Book Review: The Upside of Falling Down

The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Contemporary teen books and I are not usually friends. I still read them because when I like one it is often amazing. The Upside of Falling Down is an unusual situation as I didn't love it or hate it. It was okay. I find I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other.

Plot
Easily the best part of this book is the plot. Rebekah Crane takes us on a journey with our lead gal who has temporary amnesia. And while she has all the correct supports in place; she still runs away because in her mind she isn't the girl everyone at the hospital thinks she is. I can absolutely see myself as a teen doing exactly what our lead gal does. The twisting road the anmesia leads us on as readers is interesting. We only know what our lead girl knows; which means we have an unreliable narrator that may not be giving us all the details in the right order or even accurately. As the reader we also don't know what our lead gal is leaving out. What details is she not seeing or choosing to ignore. If you're a smart reader you'll actually focus on what she isn't telling us more than what she is.

Love Interest
Here's where The Upside of Falling Down looses me a bit. Yes there is an obvious, in your face love interest; and of course he's attractive, rich and without the 'constraints' of parents being present in his life. The perfect scenario for our lead girl to fall into. *rolls eyes*
The thing is that the actual lust/love aspects of the story are quite genuine. The first time is a bit glossed over but overall the interactions between the two feel genuine and reminded me of my own stumbling teenage years and relations with boys. So while the scenario may be convenient I'll give Crane props for making our teens act like teens.

Overall
There is a fun twist to this book that all goes back to our unreliable lead gal whose telling us the story. I liked how by the end I was ready for what happened and felt it made good sense. For some it may seem far-fetched but I didn't feel that way. With the exception of some convenient moments in the plot and characters I overall felt this was a well put together contemporary teen novel. And from this pessimistic teen literature reviewer that is actually a pretty good compliment.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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