was ignored by Lisa & her friends!
also is there a 2nd book coming out as I felt the ending was very abrupt with unanswered questions - what happened after the abduction to Lisa???