It seems a common theme: a young woman, popular, powerful, reckless, driven, and admired; yet underneath, harboring seering secret pain, broken and wracked with guilt over the merciless ways she misuses her power, crumbling under others’ expectations and the pressure to maintain the perfect facade. And then she snaps and, in the case of junior Liz Emerson in debut author Amy Zhang‘s Falling Into Place, drives her car off a cliff one snowy January day.
Reconstructing Liz’s life – her rise to be queen bee and her spiral downward – are her two “best friends”, Julia and Kennie. We also meet a variety of other students from Meridian High School, including Liz’s cheating boyfriend and Liam, the kind hearted misfit Liz tortured their freshman year but who still wistfully loves this beautiful, broken soul. We’re privy to Liz’s memories and reminiscences as well, thanks to the unexpected narrator who wants nothing more than to give Liz back the angel wings she imagined as a child and help her spirit soar again. Fans of books like Two Or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You will find familiar territory in Falling Into Place, and anyone who ponders questions of cause, effect, karma, and redemption may enjoy Liz Emerson’s rather narcissistic brush with death.
- Posted by Cori