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Fall to Pieces

by Vahini Naidoo (Goodreads Author)

3.38 of 5 stars 3.38 · rating details · 112 ratings · 29 reviews

When your best friend dies, you’re supposed to know what happened. You’re supposed to know why.

But Ella has no idea what happened the night Amy jumped to her death. She has no idea why Amy would want to die.

Ella’s other friends, Mark and Petal, are hiding something. Ella thinks they know exactly what happened that terrible night. But they’re not talking. Instead, Ella, Mar...more

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Published October 2nd 2012 by Marshall Cavendish

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2012 Debut Authors (Young Adult & Middle Grade)

118th out of 793 books — 4,492 voters

2012 YA & MG Debut Authors: The Apocalypsies!

67th out of 252 books — 924 voters

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Apr 11, 2013 Kageashi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modernism, suicide

This is a book that is hard to like - it's well crafted, it feels natural in so many ways, and that's what makes it numbing almost to the point of pain. Because it does feel real on so many ways, and it's so easy to get inside the protagonist's headspace as she tries to cope with the suicide of her best friend and trying to reconstruct the memories of that night through risk-seeking behavior called "Pick Me Ups."

It's a difficult and dangerous road to follow the protagonist on her search for her...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Kacunnin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Vahini Naidoo’s FALL TO PIECES is a gut-wrenching novel about depression and teen suicide. Seventeen-year-old Ella is suffering in the aftermath of her best friend, Amy’s, suicide. To make things worse, Ella can’t remember what happened that night, but she suspects her friends Mark and Petal know more than they’ve told her. The three of them play a dangerous game called “Pick Me Ups,” in which they jump from great heights for the rush it brings them. For Ella, the Pick Me Ups are a way to get in...more Vahini Naidoo’s FALL TO PIECES is a gut-wrenching novel about depression and teen suicide. Seventeen-year-old Ella is suffering in the aftermath of her best friend, Amy’s, suicide. To make things worse, Ella can’t remember what happened that night, but she suspects her friends Mark and Petal know more than they’ve told her. The three of them play a dangerous game called “Pick Me Ups,” in which they jump from great heights for the rush it brings them. For Ella, the Pick Me Ups are a way to get in touch with snippets of memory she hopes will one day help her remember what really happened to Amy. When she meets a mysterious new boy named Tristan, Ella drags him into the Pick Me Up game. Can Tristan help Ella get to the bottom of Amy’s death? And can Ella help him work through his own dark secrets?

FALL TO PIECES is definitely an interesting book, but it’s not easy to embrace. Ella is not a likable character, and neither is Amy. Both of them have a history of bullying other students, and there’s a disturbing mean streak that runs through Ella that’s difficult to understand. There’s also a maturity and worldliness about Ella that doesn’t quite ring true for a high school student (I realize the author was only eighteen when she wrote this, but that doesn’t change how I responded to the protagonist). I did like Tristan, though, whose own life has been a challenge for him. He was the reason I kept reading – I wanted to know his story and what had happened to him. Ella and Amy? Not so much.

Additionally, Naidoo has an annoying tendency to overuse repetition to the point where it becomes laughable. Ella, our narrator, can’t seem to stop herself from repeating words and phrases in groups of three – it’s “drip, drip, drip,” and “get out, get out, get out,” and “falling, falling, falling,” and “crying, crying, crying.” This goes on throughout the entire novel, until it just seems pretentious and pseudo-artistic. It was distracting from the narrative, which is not a good thing in a novel as serious as this one is.

I didn’t dislike FALL TO PIECES, and I do believe Ella and her friends are believable, if disturbing, characters. There are certainly people like this, self-destructive and broken and attracted to the dark edges of things. But I had difficulty sympathizing with either Ella or Amy, which distanced me from their story. Do I recommend this? Provisionally. The jacket lists this novel as appropriate for teens aged 14 and up, but the proliferation of profanity (the f-word is used repeatedly by almost every character, teens and adults alike), as well as its extraordinarily dark tone and subject matter, make it unsuitable for younger teens. Older, more mature teens and young adults might get something out of this. In the end, it’s about getting past the kinds of trauma that can scar you, which is an important message. Just know what you’re getting into before you choose this one.
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Jan 17, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ella is depressed and confused. Her best friend Amy died at Ella's party and Ella can't remember anything from that night. She has no idea if Amy's death was the result of suicide or murder or accident or why it happened. Their mutual friends Petal and Mark seem to be hiding something from her and it hurts that they won't tell her anything. Mark and Ella created the game Pick Me Ups, where they jump from dangerous heights. Mark and Petal do them for fun and to drive away their grief, but Ella re...more Ella is depressed and confused. Her best friend Amy died at Ella's party and Ella can't remember anything from that night. She has no idea if Amy's death was the result of suicide or murder or accident or why it happened. Their mutual friends Petal and Mark seem to be hiding something from her and it hurts that they won't tell her anything. Mark and Ella created the game Pick Me Ups, where they jump from dangerous heights. Mark and Petal do them for fun and to drive away their grief, but Ella remembers a bit of that night every time she does them. After a while of this, Ella brings in a newcomer to their group, a boy she dubs "Explosive Boy" or E (whose name is actually Tristan). Her idea is that the newcomer with bring her, Mark, and Ella closer together, but things don't end up going just as Ella planned. Ella may not be ready to face the real truth even as she strives so hard to figure our what happened.

Fall to Pieces is a dark contemporary young adult novel that doesn't pull punches. It tackles real teen issues such as drinking, sexuality, suicide, peer pressure, bullying (from the point of view of the bullies), and death. These teens are not sweetness and light. They are bullies that target people for fun without realizing the damage they do. Even after Amy died, many people spoke ill of her because of her bullying ways, which is weird. People usually bend over backwards to make dead people seem like saints even if they clearly weren't. I appreciate the view of bullying from the bullies point of view because I don't see it written about much. It provides insight to motivations behind it and shows that bullies aren't evil people. Even though a lot of people take issue with it, I like the language used. There are a lot of curse words, but that's how some people actually talk. It's refreshing to see after so many authors make up their own new words that mean the same thing to avoid using the real ones.

Even though the plot is like taking the crazy adrenaline junkie/suicidal part of New Moon and making a whole book about it, I liked it overall. Even though it seems melodramatic, teens are melodramatic and people deal with grief in their own way. It may be self destructive and life threatening, but it's still a way. Ella, despite her mistakes and issues, is a sympathetic character because we don't just see her actions, but her thoughts and her mind set. She may be annoying and cruel sometimes, but she's taking out her guilt, confusion, and grief on other people and it makes her seem more real. I really like Tristan, the Explosive Boy. He truly has Ella's best interests at heart and shows he cares about her way more than her friends. His own secrets and tragedies are wearing on him. He's the most interesting and relatable character in the book.

Fall to Pieces is an impressive debut that tackles realistic issues. The plot takes surprising twists and turns along the way and shocked me in the end. I never could have predicted the outcome of the book. I'm usually not super interested in contemporary teen reads, but I like this one. I would recommend it to people not afraid of realistic, depressing situations and curse words.(less)

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Jan 06, 2013 Amy Jacobs rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

Four friends suddenly become three. Ella, Mark, Petal, and Amy suddenly become Ella, Mark and Petal after Amy dies. Ella is having a hard time remembering what happened.When Mark creates a game called Pick Me Ups, Ella starts getting flashbacks of the night Amy died. Instead of an adrenaline rush, she is getting glimpses into the secrets that are locked within her head. Then Ella brings Tristan into the fold but he has secrets of his own.

This was a book that led me into the trap of 'just one mo...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Marisa L rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Sometimes when I fall, I don't just remember. I forget."

In Fall to Pieces by Vahini Naidoo, Ella is trying to forget and remember all at the same time. But forgetting something that impacted your life is not possible. Ella has three best friends Mark, Petal and Amy. Now there is only two... Mark and Petal. Amy died on the night Ella can't remember.
Normally when your best friend dies you remember exactly how everything happened and why. For one reason or another Ella can't recover the full m...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Chelsea N rated it 2 of 5 stars

Ok it was a good book, but if you do read this, beware of the language. The F word is used in every other sentence and someone is always flipping someone off. I didn't know this when I started, so I was a little surprised to see it so often.

I didn't like any of the main characters except Tristan. I found him very interesting and I liked how he would press forward because of his past. He was the only reason I continued to read the book.
Ella got under my skin. She hates the world, she hates her s...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Runa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this book has a lot of negative reviews, and I'm not sure why. I actually liked this book. It took a while to get into, but was worth it for me. The top complaint seems to be the abundance of profanity, to which I say, have you ever been around teenagers? It's accurate. The other complaint I see is that it's 'melodramatic', which is just an insult to anyone who has lost a loved one. Melodramatic? Everyone deals with their grief in different ways, and the main character had just lost their b...more

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Jun 28, 2012 Rebecca added it

Shelves: bea

I'm not going to star this, because I didn't read enough of it to really judge. The story could be great, but I personally can't read it, because of the heavy handed use of profanity. I can overlook a word here or there if the story sucks me in enough, but in the first 25 pages there was so much I can't read any more. I'm intrigued by the premise, but not enough to force my way through the language.

I want to make it clear that this is the only reason I am not rating this. It's not that I hated t...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Meagan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

I wound up skimming the last 1/2 of the book because I couldn't handle the writing. It reads like my LiveJournal, circa 2003. In reality, her writing style reminds me of mine from a while back. It might appeal to people who like the snippets of writing floating around Tumblr.

I cringed through this. The repetition, choppy "self-aware" trains of thought, the over-the-top similes and nonsensical phrases, like these:

The words flop from my mouth and circle around my neck. A noose made of vocabulary,...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Caylee Michaels rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No one

Recommended to Caylee by: Meagan

This book was really bad. The writing was so awful I couldn't even get into it. It's like she was trying so hard to make it sound edgy and poetic at the same time, but I just laughed because of secondhand embarrassment.

The book is about this girl who jumped off a roof and died, and now her friends jump off high places to get closer to her. I don't even understand the setup. They almost kill this one person and there's some 'mystery' about how the girl's friend Amy died because Ella doesn't reme...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Ashleigh Paige marked it as gave-up-on · review of another edition

Shelves: a-whole-new-level-of-boring, amazon-vine, back-in-the-oven-with-you-dear-book, could-have-been-so-much-better, the-shameful-shelf-of-get-rid-of-it, what-kind-of-mess-is-this

See more of my reviews sooner on The YA Kitten!

Fall to Pieces desperately wants to be a cross between a Courtney Summers novel and the famous Catcher in the Rye, but it falls short of being like either.

Where the Summers comparison comes in is how utterly unlikable all the characters are. Ella is an unabashed mean girl whose best friend's death has affected her so much that she's jumping off things and might not graduate high school unless she changes her tune. Now, Courtney Summers is one of my...more See more of my reviews sooner on The YA Kitten!

Fall to Pieces desperately wants to be a cross between a Courtney Summers novel and the famous Catcher in the Rye, but it falls short of being like either.

Where the Summers comparison comes in is how utterly unlikable all the characters are. Ella is an unabashed mean girl whose best friend's death has affected her so much that she's jumping off things and might not graduate high school unless she changes her tune. Now, Courtney Summers is one of my all-time favorite writers for how she can write such unlikable characters but still make them real, easy to invest in, and relatable in some small way. This is where Naidoo fails. Her characters are too over the top and too unlikable.

Now, the Catcher in the Rye thing. Everyone knows Holden Caulfield has a mouth like a toilet, and so does the entirety of Fall to Pieces. You can't make it a few pages without someone or other cursing. Surprisingly enough, I have no issue with the profanity being here. A lot of other reviewers to, but I've got a mouth like a toilet myself, so getting annoyed at its existence would be rather hypocritical. What I dislike about it is that it isn't used well. Catcher in the Rye? Used it right despite how often Holden cursed. Fall to Pieces? Not so much.

Beyond that, the prose has a few issues and purple moments. There are people whisper-shouting, eyebrows are getting tangled up in each other, and silver rain kicks at the grass. There's also a piece of prose so messy that it makes it sound like a drink within a vending machine is suddenly outside the vending machine and exploding behind a person's face. The prose might be easily cleaned up to make it clear that the drink is exploding on the other side of the glass that person's face is pressed against. Once I got to the point where they blindfolded the new kid and pushed him off the bridge in order to make him participate in their jumping-off-stuff games, I knew I was done.

I want to support young authors because I aspire to be one, but Naidoo's novel doesn't do it for me.(less)

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Dec 12, 2012 Stacey rated it 1 of 5 stars

I usually find books on goodreads and read the reviews to decide if they go on my "to buy and read" list or not. I didn't do that with this book and I really wish I had because I never would have bought it. The only good thing about reading the reviews now is that I don't have to waste my time finishing the book. All the reviewers that didn't like it felt exactly the same way I did. No one was likeable, the profanity was terrible and the plot was not interesting.

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Jan 06, 2013 Stacey B. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dac-2012, amazon-vine, i-own, read-2012, reviewed

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I didn't really have any expectations when I picked this book up, I just liked the cover. It's extremely dark and covers very intense topics. I would caution parents and tell them to make sure they either read all or some of it before deciding if they think their child can handle reading it.

I really enjoyed this book. I think the profanity was a little unnecessary at times, but I found myself needing to read just one more chapter, which ended up being five more, which really...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. People go through what Amy and the rest of the gang did all the time. It is hard for people to realize that people do have more issues inside than what they may show. Ella certainly went through a lot of pain not knowing the truth and to think her friends were lying to her. I was in total shock to find out that it really wasn't anything the Ella thought happened. Crazy turn around for sure. I recommend for everyone to read this book because it helps you realize what p...more

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Nov 17, 2012 dontouchmychocolate rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sort-of-read-did-not-complete

I've read enough to come to conclusion that if an author has to centre a book around grief, she has to make the main character sympathetic, and at the very least, likeable enough for readers to feel sorry.

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Apr 24, 2013 Kelsie Massolio rated it 1 of 5 stars

I read the first two chapters and it was awful. This book was hard to follow from the beginning. I'm bummed cause it seemed like a good book from the summary and reviews.

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Apr 06, 2013 Piseog rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: normal-fiction, stand-alones

This was a good but not great book. It was emotional and slightly depressing and I really felt for Ella. Tristan was great. I was just hoping for a better ending.

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Mar 20, 2013 Ellen rated it 1 of 5 stars

Got irritated with the pacing, skipped ahead and got incredibly annoyed that the big event causing the death of a close friend was a lesbian come-on. Really?

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Jan 23, 2013 Brittany rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen, not-finished

When this book came in on hold, I couldn't remember why I had wanted to read it in the first place - the synopsis doesn't draw you in and the cover is not appealing. It was a quick read and I reached my 50 page stopping point and even read a little more and ultimately had to put this title down. It seemed like the author was trying too hard to make the characters harsh and gritty and it didn't read well. Perhaps if I hadn't just finished a book where the best friend dies, I could have given this...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

this book had a ridiculous amount of swear words. way too many. so many that those words became all i noticed. plus it was confusing. it was supposed to be a mystery, but it was just... not very good.

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Feb 19, 2011 Raven marked it as to-read

I was lucky enough to have beta-ed this book. Believe me when I say you're going to LOVE this book. SO AMAZING.

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Oct 12, 2012 Will rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

Nope.

Writing was too annoying. Characters were too annoying - this whole book was just one big 'annoyance'

I'm not entirely sure why I even read this. I'm not a fan of 'angst' heavy books but I think the whole 'mystery' thing appealed to me.

and yikes, what a mystery the reveal turns out to be. It's very over the top and dramatic.

Which I guess is what the teenagers years was about but...I'm not sure if reading it was very appealing to me.

Also, enough with the repeating words, words, words three ti...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 17, 2011 Vahini Naidoo marked it as to-read · (Review from the author)

My book! :D

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Jan 16, 2013 Elizabeth(The Book Whisperer) rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It was raw and real, and very sad.

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Nov 14, 2012 Ms. Kahn added it

I reviewed this book for School Library Journal.

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Oct 25, 2012 Yuanting Lee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

Meh. I wasn't impressed by the story in general and I thought that it was too melodramatic. Also, like another reviewer had said, there were a lot of profanities in this book. Enough to become mildly annoying. Overall, it was a so-so book, but seeing as I've been waiting for this for quite a while, it didn't live up to my expectations at all.

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May 16, 2012 Shirley Marr marked it as to-read

Baby Vee and me go way back, I've watched her progress and I'm so excited that the book finally has a cover and will be out later this year. But I want to read this book not because I know (or think) I know Vee, but because it sounds like a seriously interesting and unique book. I mean it:)

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Jul 28, 2012 Debra Driza rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, apocalypsies, 2012-debut-author

Simply put, this author's prose is amazing. I read an early version of this book and it was fabulous and dark, but to be honest, I would probably love anything this author wrote. Her imagery is just that stunning and unique.

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Aug 17, 2012 John marked it as to-read

Shelves: awesome-authors

The author is awesome, and she's also a teen. Yes, yes I will be reading this.

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