Title: The Way We Fall
Author: Megan Crewe
Release date: January 24, 2012
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 304
Source: Publisher

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 is a book that is solidly in the middle for me.  I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it.  It definitely made me think though which I liked and I’m sure others will too.

Most of the characters in The Way We Fall fell flat.  The heroine, her family, her friend Tessa, they all were pretty one-dimensional.  The heroine, Kaelyn, was rather dull and I hate to say it, whiny.  There was a lot going on not just with her but the whole island, but all she focused on was her own life.  Even when she was trying to help it seemed like she was doing it for the wrong reasons.  Her parents and her brother were the same way.  They were distant and that went unexplained.  They very rarely acted like a family.  The only person who had a personality was Gav.  He was sweet and funny at times but serious and closed off at others.  He was really the only well-rounded character.

One other big flaw with The Way We Fall is that it required a lot of build-up.  Nothing happened for so long and even when something did happen it wasn’t all that gripping.  It took about half the book to set up the story and the set up was dull.  Once things finally started happening it was very gripping but definitely took too long to get to that point.

This book is also the first in a new series.  Don’t worry though there isn’t a cliffhanger ending.  In fact, everything is almost all resolved at the end.  I honestly don’t see the point in a sequel.  Things could have been tied up in this one.  I think it will leave a lot of readers questioning whether or not they will bother with the next book.

The best thing about this book was the romance and the build up of a few other relationships.  The virus brings Gav and Kaelyn together but that isn’t the reason why they get together.  They get to know each other because of the virus but they like each other because of who they are.  It was very sweet.   The build-up of Tessa and Kaelyn’s friendship was also very good.  It was thought out and plausible.  Once again these are two people brought together by the virus but that isn’t what makes them friends.  The relationships were some of the best I’ve read.

Overall, The Way We Fall is one book I recommend checking out from the library.  It just needed a bit more development and it would have been fabulous.  As it is, if you can make it through the first half of the book you will be enthralled with the second half.

Rating: B-