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A review by ihateprozac
They All Fall Down by Roxanne St. Claire
4.0
They All Fall Down is evidently a book riding the coattails of Pretty Little Liars, and it’s kinda like what LA Ice is to Coca-Cola: you can see what they were trying to do, and it’s fine when you’re in a pinch, but ultimately it’s diluted and just not as good. They All Fall Down is silly, simplistic and trope-y, but it’s also very, very, very fun.
They All Fall Down centres around an average American high school and their legendary “Hottie List”: an annual list that names the top 10 hottest senior girls in the school. Our protagonist, Kenzie Summerall, has flown under the radar for years until she finds herself ranked at #5 on the list. In an instant her world changes: her crush finally starts noticing her, her Facebook friend request list grows out of control, and she suddenly finds herself part of the cool kids. This is all well and good until the girls on the list start dying in order.
One of my favourite elements of a story is when you can’t tell exactly what genre you’re reading: I love finding myself wondering “is this a possession horror or a slasher film?” or in this case “is this a supernatural curse or do we have a serial killer on the loose?” It’s not immediately clear how Hottie List girls are coincidentally dying in crazy accidents and whether this novel is going to end with a serial killer reveal in an abandoned house during a thunderstorm, or whether it’s the result of a disgruntled teen ghost vowing to get revenge on generations of hot girls just like the ones who led to her death. I love when it’s not all black and white and I’m not just trying to guess the killer’s identity, I’m trying to guess whether there is a killer at all.
I mentioned this book is filled with tropes and stereotypes, and the biggest ones of all are Kenzie, Josh, and Levi. Kenzie is the typical geek girl who doesn’t realise she’s actually super hot, and claims “I’m not like the others” because she likes dead languages instead of designer labels. I’m so over girls putting down other girls because of their interests, because *gasp* being academic but also liking shopping must be mutually exclusive, right?!
Josh is your stereotypical Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing whitebread popular jock who’s lovely but too damn safe for the protagonist. He’s got no original thoughts in his own mind and is one of those guys who will clearly peak in high school, only to end up owning a car wash and coming home to his painfully lovely but also painfully dull family each night. Conversely, Levi is your stereotypical bad boy who’s rumoured to have spent time in juvie for everything from shoplifting to killing a man in cold blood. Predictably Kenzie ends up in an awkward love triangle with them both, because god forbid a teenage girl in YA only be interested in one person at the one time.
That being said, Kenzie did have a palpable attraction to Levi and I found myself getting sucked into their little affair. He reminded me of Avan Jogia’s character Danny Desai in the CW’s shortlived series Twisted (a series where I’m still salty over its cancellation), and in spite of being a walking walking “boy from the wrong side of the tracks” stereotype, I couldn’t help but be a little bit into him.
However, I wish the author had spent a little more time fleshing out the characters and I wish the dialogue and interactions were richer. I found myself reading this and missing the conversations and characters we get in Sara Shepard’s novels, because even if she’s introducing a completely new story and world, the characters are always so fleshed out and I get a real sense of their personality and background; they don’t read like 5 bullet points on the page of a character outline. Though Roxanne St Claire did try to add complexity with Kenzie’s brother’s storyline and the effects on her family, I constantly felt that something in the character development and world-building was missing.
That being said, I LOVED the big climax and final conflict. Throughout the novel I had been in two minds as to whether this was a supernatural story or a serial killer story, and I was absolutely engrossed in the action as the story crescendoed. I followed every twist and turn and it felt like a rollercoaster I didn’t want to get off of. I looooooved the action and was stoked to read the cliffhanger that leaves the book open to be a standalone or open it up to further expansion! This was a perfect Sunday evening read with a storm thundering outside my window.
Overall: If Goodreads allowed us to rate things with quarter or half stars, I would rate this 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s a tropey and basic AF read that’s come off the back of the Pretty Little Liars whirlwind, but it was a fun and entertaining read on a Sunday evening. The characters are two-dimensional and the dialogue could use some work, but if you’re looking for a fluffy, easy, YA girly murder mystery it’s worth picking up. It won’t blow your mind but it’s good fun!
They All Fall Down centres around an average American high school and their legendary “Hottie List”: an annual list that names the top 10 hottest senior girls in the school. Our protagonist, Kenzie Summerall, has flown under the radar for years until she finds herself ranked at #5 on the list. In an instant her world changes: her crush finally starts noticing her, her Facebook friend request list grows out of control, and she suddenly finds herself part of the cool kids. This is all well and good until the girls on the list start dying in order.
One of my favourite elements of a story is when you can’t tell exactly what genre you’re reading: I love finding myself wondering “is this a possession horror or a slasher film?” or in this case “is this a supernatural curse or do we have a serial killer on the loose?” It’s not immediately clear how Hottie List girls are coincidentally dying in crazy accidents and whether this novel is going to end with a serial killer reveal in an abandoned house during a thunderstorm, or whether it’s the result of a disgruntled teen ghost vowing to get revenge on generations of hot girls just like the ones who led to her death. I love when it’s not all black and white and I’m not just trying to guess the killer’s identity, I’m trying to guess whether there is a killer at all.
I mentioned this book is filled with tropes and stereotypes, and the biggest ones of all are Kenzie, Josh, and Levi. Kenzie is the typical geek girl who doesn’t realise she’s actually super hot, and claims “I’m not like the others” because she likes dead languages instead of designer labels. I’m so over girls putting down other girls because of their interests, because *gasp* being academic but also liking shopping must be mutually exclusive, right?!
Josh is your stereotypical Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing whitebread popular jock who’s lovely but too damn safe for the protagonist. He’s got no original thoughts in his own mind and is one of those guys who will clearly peak in high school, only to end up owning a car wash and coming home to his painfully lovely but also painfully dull family each night. Conversely, Levi is your stereotypical bad boy who’s rumoured to have spent time in juvie for everything from shoplifting to killing a man in cold blood. Predictably Kenzie ends up in an awkward love triangle with them both, because god forbid a teenage girl in YA only be interested in one person at the one time.
That being said, Kenzie did have a palpable attraction to Levi and I found myself getting sucked into their little affair. He reminded me of Avan Jogia’s character Danny Desai in the CW’s shortlived series Twisted (a series where I’m still salty over its cancellation), and in spite of being a walking walking “boy from the wrong side of the tracks” stereotype, I couldn’t help but be a little bit into him.
However, I wish the author had spent a little more time fleshing out the characters and I wish the dialogue and interactions were richer. I found myself reading this and missing the conversations and characters we get in Sara Shepard’s novels, because even if she’s introducing a completely new story and world, the characters are always so fleshed out and I get a real sense of their personality and background; they don’t read like 5 bullet points on the page of a character outline. Though Roxanne St Claire did try to add complexity with Kenzie’s brother’s storyline and the effects on her family, I constantly felt that something in the character development and world-building was missing.
That being said, I LOVED the big climax and final conflict. Throughout the novel I had been in two minds as to whether this was a supernatural story or a serial killer story, and I was absolutely engrossed in the action as the story crescendoed. I followed every twist and turn and it felt like a rollercoaster I didn’t want to get off of. I looooooved the action and was stoked to read the cliffhanger that leaves the book open to be a standalone or open it up to further expansion! This was a perfect Sunday evening read with a storm thundering outside my window.
Overall: If Goodreads allowed us to rate things with quarter or half stars, I would rate this 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s a tropey and basic AF read that’s come off the back of the Pretty Little Liars whirlwind, but it was a fun and entertaining read on a Sunday evening. The characters are two-dimensional and the dialogue could use some work, but if you’re looking for a fluffy, easy, YA girly murder mystery it’s worth picking up. It won’t blow your mind but it’s good fun!