ARC Review: The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

The Way We Fall just made me face my biggest fear in one sitting. Death.

How far are you willing to go to save your family? It was the first question I ever thought of after I read the summary. I will admit it, I never want to be put in a situation such as what happened in this book. I don't want to lose my family to a plague, or a virus.

Title: The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
Pages: 309
Release Date: January 24th 2012
Published by: Pier 9 Books
Source: Publisher (thanks Ashlea!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you're dead.

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back. Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival.

As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest. Because how will she go on if there isn't?

A word to the wise: This is not a very happy book.

How would you feel when one by one, the people around you dies? Friends, schoolmates, relatives, family. When a once quite neighborhood becomes a place where death hangs on almost every door? When you know what's happening and you are powerless to stop it? A deep sadness and that feeling of despair will accompany you while reading The Way We Fall and it never goes away.

All Kaelyn wants is to not be invisible anymore, to make more friends and be close to Leo again and to do that, she knew she had to change. But the events that happened in her life in a span of a month made that the least of her priorities as the whole island she lives in was quarantined and separated from the rest of the world due to the threat of a deadly virus. And the citizens trapped within the island was left to deal with the horror of the disease.

Chronicled by Kaelyn through her journal entries for her friend Leo, my heart ached the whole time while I was reading The Way We Fall. I felt like it was stepped on a couple of times and was picked up and put back into place towards the end. Hope. That was what I was looking for in this novel. That amidst the countless tragedies, the despair, the loss everyone experienced there is still something to live for, a reason to go on. Kaelyn has played such an extraordinary role to the lives of those in the island and not just because she's a doctor's daughter but because she was there to help, to do whatever she can for everyone. She didn't run like her older brother did, she stayed and helped like her parents.

Kaelyn witnessed firsthand what happens when people lose hope, when fear started taking over reason. When everything else clouded one's judgment. Desperation came, and Kaelyn had to do whatever it takes to be alive, may it be scouring for food and medicine, it doesn't matter how. Kaelyn has lived through the horror. She wasn't just a bystander. Like everyone else she lost loved ones but she caught the virus and by some miracle, lived. And she was hated for it. Why her? Why did she get to live when everyone else died? It's one of the things that made my heart ache so much. People still have the capacity to be cruel and blame others instead of just being thankful that at least a life was spared.

Friendship and romance were a few of the things that cleared the haze of sadness a little bit. Who would have thought that with the current circumstances, Kaelyn will find love? Will find a great friend in Tessa? Maybe it would have been better if people had more of that emotion, of love. It can heal. It's that single emotion that can help overcome the tragedy. If only people cared more for each other's welfare maybe Kaelyn's uncle didn't die a meaningless death, maybe instead of hoarding food and being selfish, Quentin and his gang could've saved for other people, and maybe they wouldn't kill infected people or burned houses in ignorant hopes that with the fire, the virus will eventually die too. Maybe.

It's amazing what one can do when faced with an insurmountable foe, in this case the disease. Gav thinks he was just a boy, but through his efforts to get food and making sure everyone gets them when the government has seemed to abandon them, he was able to save lives. He's a brave, kind-hearted kid who was selfless enough to think of other people even when his own parents were infected. Gave became Kaelyn's strength through the tough times and vice versa. I needed the sweetness and the emotions Kaelyn and Gav felt to help me get through the book in one piece.

The Way We Fall might not be a light read but it's wonderful in it's own way. It showed how horrific and terrible humans behave when enveloped with fear and uncertainty. But it also showed resilience amidst such daunting conditions. It showed how some are still capable of doing good. That there will always be good amidst everything bad. And how some people still have faith and still believe that everything will be better when all hope seems lost. Death will eventually come for all of us, and like Kaelyn who has lost her loved ones, we should also be determined to live on and carry them in us. People live and die, what matters is we keep them alive inside of us, in our thoughts and in our hearts.

Kudos, Megan Crewe! The Way We Fall's charm lies in Megan's eloquent writing and her vivid portrayal of the emotions each and every character has. Moving and emotional, The Way We Fall is a frightening, truthful piece of work that readers will appreciate. I sure did, and I never regretted joining Kaelyn in her journey through the most difficult moments one can encounter in his or her life.

My rating:

Content (plot, story flow, character):

Amazing

Stunning: Worthy of a Goddess' Praise!

Book Cover:

Gorgeous cover, it makes you think a bit of what really the book is all about.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe Guest Post + Giveaway!

It's day 8 of our event and we are having a blast! Aren't we?

And the awesomeness continues! Today we have a great author on the blog to talk a little bit about the dystopian genre!

Follow Megan: Website | Blog | Twitter

What's in a name?

(or, When is a dystopian not a dystopian?)

Genre labels are funny things. In theory, they exist so that people who like certain types of books can find more of that kind of book. Like GRACELING? Read some other fantasy. Love TWILIGHT? Grab more paranormal romances. But because few genres have a widely agreed-upon definition, and those definitions are often shifting based on trends and reader enthusiasm, sometimes they just make the reading experience more confusing.

I'd say I'm reasonably qualified to talk about this, because my upcoming novel, THE WAY WE FALL, has been most frequently labeled as a dystopian, though that's not how I think of it at all.

A dystopia is usually defined as a future society which is set up in a way that at least some of the inhabitants consider to be ideal, but which is actually terribly flawed. A classic example of this is Lois Lowry's THE GIVER, and recent novels that fit the definition include Suzanne Collins' THE HUNGER GAMES and Veronica Roth's DIVERGENT. Often these books also include characters realizing how flawed their society is and attempting to change it.

As the dystopian genre surged in popularity with the publication of THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, the publishing definition of the term has expanded. A lot of the books selling as "dystopians" focus not on some brand new society, but on the ruins of our current one. A horrible catastrophe has destroyed normal life, and the characters are struggling just to stay alive and maybe pick up the pieces, as in Ilsa J. Bick's ASHES and the GONE series by Michael Grant. These sort of books I'd usually call "post-apocalyptic." There are certainly some dystopians that take place after an apocalypse of sorts, and both genres involve unpleasant futures, so I understand the cross-labeling. But not all dystopians follow a disaster, and not all stories about the after effects of a disaster involve a dystopia.

And occasionally stories that aren't quite either of these things are being considered dystopian as well. Take THE WAY WE FALL. When I was submitting it to agents, I referred to it as a "survival story." The deal announcement calls it as a "contemporary dystopian," which was intended to convey that it includes elements common in many dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, but is set in the present day. If I was going to get really specific about it, I'd say technically the best term would be straight out "apocalyptic." There is no ideal society, and it's not post any apocalypse--its the chronicling of the disaster itself, rather than the aftermath. (In the sequels the lines get a little more blurry, I'll admit.)

The fact that so many novels skim over the apocalypse and focus on what happens when it's over is part of what inspired me to write THE WAY WE FALL in the first place. I wanted to explore that fascinating in-between time, when everything is changing and the characters have no idea when or how it'll end. To be honest, though, I don't worry much about how my or other books are labeled, as long as the general sense is right. If readers want a clearer idea of what the story's about, that's what the book descriptions are for. Mainly I just hope people will enjoy the story I wanted to tell, regardless of what genre they call it!

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How is that for a guest post? I'd love how they call The Way We Fall... a 'contemporary dystopian', because the book certainly feels that way. It's a perfect term to capture what the book is really about.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
Add The Way We Fall to your Goodreads list!

It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.


And then you're dead.

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn't?

The Way We Fall comes out January 24, 2012, released by Disney Hyperion. Buy your copy at Amazon!

GIVEAWAY TIME! WIN A FINISHED COPY OF THE WAY WE FALL BY MEGAN CREWE!

Yep, we are giving away a finished copy! And yes, this is OPEN INTERNATIONALLY! Make sure to answer the question below or your entries will not count!

The Question: Put yourself into Kaelyn's position. At what lengths are you willing to go to in order to survive in a quarantined island?


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