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A review by devonadelle
Free to Fall by Lauren Miller
5.0
Within the first 20 pages of the book, I was impacted enough by the subject matter to turn off my phone — a small reaction, but a reaction nonetheless. The story that Ms. Lauren Miller has crafted is one that speaks volumes on our growing connectedness as a society, our increasingly unhealthy obsession with advancing technology. I loved this book so much that I’m considering running out to the bookstore and buying it (I read a library copy) just so I can swoon about it to everyone I know and try to push it on them. This is the best social commentary I have seen in a YA novel in…months? years? I can’t even say for sure.
I’m on the verge of wishing this book had been slated for an adult sci-fi label, purely because it has a very special “bigger on the inside” (pardon the Doctor Who reference) story that could have been expounded upon further. The mystery that Rory first uncovers grows and grows as she gathers information and therefore the story really dives into some heavy topics like a twisted family mystery and a biotech scandal. Those two facets alone made me somewhat obsessed with the book and then add on the characters (I’m in love with Rory, North, and Hershey) and…well, I’m utterly obsessed.
Aside from the above, I enjoyed that Free to Fall takes place in our known world and not too far into the future. The familiarity made the story very easy to fall into and the advancements in technology that had been made in the 16 years between now (2014) and the story’s 2030 were very believable and realistic.
Young Adult fiction has been getting slammed right and left recently, and yet Free to Fall is a brilliant story that goes somewhere I have yet to experience in any other book: the social commentary is obvious, it is unapologetic, it is frighteningly true. It’s only 2014 in real life compared to the book’s 2030, and yet already we have toddlers who can’t read books or magazines properly because they think they can just swipe their finger across the page to go to the next, like on a tablet. Ten-year-olds (even some almost-sixty-year-olds I know) don’t communicate at family dinners because their faces are glued to their iPhones/other smartphones.
I have no complaints, only a note: I wasn’t expecting the ending to be what it was, but I really like what Ms. Miller decided to do. 10/10!!!
I’m on the verge of wishing this book had been slated for an adult sci-fi label, purely because it has a very special “bigger on the inside” (pardon the Doctor Who reference) story that could have been expounded upon further. The mystery that Rory first uncovers grows and grows as she gathers information and therefore the story really dives into some heavy topics like a twisted family mystery and a biotech scandal. Those two facets alone made me somewhat obsessed with the book and then add on the characters (I’m in love with Rory, North, and Hershey) and…well, I’m utterly obsessed.
Aside from the above, I enjoyed that Free to Fall takes place in our known world and not too far into the future. The familiarity made the story very easy to fall into and the advancements in technology that had been made in the 16 years between now (2014) and the story’s 2030 were very believable and realistic.
Young Adult fiction has been getting slammed right and left recently, and yet Free to Fall is a brilliant story that goes somewhere I have yet to experience in any other book: the social commentary is obvious, it is unapologetic, it is frighteningly true. It’s only 2014 in real life compared to the book’s 2030, and yet already we have toddlers who can’t read books or magazines properly because they think they can just swipe their finger across the page to go to the next, like on a tablet. Ten-year-olds (even some almost-sixty-year-olds I know) don’t communicate at family dinners because their faces are glued to their iPhones/other smartphones.
I have no complaints, only a note: I wasn’t expecting the ending to be what it was, but I really like what Ms. Miller decided to do. 10/10!!!