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  1 Falling into Place
Author: Zhang, Amy
 
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Class: Fiction
Age: 14-19
Language: English
LC: PZ7.1
Grade: 9-12
Print Run: 125000
ISBN-13: 9780062295040
LCCN: 2014018247
Imprint: Greenwillow Books
Publisher: William Morrow
Pub Date: 09/09/2014
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $17.99
  Hardcover
Physical Description: 296 pages ; 22 cm H 8.25", W 5.5", D 1.01", 0.84 lbs.
LC Series:
Brodart Sources: Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Teen
Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles
Brodart's YA Reads for Adults
Bibliographies: Senior High Core Collection, 20th ed.
Senior High Core Collection, 21st ed.
Young Adult Fiction Core Collection, 4th ed.
Awards: Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Starred Reviews:
TIPS Subjects: Social Issues
Friendship
Death and Dying
BISAC Subjects: YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Bullying
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Death, Grief, Bereavement
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Friendship
LC Subjects: Conduct of life, Fiction
Conduct of life, Juvenile fiction
Emotional problems of teenagers, Juvenile fiction
Emotional problems, Fiction
High schools, Fiction
High schools, Juvenile fiction
Interpersonal relations, Fiction
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Bullying
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Death & Dying
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship
Schools, Fiction
Suicide, Fiction
Suicide, Juvenile fiction
Youths' writings
SEARS Subjects: Conduct of life, Fiction
High schools, Fiction
Interpersonal relations, Fiction
Mental health, Fiction
School stories
Suicide, Fiction
Reading Programs: Accelerated Reader Level: 6 , Points: 8.0
 
Annotations
Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles | 09/01/2014
Liz Emerson's life is hanging by a thread after she steers straight into a tree. Nonlinear flashbacks from an unexpected narrator help tell the high school junior's twisted truth as Liz's loved ones and enemies meet at the hospital. Debut Novel, 304pp.
Journal Reviews
Booklist | 09/15/2014
Grades 8-11. Liz Emerson can't remember the last time she was happy, and for years, she has been destroying the people around her. If Newton's laws of motion hold true, her present unhappiness is but an equal and opposite reaction to past cruelties. So she attempts to end her life by intentionally driving her car off the interstate. At the hospital where she is brought after the crash, she hovers between life and death, and an unidentified narrator teases out a fuller examination of the reasons behind Liz's misery. Liz's last seven days are spliced with scenes from both the present and past. Teenage author Zhang has a knack for metaphor, particularly in relation to her recurring physics theme, as in her description of Liz and her best friends: "They had acceleration, she, Kennie, and Julia. . . . They were the catalysts, the fingers that tipped the first domino." An impressive debut from such a young writer, this should appeal to readers who sobbed through Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (2007). Colson, Diane. 304. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 12/01/2014
R. Gr. 8-12. Liz Emerson's calculated plan, to commit suicide in a way that looks like an accident by driving off an icy curve on the road, goes awry when she doesn't die instantly but instead ends up in the ICU with her mother, friends, and classmates devastated by this shocking turn of events. Flashbacks to Liz's earlier years and third-person focalizations through her friends reveal what brought Liz to this point, where the charismatic class alpha has gradually developed enough conscience to be filled with self-hatred about the horrible things she's done to friends and foes alike. Zhang's smooth, cool prose makes even the soapiest bits of the story-the medical drama, the boy who forgives Liz her abuse and loves her for who she really is-feel insightful. The detached tone, often coming from a narrator who turns out to be Liz's childhood imaginary friend, adds gravitas: "Liz Emerson felt that she was forever looking up at people who were much, much better than she ever could be, and the only thing she was really good at was pulling them down to her level." It's ultimately still a romantic portrait, since even in her awfulness Liz remains absolutely omnipotent and magnetic, but it's interesting to see the mean girl through the eyes of the people who love her, despite (and sometimes because of) her flaws. DS. 296p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2014.
Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2015
3. As Liz Emerson lies in a coma following a suicide attempt, the narrative explores the power of cause and effect by traveling back and forth between the times before and after Liz's car crash. A mysterious narrator; an intriguing premise; and short, lyrical chapters characterize this novel that will appeal to fans of Thirteen Reasons Why and If I Stay. ncp. 298pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2015.
Kirkus Reviews | 06/15/2014
A teen tries to commit suicide by crashing her car in this debut from an adolescent author.High school junior Liz Emerson hovers between life and death in the hospital after purposefully running her car off the road, while friends, teachers and curious classmates gather to stand watch and hope for the best. Strategically timed flashbacks to weeks, days and minutes before the crash, some voiced by Liz's platitude-spouting childhood imaginary friend, reveal a wealthy, popular girl tortured by regret over her cruel actions against others. Her father died when she was young, and her widowed mother ignores Liz in favor of her globe-trotting job, but Liz knows that's no excuse for getting a friend hooked on drugs, urging another friend to have an abortion and making a mean viral video of a boy who has a crush on her. "Some nights, Liz looked back and counted the bodies, all the lives she had ruined simply by existing. So she chose to stop existing." Will Liz pull through? Depending on whether they identify with Liz or her victims, readers may be split about the novel's abrupt ending. Even though the text is peppered with cliches, the inventive structure and inspired use of the imaginary-friend narrator help overcome the earnest, immature prose and heavy-handed messages.Superior scaffolding, didactic execution. (Fiction. 13-16). 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014.
Publishers Weekly | 07/21/2014
Ages 14-up. Zhang debuts with the haunting story of a suicide attempt gone awry as high school junior Liz Emerson drives her Mercedes off the road, winding up in a coma. The reasons for Liz's actions and her substantial self-hatred emerge in chapters that alternate between the present, as friends and family gather at the hospital to find out whether Liz will pull through, and the weeks leading up to the car crash, along with examples of Liz's cruelty over the years. Among the sources of guilt and pain swirling around Liz's brain are her father's death, her mother's absentee parenting, her friends' drug problem and abortion (both of which Liz had a hand in), her own struggles with bulimia and loneliness, and the many classmates' reputations she has helped ruin. At times, the story takes on the feel of a novel-length guilt trip, all but entreating readers to recognize how they could be kinder in their own lives. But Zhang writes with confidence and finesse, and many readers will be moved as Liz recognizes the lives she has damaged. (Sept.). 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014.
School Library Journal | 07/01/2014
Gr 8 Up. Liz Emerson, a junior, "accidentally" runs her car off an icy roadway. Ashamed and depressed about the person she has become; detesting the loneliness when her widowed businesswoman mother travels; tired of being equally admired and deservedly hated by peers, she decides to end it all. Told from the inventive and effective viewpoint of Liz's childhood "imaginary friend," illuminating scenarios fluctuate between the hospital where Liz hangs on to life, to Liz's early youth, to past and present interactions between Liz and those around her. Liz and her two best friends, Kennie and Julia, party hearty often and treat others cruelly, yet it's Liz who confronts the guys' basketball team as they sexually taunt a lesbian classmate. Liz pushes pregnant Kennie to have an abortion, prods Julia into drug dependency, and plots to bully Liam who has a crush on her, yet she silently acknowledges and internalizes her faults, wishing someone would make her pay. After an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to get help, she designates herself as that someone by planning her suicide. Although the subject matter is heavy and there are a few easily brushed-off awkward moments, the breezy yet powerful and exceptionally perceptive writing style, multifaceted characters, surprisingly hopeful ending, and pertinent contemporary themes frame an engrossing, thought-provoking story that will be snapped up by readers of Todd Mitchell's Backwards (Candlewick, 2013) and Gayle Forman's If I Stay (Dutton, 2009.). Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, CO. 304p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014.
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