October 30, 2014

Review: Falling into Place by Amy Zhang


Title: Falling into Place
Author: Amy Zhang
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release date: September 9th 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 2.5/5

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On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.


Falling into Place is one of my most anticipated books to read this year, because it was advertised for fans of Gayle Forman and I love the If I Stay duology, is one of my favorites and I feel that perhaps my expectations were so high due to this and this story fell short for me, it wasn´t what I was expecting (maybe that has a lot to do with my disappointment with this book).

This time I'm with the minority, but I could not really click with the story, I didn´t like the characters (especially Liz), and it felt disjointed the narrative due of so much jumping back and forth on the timeline (it didn´t work for me this time so much jump in the timeline and different POVs), I feel that that made ​​it difficult to delve into the story of Liz Emerson and even the question of whom was the mysterious narrator didn´t kept my attention on the plot.

Liz is a young woman that decides she no longer wants to live, so she plans her suicide to look like an accident, she lives with her mother that´s always absent, Liz suffers from depression, she has bulimia and alcohol problems, but on her exterior she´s the most popular girl at school, has great friends, the "perfect" boyfriend and life, she´s the typical mean girl, she likes to make fun of the less popular, makes pranks, crushes those that bother her and persuades her friends Kennie and Julia to do what she wants, so it also ends up affecting their lives.

The story jumps between the present and the past from several points of view, which skips between moments of Liz and those around her; and what were the motives led her to commit suicide, taking as its starting point her car "accident".

I hoped it was a very emotional read, but it was not the case (at least for me) and even some touching moments, felt disjointed because I didn´t connect with the story, or with Liz and I could not enjoy it.
Definitely this book was not for me.

7 comments:

  1. I felt the same way about 13 Reasons Why. I know a lot of people thought it was emotionally jaunting, but I was disappointed.

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  2. I really liked this book. it was mysterious and weird and even though I didn't like Liz, I liked the book in general
    GREAT review
    Your reader,
    Soma R.
    http://insomnia-of-books.blogspot.com/

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  3. This is just not a book that I have been drooling over. If i do read a tear-jerker of a story, it has to be because something in the synopsis screams at me. It sounds like I made a good choice by not reading this one. Thank you for your review!

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  4. Yikes not for me. Great review though!!

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  5. This is one of the books on my TBR list that I am looking forward to. There have been a lot of mixed reviews, so my hopes aren't set too high or low either. It still seems like something I might enjoy though, so I hope I do...

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  6. I really love this cover and I was toying with picking it up, especially since it was compared to Gayle Forman. I was hesitant because I really don't usually like suicide books (I'm the only person on the planet who HATES 13 Reasons Why) and I also kind of hate math. However, I was still holding out hope. To hear it isn't emotional and how disjointed the experience is, well, it pretty much removes this from my TBR pile. I'm glad I read this review!

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  7. Sad to hear you didn't like this book.
    It sounds like an interesting one but after reading your review I don't know if it is something for me.
    Thanks for this review.

    Mariska

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