A review by katkinney
Even If I Fall by Abigail Johnson

5.0

Wow, this is one of the very best books I’ve read so far this year! What a tearjerker. Brooke’s brother is “gone.” Heath’s brother is “gone.” But we find out as the book progresses that “gone” has very different meanings, and that one was responsible for the other’s death. Brooke is now the town pariah. Her mother runs obsessively, cries in closets, and relies on Brooke to keep the house functioning. Her dad doesn’t leave the basement and talks in grunts. Little sister has gone nearly catatonic. No one goes into town anymore but Brooke, where everyone in their small, West Texas community shuns her for what her brother did.

Here’s where things get interesting. Brooke and Heath meet and start to talk. There’s a lot of anger. Brooke is sure there is more to what happened that night than what her brother told the police. He can’t be a killer. Heath’s brother was his best friend. And as she goes searching for the truth and bits and pieces start to unfold, this goes in lots of directions I wasn’t expecting! So good, and takes a very sensitive, heartfelt look at all the sides of what it means to have a loved one in the prison system, and what it is to lose someone in a horrible senseless way. Very thought-provoking.