This book is the first in a, so far, promising series. It is
intriguing and has really made me think about so many different aspects of
life, from friendship to family to safety. As with other books by Ally Carter,
'All Fall Down' focuses on a strong female character who has to overcome
difficulties with the help of those around her. The storyline was action-packed
and intense; I found myself being drawn in so deep that it was physically hard
to stop reading. With lots of twists and turns along the way, this book paves
the way to an amazing series.
***
Truthfully this book is more of a 4.5 star book than a 5
star one, the only reason for that being the continued confusion within the
book. Of course, as this reflected Grace's own confusion, it was an important
part of the novel, but at certain points the levels of confusion were so high
that it clouded the story, making the book harder for me to enjoy as a reader.
At the end, when it was revealed that it was Grace who killed her mother, the
confusion began to make sense, yet in the main part of the novel, it was
slightly overwhelming. However, I am not saying that Grace's panic attacks from
her memories of her mother detracted from the storyline, as they were vital to
the story, just the confusion about what was going on.
The first few sentences of this novel illustrate well how
spectacular Carter is as an author. She manages to draw the reader in and makes
them want to read the whole book with only a few words. Obviously, the location
in which this book is set helps in that aspect as well and again, I must
commend Carter on making me, as the reader, feel like I was on Embassy Row
alongside Grace. It was wonderful to see such a rarely talked about aspect of
life, embassies and inter-country relations, come alive within this book.
Politics is also seldom discussed among teenagers and this is a great opening
to that world.
The characters within this book were definitely all
individuals and there was enough exploration into their lives within this novel
for me to think that I knew enough about them to read about their lives. I
liked the diversity of Grace's friendship group and how she was determined to
stay talking to Alexei, despite the hostile situation between America and
Russia there. This book is important as it shows such good relationships
between characters and the overcoming of difficulties that being from very
different nations may bring.
While Grace was tracking down the Scarred Man, I was
completely on the edge of my seat. As this book as only from Grace's
perspective, I had no opinion but hers to trust, meaning that her judgments on
people were very much my judgments on people. So, learning that the Scarred Man
was on her side was a complete surprise to me, and a very well written surprise
as well. When the story came together at the end of the book, it made me learn
that sometimes the narrator can't trust themselves, yet alone other people, and
the discoveries about how Grace's mother died were very powerful and moving.
Overall, this was a great, intense read and I would
recommend this book to people who have read Ally Carter's work in the past as
well as people who have yet to discover her work. I will certainly be buying
the next book in the series when it comes out.
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