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:

Amazon ▴ Barnes and Noble ▴ Book Depository

*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."

REVIEW: ARCLIGHT BY JOSIN MCQUEIN.

Title: Arclight
Author: Josin L. McQuein
Series: Arclight #1
Edition: Hardbound
Publication: April 23, 2013 by Greenwillow
Pages: 403
Source: Bought from Fullybooked
Category: Romance, Dystopia

Synopsis:

No one crosses the wall of light . . . except for one girl who doesn’t remember who she is, where she came from, or how she survived. A harrowing, powerful debut thriller about finding yourself and protecting your future—no matter how short and uncertain it may be.

The Arclight is the last defense. The Fade can’t get in. Outside the Arclight’s border of high-powered beams is the Dark. And between the Light and the Dark is the Grey, a narrow, barren no-man’s-land. That’s where the rescue team finds Marina, a lone teenage girl with no memory of the horrors she faced or the family she lost. Marina is the only person who has ever survived an encounter with the Fade. She’s the first hope humanity has had in generations, but she could also be the catalyst for their final destruction. Because the Fade will stop at nothing to get her back. Marina knows it. Tobin, who’s determined to take his revenge on the Fade, knows it. Anne-Marie, who just wishes it were all over, knows it.

When one of the Fade infiltrates the Arclight and Marina recognizes it, she will begin to unlock secrets she didn’t even know she had. Who will Marina become? Who can she never be again?

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE:

Amazon  🔼 Barnes and Noble 🔼 Book Depository 

I've only seen Arclight several times and only heard about it a few times. I wasn't really familiar with the book at all because embarrassingly as it is, I wasn't THAT interested about it. I don't honestly know what it is about. Though I admit the cover pretty much did the job of convincing me to get it. And at this point, I am awed by it. AWED TO THE CORE.

Arclight is a facility that has so much light. It is surrounded with Grey and then the Dark where deadly Fades live. These Fades are humans poisoned when they entered the Dark and according to the humans in Arclight, no one survives the Fade. But Marina did. She is rescued from the Grey but the people who helped her didn't come back. Everyone in Arclight loathes her for being an anomaly plus she can't remember anything from her past. When the Fades attacked Arclight, they captured one Fade, Rue. They are dumfounded that he looks like a regular boy who can speak and only talks gibberish to Marina. Curious enough, Marina tries to know more about her past, about Tobin's father and the Fade and she's gone back to the Dark with Rue. She finds the truth she never expected to have happened and what she truly is.

Arclight is so fascinating. Arclight itself was built after the world and civilization's destruction after a science experiement gone terribly wrong. The nanites that are supposed to me a medical breakthrough in curing illnesses only it got out of hand and turned into a weapon that created the Fade and killed 90% of the human race. What I simply couldn't understand are: how are these nanites can't be exposed to light and how can they disintegrate a human body to pass through walls and still be whole afterwards. If it weren't for Rue, I will always imagine them just like the Death Eaters in Harry Potter.

The plot of Arclight moved as slow as a snail but that didn't annoy me or stop me to finish the novel. This is the first time it happened to me because I hate slow-paced stories. I devoured Arclight page by page and moved along with it slower than usually because Arclight kept unravelling mysteries and secrets as I go through it. The romance isn't so bad at all. Even if I felt like there's a brimming love triangle in one corner, it is a love triangle like no other. The story did focus on much important aspects such as the war with the Fade and the Fade itself and brought touches of intriguing romance in between. Arclight is so good on its own am afraid a sequel would just ruin it!

Marina is a tough chick. Without her memories to answer her questions, she braved facing her new life in Arclight. No matter how badly people treat her because of being different, that didn't stop her to care. She cared about her friend's safety but most especially Tobin. I loved Tobin's courage and emotional control and Tobin's father is so ideal. It isn't hard to fall in love with these amazing characters.

Arclight is suprisingly good that one book satisfied my bookish needs. It is thrilling and magnifyingly amazing! Arclight is more than that beautiful cover and even though I wouldn't want it to be a series, I can't help but be excited for book 2! I want more Tobin!

"Someone's attention shouldn't have a physical weight, but it does. Hate's a heavy burden; hope is worse."

"I wasn’t home. Home wasn’t that bed and that pain. Home didn’t hurt. There were no strangers who hid their faces or their voices from me. Home held no secrets."