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A review by writervid
The Upside of Falling by Alex Light
2.0
This book just didn't work for me?
On a technical level, I can appreciate the characters' growth and how their objectives sort of lined up with each others' at the start of the book. I also enjoyed the exploration of the "broken family," and how parental relationships played into the plot.
However, as someone who typically likes fake dating plotlines, this didn't work for me. The reasons for starting to fake date felt too contrived, and the development of the relationship was told to us rather than shown (I think the friendship development was well done, but the relationship as a whole? Nah). There was no angst, and the character that had the most page time (Becca) felt bland. I didn't like the repetition in the writing style of simple sentences one after the other, and nothing really felt RESOLVED at the end of the book, at least in a way that wasn't contrived.
It's a decently written story, and the characters are well-rounded. This just wasn't for me.
On a technical level, I can appreciate the characters' growth and how their objectives sort of lined up with each others' at the start of the book. I also enjoyed the exploration of the "broken family," and how parental relationships played into the plot.
However, as someone who typically likes fake dating plotlines, this didn't work for me. The reasons for starting to fake date felt too contrived, and the development of the relationship was told to us rather than shown (I think the friendship development was well done, but the relationship as a whole? Nah). There was no angst, and the character that had the most page time (Becca) felt bland. I didn't like the repetition in the writing style of simple sentences one after the other, and nothing really felt RESOLVED at the end of the book, at least in a way that wasn't contrived.
It's a decently written story, and the characters are well-rounded. This just wasn't for me.