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3.9 of 5 stars

From the author of Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are comes a gripping story about one girl’s search for clues into t... read full description


reviews

Feb 25, 2011
Arlene rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars

Fall for Anything is one of those few stories that kept me up all night until I finished the book because I just had to see how this car crash would end. It’s by no means a feel good escapist book. It’s about parental suicide and learning how to cope with the aftermath of unanswered questions and a quest for the truth.

Spoilerish comments coming, but if you haven’t read the book, I don’t think they’ll make much sense.

When Eddie More...
2 comments like (11 people liked it)
Feb 04, 2011
Kim rated it: 2 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
7 comments like (16 people liked it)
Jun 03, 2011
Janina rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Fall for Anything was my second Courtney Summers novel, and while I did enjoy like (I think enjoy is probably the wrong word for a Summers book. I find it hard to enjoy them, because they are so raw and full of hurt. But I did like reading it, if that makes sense.) it a bit more than Some Girls Are, I still can’t rate it higher than three and a half stars. Summers’ books are very powerful and engaging, but also very depressing and dark. If you are looking for happy endings – in the classical hap More...
0 comments like (6 people liked it)
Oct 20, 2011
Emily rated it: 5 of 5 stars

I can't imagine why Courtney Summers' novels aren't more widely read, I guess it might have something to do with Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are being marketed as your typical high school clique-y/boy-obsessed novels. Their covers suggest something you'd find in every American high school movie and even the quote from the School Library Journal about Some Girls Are is: "Fans of the film Mean Girls will enjoy this tale of redemption and forgiveness".

Well, let me te More...
2 comments like (16 people liked it)
Jan 23, 2011
Morgan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Jesus, this is a hard book to rate. I could probably justify any star-rating I choose to give it. In many ways, it was like a drive-by smack in the face. Shocking, painful, and it leaves you feeling bewildered, while at the same time forcing you to acknowledge your own being.

This is quite a powerful book about loss and the search for answers to impossible questions. At times it was quite uncomfortable to read, for it was filled with such raw emotion and honesty, but at the same t More...
4 comments like (15 people liked it)
Jun 22, 2011
Isamlq rated it: 3 of 5 stars
3.5

It's a sob story. It's got a teeny tiny love story. It's a story of coming to terms with loss... or at least trying to come to terms with loss:

What a sad girl... yet despite that or maybe because of what she was going through, Eddie came across as real, and just the right amount of snarky, sullen teenager. Her comments, her jealousies, her petulant behavior were all honest. She read real to me. I didn't always like her. There were times I wanted to shake her, knock s More...
3 comments like (2 people liked it)
Feb 04, 2011
Stefanie rated it: 5 of 5 stars
***12 STARS!!!!***

Very Powerful.

With that said, definitely not a book for everyone...

Eddie Reeves is dealing with the sudden loss of her father who took his own life. Her father being a famous photographer, was a true artist. Eddie spends the summer asking the ultimate question of Why?. Why would someone take their own life? There were no signs of grief or depression, nothin to elude Eddie or her mom to his unhappiness.
What I loved about this book i More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Apr 03, 2011
Thomas rated it: 4 of 5 stars
More like a 3.5.

Eddie Reeves' father committed suicide, but she doesn't know why. There seems to be no reason - he was a famous artist, a talented photographer, and had a loving family, most importantly, her. While entrenched in her grief Eddie meets Culler, his former student. They form a dangerous attraction and embark on a mission to piece together the broken picture of her father's death.

Another powerful book by Courtney Summers. Like a punch in the stomach, Fall for More...
0 comments like (5 people liked it)
Nov 01, 2010
Shanyn rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I'm pretty much in love with Courtney Summers and her beautiful writing.

I read Some Girls Are (one of Courtney's other books) because of the plot (mean girls/bullying). After finishing I immediately purchased Cracked Up to Be (another of Courtney's books), which was also excellent. When my very nice blogger friend Gail offered to let me borrow Fall for Anything, I danced around and said YES YES YES because I knew that if it were anything like her other two books I would be in love.
More...
2 comments like (5 people liked it)
Oct 25, 2010
Sara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Courtney Summers is the Queen of Mean; she holds hold court over characters that readers love to hate... and just plain love. Readers are well aware that Summers can write a compelling mean girl, but, with FALL FOR ANYTHING, she shows us that she can write vulnerable and broken with just as much skill.

I quickly realized that Eddie wasn't anything like Summers' previous two main characters, Parker and Regina. Eddie has never dated the most popular guy in school, she doesn't bully, and More...
3 comments like (10 people liked it)
Dec 19, 2010
Steph Su rated it: 4 of 5 stars
You want to know why Courtney Summers is a must-buy? Because she can take any topic—even a riskily overexposed one such as the death of a loved one—and write about it in such a way that sucks you in and makes you feel like this is the first time you’ve ever read about that topic before. So yes, that’s what FALL FOR ANYTHING does with grief, wrapped up in beautiful descriptions of art photography and and nail-biting mystery.

Courtney Summers has nearly unmatched talent with developing More...
3 comments like (3 people liked it)
Dec 20, 2010
Kelly rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Full review here: http://stackedbooks.blogspot.com/2010/12...

I've been impressed with Courtney's first two books. But impressed isn't even a fair word to use for this one. It was beyond my expectations. This is a story of grief. Overwhelming, powerful, enveloping grief. And it is a story about heartlessness and art.

While reading it, the only word I kept thinking about overandoverandover was intimate. This is an intimate look at loss and life and utter despair. I wanted so h More...
5 comments like (3 people liked it)
Oct 08, 2011
Aly (Fantasy4eva) rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book will make you feel. It's punches are lighter though. They creep up and build up momentum only to catch you by surprise at unexpected moments. So much so, that you will struggle throughout, but you will cope, and then you will reach the end only to find yourself slightly trembling, with this ache-y hollow feeling and wet eyes that you had not anticipated. And that is when you will realise the gorgeousness that is this book.

Our protagonist Eddie is lost. And her mother is as More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Feb 18, 2011
Pam rated it: 5 of 5 stars
If you haven't read a Courney Summers book, Fall for Anything is a great beginning! Eddie Reeves is consumed with grief and obsessed with discovering why her photographer father committed suicide. Her best friend, Milo, is always there for her, perhaps in more ways than Eddie realizes. When her father's only student, Culler Evan, enters the picture, her quest for answers and her relationships take a dark turn.

This is riveting and emotional read, with complex characters and engross More...
Apr 19, 2011
Sarah added it
I had pretty high expectations for Fall For Anything...and I was not disappointed at all! It is easily one of my favorite books; I could read it over and over again without getting bored. I love the cover. It is just striking.
Courtney Summers is probably my favorite author out there. She's been known as the 'Queen of Mean' for writing up compelling mean girls, but that's not what made me love Fall For Anything. No, in this story Eddie is not popular, she hasn't dated the most popular guy in More...
2 comments like (1 person liked it)
May 23, 2011
Alyssa rated it: 5 of 5 stars
“Don’t divide me into before and after.”

I was really eagerly awaiting Summers’ new novel, FALL FOR ANYTHING, and luckily, it did nothing wrong. In FFA, Summers takes a break from the lives of mean-girls and dives into the grieving heart of a daughter of a suicidal.

I mean, as per usual, Summers created a book that is all lyrics – without it being poetry – is all sad – without being a complete downer – and is all real and gritty and raw – without her having to even try. Alt More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Aug 27, 2011
Melannie :) rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Six hours, non-stop.
Six hours took me to finish this book.
I wouldn't change any second.

I'm in love with Courtney's writting, seriously in love.
It's so captivating, so raw, beautiful, real and so haunting.

Her third novel is no exception.

Fall for Anything is a novel about a girl looking for answers,
answers of why her loving father commited suicide.

But if you've read Summers before, or if you don't I'll tell you:
This is n More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 20, 2010
Helen rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Courtney Summers writes with so much deep emotion. It's one of the main reasons I adore her writing. In her books, every character's emotions seep through each page with every single word you read. And Fall For Anything seems to be the most emotional out of all the books I've read by her so far.

You don't need Eddie to tell you what she's feeling, ever. No matter what she says, you know what she's feeling, because you're feeling it too through everything she's doing and saying.
More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 29, 2010
Yan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
It's just so fucked up. I love it.

ETA for full review:
After her father’s suicide, Eddie can’t seem to move on.
Straight off the bat readers’ find Eddie to be different from Summers’s typical heroine: quiet, fragile, and much more solemn. Going in I mentally prepared myself to dislike Eddie as I did to the previous other characters of her previous works. But there wasn’t that bitchy, outwardly hostile, and combative girl I was so used to and expecting from Summers’s. And I love More...
9 comments like (4 people liked it)
Aug 25, 2011
Olivia rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I read this book in a day and loved every minute of it. I was a little scared going into this but had a lot of excitement. I love Courtney Summers a bunch. "Cracked Up to Be" and "Some Girls Are" are some of my all-time favorite books ever. So I was scared this one would disappoint me because anymore I have such a high expectation, which I know is totally wrong.

Anyways, onto the book. "Fall for Anything" was really, really good but for some reason I don More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Jan 12, 2012
Faith rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When I first read the title to this book, I thought it would be about a girl who would fall in love with boys and get her heartbroken several times, hence the title Fall for Anything with a girl who looks depressed on the cover. I was completely wrong! It turns out to be about a girl whose father commits suicide.
Eddie’s summer going into her senior year has been difficult. Her father committed suicide without leaving a note behind. She meets a boy who knows her father and Eddie thinks, More...
Dec 18, 2011
Brandi rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Eddie’s once famous photographer father committed suicide two months ago. Her mother ignores her and just sits in her dad’s chair wearing his old housecoat. Beth, her mother’s best friends, and a woman Eddie hates has decided to move in. According to Beth everything must be done to get her mother out of her depression. No one seems to understand that Eddie is hurting too. The thing that gets to her is why did her dad do it? She thought he was happy, thought he had a good life, thought he lov More...
Oct 08, 2011
Katherine rated it: 5 of 5 stars
"Fall For Anything" was beautiful. It started slowly and I almost quit after the third chapter because I felt like the pacing didn't match what I was hoping for... but I'm very glad that I stuck with the story.

It's more than about a seventeen year old girl, coping with her father's suicide. It's about the power of friendship, growing up, and finding your place in a world where nearly everything is not quite what it seems.

I felt for Eddie, the girl telling the s More...
Jul 07, 2011
Summers is a great writer to have in the YA field, in my opinion. She doesn't shy away from more difficult/touchy subject matter, and she is not afraid to make her characters fallible or imperfect. This is not a YA author who shapes her teen, adult characters or story into a cookie-cutter mold, that's for sure.

Eddie Reeves is struggling to come to terms with the death of her father. Her mother is in a state of catatonia and not able to help or comfort Eddie; her mother's aggravating fr More...
Jun 15, 2011
Sherry rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Courtney Summers has done it again. Much like with the first book I read of hers, Cracked Up To Be, she has created realistic characters, and has put them on a path that isn't cheerful and bright, but is filled with hardships that the characters must work through and solve.

It's hard to say what it would be like to lose a loved one that close. I'm sure many of you reading this have, and I am sorry for that. I've been fortunate in my life that I haven't lost anyone very close, like a More...
Jun 10, 2011
Tammy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
My thoughts:
Why?
That is the big question that the ones left behind are left to try to answer.
So many are touched by the tragedy of suicide.
It's a tough topic that is handled well by Courtney Summers.
What I loved about this book:
Courtney Summer had created an amazing character with Eddie. She is so easy to relate to-her anger, sadness, and confusion felt so real at times it was painful to read. The rawness of Eddie's grief goes right to the heart and stays ther More...
Apr 10, 2011
Sophia rated it: 1 of 5 stars
Now what didn't I like about this book? Hmm.. where to begin? First off was the language.Dropping the F-bomb in every paragraph does NOT make the book ant cooler. Eddie's (who names a girl Eddie?) mom is depressed a lot and her friend Beth is watching over her but also manages to annoy Eddie a lot. Beth was so annoying I hated her and skimmed over paragraphs with her in it. Next is how Milo, Eddie's best friend it intorduced. I t doesn't tell you who he is jut 'Milo and me'.
*Spoile More...
Apr 03, 2011
Mark rated it: 4 of 5 stars
"I'm sitting in a bedroom where the paint is peeling, my arms wrapped around myself. I wonder what happened in this place when it was new. Who lived here and what they did, and were they good people. Were they sad people. Are they dead now. Questions about things that don't matter, so I can push that other question out of my head: was I a good daughter.

It might have been me.

Imagine you're the weight around a person who jumps.

That you are what keeps them f More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Mar 21, 2011
Paula rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Eddie's father was a famous photographer in his life before family. When he commits suicide, Eddie is in limbo, and she leans on her best friend, Milo, for support. Summers' characterization of Eddie and Milo and their relationship clearly shows how shattered her life is, living with a mother who cannot take off her father's housecoat and tolerating life's intrusions upon her grief only half-heartedly. Eddie goes to the old warehouse where she discovered her father's body every night. When she More...
Jan 08, 2011
Robert rated it: 5 of 5 stars
My dream is to read a Courtney Summers’ book about teenage angst and zombies: The Teenage Walking Dead, or Night of the Living Prom, or Are You There God, It’s Me, A Zombie, something catchy like that. Some Zombies Are, perhaps? I have been asking Courtney to write this book for two years now and I need your help, Esteemed Reader, to take this campaign viral. So if you see Courtney on Facebook or at her blog, drop her a line and let her know of the growing audience of zombie-hungry fans. It’s on More...