17332270Title: Tumble & Fall

Author: Alexandra Coutts

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date: September 2013

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Synopsis can be found here.
I received a copy of this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review:

The world as we know it is about to end. The book follows the last week of three teenagers, each grappling with choices on how to spend the last few days before the end of the world.

There are great things about Tumble & Fall.  The writing is strong and the story unfolds at a slow pace, giving the reader time to adjust to the setting and all of the different characters. Because there are three parallel storylines- Caden, Zan and Sienna. Each story intersects the others, but briefly and not very dramatically. This didn’t bother me as much. I like the idea of them moving along in the same world, with perhaps only subtle crossovers.

Through the entire book, I felt like I was reading weakly connected short stories. Zan, Sienna and Caden, our main characters, are not very interesting. Every chapter is told in third person, giving every one of the characters an overall blandness. Sienna seemed like the most troubled, but even her tantrums and thoughts seemed too muted for her situation. Caden and Zan as well. There’s a strong sense of detachment through the entire book, perhaps it was done purposefully. Maybe because the story is about how people deal with their last days when death of the planet may be on its way. Maybe it’s the drastic actions some of us take, the love we find or the forgiveness we show. But to me, all of those emotions should be strong, fierce, fire. The characters should be full of life, energy. Sadly, I didn’t feel any passion in any of the stories.

Honestly, I almost didn’t finish. A lot of times.

I wanted to like this book more. (I love the cover!) And while the writing isn’t bad, it didn’t draw me into the story, or make me feel for any of the characters. I didn’t care about them.

And I think I should have, you know, because it was the end of the world.

Rating 3: Raisins. No Thank You.