Review: Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

Publication: September 9, 2014

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Format: via Edelweiss

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

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?

My Thoughts

Where do I start exactly? First off this book is phenomenal! It’s like nothing I’ve ever read before. It’s the story of Liz and how she decides to kill herself, but this book is so much more than that. It’s about cause and effect how one tiny thing can change the course of your life. Liz wasn’t the best person and she now knows this and at some point it just becomes too much. She is lonely and knows that she has done things to people and knows that they are that way because of her.

This book gripped my soul and kept me intrigued until the very end. I like how it’s told through different characters and also by the timeline. I loved the tug of war I had with myself in deciding how I felt about Liz. At times I thought she was an utter bitch, while at other times I truly felt sorry for her. She is a teen who is so alone, physically and emotionally. She feels as if she doesn’t have anyone to turn to. She feels guilt over events that have happened in her life and feels responsible for what happened. And while I was never good at science or physics I thought this was used very uniquely in this read. Definitely something different and I thought it was brilliantly used here. This book puts you through so many emotions I was utterly drained when I was done, but in a GOOD way of course.

I highly recommend Falling into Place, Amy Zhang is an amazing writer who gives us a book that is different and addicting. Once you start you won’t want to stop until you're done. It takes you on a ride that you soon won’t forget. It’s simply beautiful yet heartbreaking at the same time, two things that don’t usually go together but here it works out seamlessly.