Falling Into Place is the kind of novel that handles adolescence with the heavy hand it is often handled with in YA lit. It is a story that tackles life, death, and every other teenage problem that one could possibly encounter. Beginning with the near-death of Liz Emerson by suicide, the novel follows If I Stay in its use of flashback and the demonstration of life around a hospitalized and hardly-alive Liz. It chronicles her experiences as they connect to addiction, depression and the exposure to other negative forces that surround her and her friends. By showing the fragile lives of those around Liz, Zhang develops a complex statement about suburban teenage living.
Falling Into Place was, in my eyes, the combination of about six very well directed after school specials. As I mentioned above, a plethora of typical adolescent troubles are explored through the telling of Liz Emerson's tale. In most cases (by most cases I mean Degrassi), I believe that media of this variety tends to portray the teenage years as ones composed entirely of angst and mental illness; but Falling Into Place was written gracefully enough that I felt as if maybe Liz Emerson's friends were just a group of kids facing the worst of it. It also made me want to be their therapist. I really enjoyed the way Zhang portrayed the complex years: without the whiny quality I find in many YA books and with the sophistication of someone who truly understands a teen's mind.
The most alluring part of this novel was an interesting tidbit about the author, Amy Zhang. At age 18, she has published a novel that made me serious think about the challenges of the American youth and not just dismiss adolescence as a decade of drama. Rad, dude.
Falling Into Place was, in my eyes, the combination of about six very well directed after school specials. As I mentioned above, a plethora of typical adolescent troubles are explored through the telling of Liz Emerson's tale. In most cases (by most cases I mean Degrassi), I believe that media of this variety tends to portray the teenage years as ones composed entirely of angst and mental illness; but Falling Into Place was written gracefully enough that I felt as if maybe Liz Emerson's friends were just a group of kids facing the worst of it. It also made me want to be their therapist. I really enjoyed the way Zhang portrayed the complex years: without the whiny quality I find in many YA books and with the sophistication of someone who truly understands a teen's mind.
The most alluring part of this novel was an interesting tidbit about the author, Amy Zhang. At age 18, she has published a novel that made me serious think about the challenges of the American youth and not just dismiss adolescence as a decade of drama. Rad, dude.