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A review by liralen
The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane
3.0
It's nice to see a piece of YA travel fiction that isn't all about the obvious landmarks—for example, Clementine is in Ireland, but she doesn't, I don't know, get drunk with a red-haired leprechaun in Temple Bar and then rhapsodize about Ireland's forty(ish) shades of green en route to kiss the Blarney Stone.* Better, she doesn't limit her interactions to other Americans; almost all the characters in the book are Irish.
However...there was a little too much YA-magic for my tastes here. A lot too much, actually. What is YA magic, you ask? Well. YA magic is when the first person the amnesiac heroine (magically) meets is the Nicest Boy Ever™ who will go out of his way to help her (and everyone else he meets). It's when, since she has no money, said Nicest Boy Ever™ leaves €100 by her bedside every morning so she'll have pocket money. It's when Nicest Boy Ever™ and his Not As Nice Sister™ (Bitter Bitch Sister? Salty Sister?) both work long hours for no pay because they can. It's when none of the characters around her, all strangers, mind that she tells them virtually nothing about her past or why she's unwilling to go home; instead they tell her she's the bravest person they've ever met and the strongest person they've ever met and altogether kind of amazing. Never mind that nobody, including the heroine, is telling the whole truth. It's when the amnesia is instantly (magically) cured by the heroine hearing her father's voice, and her father doesn't mind that she ran away from the hospital and has been officially missing for three weeks. It's when the Big Reveal at the end is only possible because of a series of highly unlikely coincidences. It's when characters brush aside major fucking breaches of trust with a wave of awand hand.
I don't know. There's some good fun to it, but it seems like Clementine spends 90% of the book running away from the truth, or from her reality...so there's barely time to acknowledge the things she's facing, let along work on them, at the end of the book. I'd have preferred to see a bit less fluffy romance and a bit more grit.
*I just looked this up. Conclusion: nope. Nope nope nope.
However...there was a little too much YA-magic for my tastes here. A lot too much, actually. What is YA magic, you ask? Well. YA magic is when the first person the amnesiac heroine (magically) meets is the Nicest Boy Ever™ who will go out of his way to help her (and everyone else he meets). It's when, since she has no money, said Nicest Boy Ever™ leaves €100 by her bedside every morning so she'll have pocket money. It's when Nicest Boy Ever™ and his Not As Nice Sister™ (Bitter Bitch Sister? Salty Sister?) both work long hours for no pay because they can. It's when none of the characters around her, all strangers, mind that she tells them virtually nothing about her past or why she's unwilling to go home; instead they tell her she's the bravest person they've ever met and the strongest person they've ever met and altogether kind of amazing. Never mind that nobody, including the heroine, is telling the whole truth. It's when the amnesia is instantly (magically) cured by the heroine hearing her father's voice, and her father doesn't mind that she ran away from the hospital and has been officially missing for three weeks. It's when the Big Reveal at the end is only possible because of a series of highly unlikely coincidences. It's when characters brush aside major fucking breaches of trust with a wave of a
I don't know. There's some good fun to it, but it seems like Clementine spends 90% of the book running away from the truth, or from her reality...so there's barely time to acknowledge the things she's facing, let along work on them, at the end of the book. I'd have preferred to see a bit less fluffy romance and a bit more grit.
*I just looked this up. Conclusion: nope. Nope nope nope.