A review by patelyne
When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson

4.0

This is the story of the Fall family - mainly three siblings - and a mysterious rainbow haired girl that pops into their lives at the most eventful time possible. 
There’s ghosts, telepathic conversations between a fairly depressed dog and an even more depressed human, a couple forms of synesthesia, mysteries about missing parents, family drama to the highest degree - 
The Falls family is dysfunctional like no other. To the point where the father who rose from the dead and then ran off is just the tip of the iceberg 
And the rainbow haired girl is no stranger to family issues either, which you learn about as she shares stories of her mostly off grid childhood traveling by RV with her not-quite-well mother 

The story has multiple POVs, some time jumps, and is frequently interrupted with a selection of diary entries, unsent letters and emails, news articles, conversation transcripts, a couple family trees (that I don’t suggest peeking ahead at, just wait) 

It’s a little messy and a lot wordy, mainly character driven - if that’s a thing you like, it’s very interesting! 
Even though this book is a big one - clocking in just over 500 pages! - I read it in just a few days because I had trouble putting it down.

While the plots couldn’t be more different, it’s giving me a mix of the exact feelings I had when reading The Night Circus and when I watched Big Fish (I haven’t read the book, but assuming the statement would stand for that too)
And since I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, I’m going to leave it at that.

I will say I think this one needs some content warnings, especially as a YA book, and I didn’t see them outside of user added on storygraph -
Most importantly as I would rather not have read it, and at the least would appreciated at least a warning about, an instance of SA involving a 13 year old child. Over clothes, but still significantly upsetting. Also, a major theme of depression, parental abandonment, drug and alcohol use/abuse specifically by minors. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings