MEETING THE AUTHORS: AMY ZHANG AND ANDREA PORTES.

Where I relive the experience and share all the feels before, during and after meeting these fantastic authors WHO ARE BASICALLY LIFE.

I still have double major book signing hangover from Sarah's Event last March and Jennifer Niven's last June so I honest don't know how to properly fangirl. I've read Falling into Place by Amy Zhang early last year and quite enjoyed it! Falling into Place is one of the two books (All the Bright Places is the other one in case you are wondering) that practically had been there for me during my low points in this life. So I am quite possessive of this copy of mine and I just can't sell or give it away. Every time I look at those two books, I am reminded of how my life has changed and that I will give my might just not to go back to that awful place.

Okay, so I haven't read any Portes books and I don't really understand why I couldn't find a hardcover of Anatomy of a Misfit from the date I learned about the signing until the signing day itself. Like, the hell with marketing strategies I needed my freaking book now I couldn't even come up with story-related questions for the author. But I am so glad Amy and Andrea were THAT cool to entertain questions out of this world.

You would understand if there's really  no bookish connection between me and Andrea, right? I've been meaning to get a copy of Anatomy of a Misfit even before all this but for some reason, I kept stalling. I said it a lot of times that I knew I should have gotten THAT HC copy but meh I didn't and there's no do overs in this life so I need to move on. I just feel a little upset with myself because there's the chance of talking to an NYT Bestselling Author, that chance that just went out the window.

Amy on the other hand is so OPEN, like she's all smiles and chitchats and she really does communicate as if we're her close friends. I've ask a lot of questions (for the proper Q&A, I ask on behalf of Precious), silly ones and personal ones. Without even blinking, she goes in this story-teller mode and I love it. Dianne even suggested Jolibee to her and she's game! She also told us how's college life going and that she doesn't really write write, but just does it during breaks. And I can't get over how "sunny" her smile is. (if there's such a thing!) She's so approachable!

"You get one chance. You get to do this and that and you don't even know when it goes from swirling forward and around and around in circles to just a plain cold stop and nothing more." - Anatomy of a Misfit

"Please," he whispers, "Remember the sky." - Falling into Place

Thank you once again to National Bookstore, Epic Reads, HarperCollins, Bloggers, Andrea and Amy! I had a blast!

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:

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*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."