Review : Fall for Anything

Posted by kay on February 1, 2011 1:10 am in 5 stars reads | 6 comments

Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers
Pages : 230
Genre : YA, Fiction
Stand Alone
My Rating :

What it’s about :

After her father takes his own life, Eddie is haunted by the question : why? What pushed him to commit suicide, leaving his wife and daughter behind? Then she meets Culler Evans, her father’s student, and the two discover photographs that might lead them to answers. As they follow the clues, Eddie is faced with even more questions : why does she feel such an attraction to Culler? Will knowing the truth help her go through her grief?

I will dare say that Courtney Summers did it again : yes, once more her words hit hard and strong, and they took my breath away with this tragic story of grief.

The man who did every stereotypical father cliché in the book and acted like he loved it. I don’t think of him anymore. I buried him. Now it’s like I’m looking for answers to a stranger’s death and I couldn’t tell anyone why it’s so important to me, because this stranger didn’t do anything for me. (p. 133)

Summers is well known in the community of young adult fiction readers, and her two previous books have gathered great praise. I, personally, really liked Cracked up to be and liked Some Girls are a little less. Still, I have greatly appreciated the way she has with words, and I knew Fall for Anything would soon be on the top of my TBR pile.

I wasn’t disappointed. Even more than that, Fall for Anything is my favorite of Summers’ novels and my first favorite of 2011. I feel like I have lived through this book without taking a single breath. I couldn’t let it go before knowing what would happen, and in those cruel moments when life separated me from the pages, Eddie’s story was continuously on my mind.

Imagine you’re the weight around a person who jumps.
That you are what keeps them falling. (p.182)

With Eddie grieving her father, Summers does a great and realistic exploration of loss, but also of what this loss means to those who stay behind when this departure was a decision of the deceased. I could relate to Eddie even’t though I have never been in her exact place, mainly because she was more than a daughter mourning a father : through various events and glimpses of her thoughts, we get to know her as who she was before, and who she is now. She also is surrounded by an interesting cast of characters, who each have their own way of dealing with the grief. While a couple of them, like Missy or Beth, felt a bit stereotyped, they in fact were a good balance to the main characters. Also, I loved Milo, though I wish I could have gotten a better sense of who he was.

I think an aspect I love the most of Summers’ writing, apart from her simple yet precise use of words, is how her books don’t really offer resolution in the typical way other novels do. The story does lead somewhere, and some answers are given, and there is some hope for the best, yes; but I never leave feeling like the story ended there. It’s more like I caught a glimpse in someone else’s life, and I leave with a vague idea of what will happen, yet with no certainty.

A lot like life, really.

Click on the covers to read my thoughts on Courtney Summers’ previous books :