*This a book review of The Upside of Falling by Alex Light.
Quick Facts
Author: Alex Light
Release Date: February 18, 2020
Genre: Young adult fiction, Romance
Main Characters: Becca Hart & Brett Wells
Number of Pages: 288
SJ Rating: 59%
I initially read this book on Wattpad (yes, I am one of those people, but I think my time to fall away as a Wattpad girly has finally come; my two fave authors are taking a little too long).
The Synopsis
She’s the hopeless romantic nerd who doesn’t believe in love beyond the pages of a book. He’s your standard star athlete who strives to live up to the expectations set by his semi-sleazy father. What happens when these two, Becca Hart the Nerd and Brett Wells the Athlete, take part in a spur of the moment high school hallway kiss?
The Good
In following the same format as the Wattpad version, I appreciate the author keeping the alternating povs for the published version. I always enjoy knowing what’s going through both characters’ heads.
A reason I loved, and still love, Becca is because we read romance books to preserve ourselves from the potential pain and fear and disappointment romantic love in reality can cause. The commonality of divorce with my parents is also why I struggle with accepting romantic love is possible and believe it can bring more bad than good.
Plus, per usual, I love a female lead dripping in sarcasm.
For the actual writing, besides a few commas missing, this book has less grammar and spelling errors compared to other published Wattpad books.
The cover is really good, really enticing for a young adult audience… but why is Brett wearing Velcro shoes?
The Bad
I find it very ridiculous both of the leads are being pressured to find someone they love in high school. It’s freaking high school!!! Let them survive the education system first.
As for the actual structure of the book, several of the sentences are weirdly short. Like, there’s room for a descriptive adjective or prepositional phrase, but instead, it falls flat and feels like filler sentences people put in essays to reach the word count requirement. The lack of detail almost makes it feel like there’s holes in the plot.
Considering the overall lack of detail, there were a couple of detailed moments that made the record stop in my brain: The fact that he easily got her cell phone number from the internet… a detail that had my eyebrows touching my hairline. Also, the timeline between her dad’s wife being pregnant to there being pictures of the baby on the wall and the wife having a flat stomach doesn’t make sense to me.
Also, the margins for the physical copy of this book are kind of weird; they seem uncharacteristically big.
The Overall
It’s your typical athlete falling in love with the nerd trope. It’s definitely not my favorite trope, but I don’t completely hate it. All in all, The Upside of Falling is a very easy read, but I think it’s an easy read because it’s heavily lacking.
There was a moment in this book that posed the question, “Will forgiving my parents create an avenue where I can fall in love?” I think that’s my biggest take away from the book.
Next book to be read and reviewed: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
