Flannery's Reviews > Fall for Anything

This book falls somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me.

Eddie Reeves is lost since her father's suicide. A once-famous photographer, her father leaves basically no clues behind to indicate his motivations. Her mother is basically nonfunctioning after his death so her mother's best friend moves in to attempt to keep things in order. Eddie's own best friend, Milo, won't tell her some of the details about the night her father died. When she meets a mysterious former student of her father's who is similarly aggrieved by his death, they attempt to shed some light on the matter.

I had never read anything by Courtney Summers before and I appreciated her voice. At times, when I am reading Sarah Dessen books, I just wish she would be realistic about teenage thoughts and what goes on in high school. (Not that I don't enjoy Dessen's books, I definitely do) I think what I am getting at is that the conversations in this book felt real. So often in books, people say exactly what they want to say at the moment they want to say it. Sometimes we say things to people solely to be mean or to hit them where it hurts, especially when we're in a bad mood, and I'm glad these moments were left in the book. At one point, one of the characters tells another, "You make me feel alone," and I thought that was one of the harshest things someone could ever say to another person. The times after we lose someone we love are some of the hardest times we go through in life and Summers did a great job of capturing that feeling. (Especially the thought that everyone has--that no one can understand their grief)

There is a sort of love triangle going on in this book, but unlike basically every other YA book out there, there was absolutely no moment where I was cheering for one of the guys. One of them was a total creepshow and the other was (for the most part) really endearing. No contest.

I liked Courtney Summers' writing style and will definitely check out more of her work. She painted some beautiful imagery at times and I enjoyed the characters in the book. (even when I wasn't particularly enjoying their actions) Anyway, I don't want this book to sound earth-shattering because it wasn't. But I did enjoy it, read it rather quickly, and thought it was well done.