by Helena Yeung, staff reporter
“Two minutes before Liz Emerson crashed her car, she remembered me. She remembered a time when she was happy and the world was bright. She finally figured out that she, Liz Emerson, was the equal and opposite reaction. She was the consequence. She pushed down the gas petal.”
Falling into Place, is a heart-taking story by Amy Zhang. The story revolves around what goes on in everyone’s lives when Elizabeth Emerson, known as Liz, attempts to take her own life by driving her car off a cliff.
Liz Emerson is a high school junior, a friend and foe to many, and a daughter to a never-available mother. Her incident causes an unexpected-anonymous narrator to come into the picture and share the perspectives of what happens in everyone else’s lives as Liz is in the hospital.
Amy Zhang writes Liz’s story in scattered pieces of events, from when she crashes her car to the day she meets her friends. The narrator is anonymous, and sees the worlds from the hospital room and what they’re feeling. Liz’s friends, mother, and classmates are there, and so are their memories of Liz. The narrator thinks about Liz and understands her. “I understand her sadness and loneliness and silence, her shattered heart. Stay alive, Liz Emerson, stay alive.”
The story also revolves around the ideas of Physics. Liz Emerson based her Physics knowledge into her plan of suicide by applying the laws of motion. Amy Zhang shows that the narrator understood physics and most importantly, how Liz felt. “Inertia, force, mass, gravity, velocity, acceleration, cause and effect. Liz Emerson doesn’t understand any of it, but I do. I understand how we fall. Where we fall. Why we fall.”
Falling Into Place really allows the reader to connect upon every character, and their connections with Liz Emerson. Amy Zhang helps portray the scene from when Liz is driving off the bridge to when Liz’s world was shrinking. The story adds on suspense to whom the mystery character is, as well as feeling for each character’s heart. The story is filled with all sorts of emotions, dragging out the suspense to what will happen in the end.
“It was an interesting book that made me appreciate how quickly life can leave someone,” junior Daniel Kricheli said.
The book Falling Into Place has mainly four-star ratings on various book sites, such as Goodreads and Barnes & Noble. The book was published on September 9th, 2014, and has been growing on readers ever since.
“It had a very hooking first paragraph. After a few pages, I just wanted to read more and more,” junior Joshua Cantero said.
Overall, the story is a great read for those who enjoy reading young adult fiction. It connects well with teenagers, friendships, family, and romance.
