Tuesday, January 6, 2015

REVIEW: FALLING INTO PLACE BY AMY ZHANG.

Title: Falling into Place
Author: Amy Zhang
Series: Standalone
Edition: Paperback (International Edition)
Publication: September 9, 2014 Greenwillow Books
Source: Bought from National Bookstore
Pages: 296
Genre: Contemporary (Realistic Fiction, Mental Illness)

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? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE:

*I don't know but this might contain slight spoilers.*

The universe stopped conspiring and gave me another fantastic read.

Liz Emerson applied Newton's Laws of Motion in a horrible way - her death. Despite her luxurious life, she's empty. This emptiness turned her to being bully which eventually made her feel she ruined everybody's life at school, including her best friends'. And no matter what she does, she will never be better and thought that the world didn't deserve someone like her.

I've read novels tackling the same topic - depression, suicide, bullying - but Falling into Place touched these sensitive topic in a unique perspective. The narrator's distinctive, alternating chapters are presented alluringly, the metaphors are lyrical and I have to commend how the number of pages were printed (I liked it, it was cute, okay?). Falling into Place is nothing like what I've read in the past in a way that this tells us a journey of a teen who got it all but still felt empty. The void in her life made her do horrible things to others yet couldn't find the strength to fix it or change her ways. The deeper I get to the story, the stronger the impact has been. Like, my chest constricts so much while reading Liz's parts. One part I cannot forget was the part she googled suicide symptoms and murmured, "no one noticed". I was crushed and thought, the level of taking people for granted is so high that the strong facade these people carry hide what they truly feel so well. It was so painful that those people she cared about didn't know how lost she truly was. And I must say, it all goes back to parents.

One thing I also liked about this story is that all major characters had points of views. I appreciated how I learned about Liz's mothers feelings and reasons why she withdrew so much from her daughter's life. I understood her yet wished that as Liz's mother, she could have done more. Also, Liam Oliver's POV truly caused me internal bleeding. How ironic it was that Liz remembered him but he didn't know and she didn't say anything. All they needed was communication and it would have been a happily ever after. I LOVED HOW HE PAID ATTENTION WHEN NO ONE DARED TO. I loved him, his small ways of kindness and his respect for Liz.

Heart-rending yet passionate, Falling into Place can cause bucket loads of tears and a crushed heart. Packed with misguided love and flickering hope, Falling into Place is poignant reminder of life's cause and effect. A truly engaging debut!

"She didn't run up like she used to, because there is no one to race her."
"By the end, she was just another girl stuffed full of forgotten dreams."
"Out of the seven billion people sharing the planet with her, not one of them knew what was going through her head. Not one of them knew that she was lost. Not one of them asked."
"Please," he whispers, "Remember the sky."
"She wanted to go back. She wanted to be little girl again, the one who taught getting high meant being pushed on the swings and pain was falling off her bike."

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