REVIEWS
1.) May 02, 2015Kristin (KC) rated it 4 of 5 stars Shelves: favorite-authors, new-adult-ya, mystery
*Just About 4 Stars*
Fall for Anything takes an honest and heartbreaking look into the aftermath of a loved one's suicide, and vividly explores the self-blame and confusion that inevitably lingers.
While I didn't find this story as edgy or intense as some of Summers' others, its messages were every bit as impactful.
The plot itself moves at a slower pace and, although some mystery is incorporated, is a fairly steady, straightforward ride.
But what stood out most for me was the genuine nature of each character, which allowed me to remain fully convinced and invested at all times. The tone of this story was depressingly solemn, and the characters' behaviors stayed true to that.
Since her father's sudden suicide, Eddie lives a life fueled by desperate motivation: trying to uncover the reason her talented, artist father took his own life. When clues begin presenting themselves, Eddie jumps head first into a do-or-die investigation. Haunted by endless questions and ignored by a mother who's too broken to leave her bed, giving in to this uncertain quest is something Eddie simply must do.
There is a shadow of a romance entwined, but the heart of this plot lies in Eddie's pain and frustrations. As with all books by this author, the ending is left somewhat open, offering insinuations while still presenting gratification. I believe this particular book was this author's early work, and while I enjoyed, I can certainly see how her unique talent has multiplied in her recent novels!
A touching read!
2.) Mar 30, 2012Emily May rated it 5 of 5 starsShelves: young-adult, 2011
I can't imagine why Courtney Summers' novels aren't more widely read, I guess it might have something to do with Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are being marketed as your typical high school clique-y/boy-obsessed novels. Their covers suggest something you'd find in every American high school movie and even the quote from the School Library Journal about Some Girls Are is: "Fans of the film Mean Girls will enjoy this tale of redemption and forgiveness".
Well, let me tell you this... Courtney Summers' books are incredibly raw and emotional, they are addictive in that "just one more chapter" way, even when it's 2am and you have to get up early. She gets right inside the mind of her protagonist like so few authors manage to do. Even this book, a story so different from her two previous novels, was utterly mesmerizing. Though, if you only like happy books she probably isn't the right choice for you.
It's insane how many popular novels tackle the same subjects such as loss, sexual assault, and bullying but are far less effective. So many try and fail to capture the sadness, loneliness and guilt that Courtney Summers repeatedly manages to deliver so expertly.These books need to be read.
As for Fall for Anything, it's the story of Eddie, a girl whose father has just commit suicide. Desperate for answers as to why a successful photographer would choose to end his life, Eddie teams up with his ex-student in an attempt to decode what may be the troubled artist's final message to the world. With her mother sinking deeper into depression and her mother's friend taking over their home with little regard for Eddie's grief, this could be her only chance to regain some of her previous life back... but what if the answer she finds is the last thing she wanted to hear?
Trust me, if you're not familiar with Courtney Summers, get to it! And I highly recommend you start with Some Girls Are.
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3.)
Mar 26, 2015Chelsea ❤Peril Please❤ rated it 5 of 5 starsShelves: courtney-summers-rules-all, could-read-over-and-over-again, don-t-be-fooled-by-the-cover, favorites, unforgettable-male-leads
We're all lost in different ways, so how do we even help each other find our way out. We won't. We can't. We'll just stay lost forever.
Wow. Just all the feels. All the feels in the world. It's no secret I adore this author and would face a throw down in the Hunger Games to get another of her books in my hands, but I don't think I could possibly portray just how deeply her books touch me. It's not because I have all these dark inner thoughts and need a book like this to feel like someone is actually reaching me-No, what gets to me is the idea that I might have these dark thoughts...and no one would even know about it. Courtney Summers doesn't hide from the harsher parts of life. All her books deal with inner turmoil in one way or another, but you never ONCE feel as though you are reading a suffocating story-it feels like any other book laced with humor and boys and parties and high school. But the kicker is that you are living your life in someone else's shoes. Someone's shoes that don't have it as easy as you do. Someone who might just feel like they are dying inside but play the part every day like they are fine...when in fact they are slowly losing pieces of themselves each day that passes. These stories make you wonder just how much you know about those around you. Her books are that kind of powerful.
I imagine forcing myself farther down, until I feel weeds everywhere, brushing the sides of my arms, my feet, and then I'm surrounded. Tangled up in them so bad the lake would have me forever. I imagine drowning and what that would feel like, if I'd be scared. If I'd let it happen or if I'd fight it. I read in a book once you can't drown yourself. Your body will fight to survive, whether you want to or not.
But I don't think it's the same when you jump.
My biggest question has nothing to do with this book-why why WHY don't more people read this woman's books?? They are beautiful and profound and they aren't your every day drivel and formula we all have memorized and rehearsed-they actually have strong messages that give you feels in ways you never imagined possible. She expands your mind to a point you didn't even realize existed. This is a book about suicide? I couldn't even tell. I was hypnotized, as always, from page one when I got a glimpse of Summer's words again.
No author speaks to me the way this one does. We get romance, which I love, but it isn't solely driven by that. I get emotional and obsessed with every aspect of the story, giving me these deep rooted feels I didn't even know existed outside of romance. And I don't see why more people haven't latched onto her work like a life boat. I've felt like I have been drowning lately over the books I've read (not in a good way), slowly sinking into a depression where I didn't think I'd fall hard for a book for a long time. But thank God I saved the last available Summers book up until this moment-I feel as though I've been air-lifted out of my funk, which brings no short amount of humor to my attention, in that this book had such dark matter...but that's the point-it all mattered to me. And I guess that's all I've been wanting-to actually care.
I catch sight of myself in the mirror and realize my father will never see me like this. I am becoming a person my father will never get to know.
A touching story where a girl feels betrayed after her father commits suicide, leaving no evidence as to why he chose to do so-causing her to grasp for more, any kind of more, to help with the whys and the hows and the whens. A journey where a girl is so desperate for answers she continually searches and strives for anything she can find....and then she meets a guy who might just know more than she does about what happened that night.Her best friend, Milo, learns about this and becomes protective and concerned and...jealous? Could he possibly be jealous? They've been best friends since second grade and ever since her father's death, he has been worried sick about her and her well-being. He would do pretty much anything for her....even help her to figure out what's going on with mystery guy and the clues he found from her father...even when he thinks she should just try to live and move on.
Sometimes I feel hunted by my grief. It circles me, stalks me. It's always in my periphery. Sometimes I can fake it out. Sometimes I make myself go so still, it can't sense that I'm there anymore and it goes away. I do that right now.
I go so still the thing inside me doesn't know I'm there anymore.
Today, here, now I didn't exist (How many times have I used this word? See? I'm out of my mind nuts for this book) outside of this story. For whatever reason it latched onto my heart and put it in a vice, squeezing and squeezing until that very last page where I finally, finally could let my breath slowly ease out and I could just simply be. That's what her books do to me. They rip me out of reality until I feel like coming back-not often do books hold that power over you. That power where you know things are going on outside this vivid, imaginative world, but you are so focused and intent on this story that you kind of...live in an alternative plane of existence where you're simply going through the motions in the real world until you can pick the story back up. That was me last night. I smiled. I nodded. I talked with the hubbs...but the only thing I wanted was to get back to Eddie and protective little Milo!
I can't even look at her. I can't do this right now. I leave the room. I leave the house. I'm always leaving, but I never have anywhere to go.
There is strong subject matter that won't be fit for everyone, so I suggest you pick up her other works first like Some Girls Are or This is Not a Test and see if those stories touch you just as much as her writing has touched me. My first suggestion? Some Girls Are. But for an excellent dystopian that brought me out of the dystopian funk I was in (my favorite type of book so imagine how sad I was), I suggest This is Not a Test. I almost guarantee you'll like one of those, if not both. If you don't enjoy those, then her writing is likely not for you-Summers always has a dark undertone to her writing and a sleek way of working real tragedy into the stories, so you'll quickly know if it's a trigger you can handle. Though, I just can't imagine that being the case-ever. It's not all dark-there are beautiful moments between friends and jealousies and protectiveness and she creates some pretty dreamy boys that I have found to be unforgettable-almost every story has a heartbreaking romance that, while it doesn't steal the show, it totally does because it's not stealing the show lol. Meaning, by not pushing it in our faces, it totally makes you obsessed with it to the point where you're...well...obsessed. But you still care about the depth of the story-line-which is a big problem for me. In most books all I care about is the romance.
Aaron launches himself off the roof and the time it takes him to fall seems like one of those forever kind of seconds-the kind you feel every inch of yourself present for, the kind where you can absorb every detail and recall it easily later, but also the kind that's gone so quickly you wonder how it's even possible to have walked away with that much of it carved into your soul.
I was going through a reading slump, but this book brought me back from that dark place. I got to add a new favorite to my shelf and I was able to immerse my myself in a sea of one of my favorite author's words, once again. It just goes to show I've really evolved as a reader, since 2012. I need something palpable, real. I need flawed characters who make mistakes. I don't need that perfectly wrapped up HEA anymore (okay, well, I mean Lauren Layne's books have the PERFECT HEA's so that's a lie-I'll always need those....) to fulfill me. I just need an expertly woven story...and Summers delivers.
4.)
Jan 23, 2011Arlene rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Arlene by: Street Corner January Read
Shelves: read-2011, young-adult
Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars
Fall for Anything is one of those few stories that kept me up all night until I finished the book because I just had to see how this car crash would end. It’s by no means a feel good escapist book. It’s about parental suicide and learning how to cope with the aftermath of unanswered questions and a quest for the truth.
Spoilerish comments coming, but if you haven’t read the book, I don’t think they’ll make much sense.
When Eddie stumbles across Culler at the warehouse where it all went down, my creep detector radar was sending off high static signals. All it took was for him to take an unsolicited picture of Eddie for me to feel there was something not right happening here. I don’t blame Eddie for falling for him, she’s confused, she mourning, and she just wants to find someone that she can connect with. Great candidate that Culler. He played the part with perfection.
I didn’t feel much for Milo for more than half the book. I think if the author would have infused the Missy story a bit differently, maybe, just maybe I would have felt differently for him. I knew he cared for Eddie and I just wished he would have played his part a bit differently. However, by the end of the novel, when Milo went after her, my walls of defense came crumbling down.
Overall, Courtney Summers creates a flawlessly broken, angry, confused teenage girl in Eddie and as before with Cracked Up to Be, the main character has my compassion from the first FU she spews. She honest, angry and hurting, there’s no way I could turn my back on her struggle and not care. I felt horrible for her with that whole motel incident and even though in my head I knew! I just knew! Like with any close friend, I’d never say it out loud, I’d just be there for them and that’s it.
Open ending with no conclusive answers, but very signature as other books I’ve read on suicide,... it’s not about closure or getting answers… it’s just not.
Crazy, dark read that may not be for everyone, but if you open the book and begin Eddie’s journey, I’d be surprised if you didn’t feel just a little bit spent by the end.
5.) Nic rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: fans of gritty realistic fiction
Shelves: scb-read, read-in-2011, realistic-fiction
It has taken me forever to write this review......
Fall For Anything made me cry, not just once but several times. It was such a fiercely emotional read. I don't think enjoy is the right word to describe how I feel but rather it was a book that affected me, that got under my skin, that I don't think I will forget.
Courtney Summers writing is powerful. It is just full of emotion. It deals with suicide in such an honest and real way. I can say that as a person who has been closely affected by suicide I could relate to this story in so many ways especially looking for answers that will never come, being pushed away by those you love and then watching everyone fall apart.
It was also a gripping read. I devoured it within a couple of hours. There was no way I could go to sleep without answers like is Eddie and her Mum going to be okay? Is she going to find what she is looking for? What does Culler really want? Will she open up to Milo? And I was surprised by some of the answers I got.
Eddie, my heart just ached for her. I just wanted to hug her. Completely likeable and very realistic. Milo, what a gorgeous and sweet guy. I loved how he stood by Eddie even as she push him away. I want to hug him too. Really all the characters were so well written, so fully alive.
Overall, Summers really is a remarkable writer.