"If one can fall into love, to give up and dive headfirst, knowing that everything can chance in a heartbeat- there must be an upside." -Rebekah Crane
The Upside of Falling Down is a quirky novel written by Rebekah Crane. The main character, Clementine/Jane/Bunny/Teeny experiences a trauma that leaves her memory in shambles. From the very start, she contemplates her next step in life. She sees Clementine as this outside person who isn’t her. In a quick decision, she runs from her father and winds up in a small town in Ireland with a boy she just met.
Now, usually, when I read book about amnesia a trend follows. The character has a flashback and boom, bam, they’re whole again. However, in this novel, the main character views this from many angles. She isn’t sure if getting her memory back is something she wants. While this goes in her mind, Jane, (that’s what she mainly called) attempts to make her own path with the help of Kieran, Siobhan, and Clive. Their relationships in this book were genuine and realistic. I loved how Jane had to work with each of them to gain their trust and how their stories weren’t told but shown.
The authors writing style is nice, her dialogue is on point and realistic. I only found a few flaws whole reading. For instance, the lack of description. I would have liked to now more about the small town, the cottage, and such. The ending was very sudden. The plot pulls together in two chapters as Jane finally realizes that her stay wasn’t just on a whim. I felt like the author could had talked more about the background plot as well as the character that ends up making Jane and her friends have a common connection.
Overall, I would rate this novel 7.5/10 due to the weird ending, the lack of clichés, and even the price. I bought this book for three dollars on amazon kindle and it was a nice but fast read. I wasn’t expecting it to go in the direction it did. I love reading books without clichés, but I can’t overlook the way it concluded. While the ending was good, I would have liked it to be drawn out from maybe the middle of the book instead of being hit with so much information at once. Still, it was definitely worth its price and more.
