Falling into Place by Amy Zhang → Start Date: December 28, 2014

[Katie]

Trisha, Juli, and I will be reading this. Anyone else is welcome to join.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Yay! Thanks for making the threads!! :)

[Katie]

You're welcome! I just realized the day I picked for this is a busy day for me, so I might not have as much time to read, but I should still be able to read a bit of this.

[Jacquelyn, thebrunettebooknerd]

Enjoy this one guys! I read an ARC of this and it was amazing!

[Juli]

28 .. hmm busy day but ill be able to read on the train i think :)

[Katie]

I'm glad you liked it, Jacquelyn. Hopefully I'll like it as much as you did.

[Chris]

I'm in for this one

[Juli]

Shall we start? it's already the 28th of december here (miday to be precise )
This is my first buddy read :D

[Katie]

I've read 5 chapters of this so far. Juli, you can go ahead and start whenever you want today. When I do buddy reads, I typically come back and comment every 5 or 10 chapters with my thoughts. I put my thoughts in spoiler tags.

Kennie (view spoiler)[It sounds like she got pregnant and had an abortion from something that she said, but I'm guessing we'll find out more about this later. (hide spoiler)]

Liz (view spoiler)[I wonder what her whole story is, though I'm sure we'll find out. She seems like a bit of a mess so far, with all her drinking and partying, and then knowing that she had crashed her car on purpose. Something must have driven her to wanting to do that, so I'm sure we'll find out more about that. (hide spoiler)]

Liz's mom (view spoiler)[She seemed upset when she got the call about Liz, but in the flashback chapter, it seemed like she didn't care about Liz very much. (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

I've now read 10 chapters of this.

Julia (view spoiler)[It's interesting that she became best friends with Liz even though Liz was one of the main people bullying her. (hide spoiler)]

Monica (view spoiler)[The part where she kept calling Liz's voicemail just to hear her voice was so sad to read. (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Juli wrote: "Shall we start? it's already the 28th of december here (miday to be precise )
This is my first buddy read :D"

Yes, Juli, start any time! come back and post (see Katie's posts) and let us know how it's going for you!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

woohoo Go Katie!

I'll be starting soon! making progress on a few others first
ugh and I'm still sick so I'm reading between naps.....

[Juli]

i read up to chapter 7 and i'm loving it :)
(view spoiler)[ i think i like the way it's written though, i sometimes get lost and have to re-read some parts. English is not my first language so i might be judging wrongly....
It seems like Liz has all kind of issues. The friendship between Liz and her friends has turned in to something fake now. Her mom, well she is shown a bit shallow with all the pretending but i think she cares for Liz.And the guy at the waiting room at the hospital I want to know who he is :O (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

5 chapters

Kennie (view spoiler)[ Yes...pregnant and abortion...but it sounds like Kyle cheated with...none other than Liz. is that what you got out of it too??
I'm so sad she had to find out about Liz through Facebook. (hide spoiler)]

Liz (view spoiler)[ her life sounds very lonely...being the top girl doesn't always mean you are surrounded by people who love you :( (hide spoiler)]

Liz's mom (view spoiler)[ Yeah, she seemed like she was always gone but....from I thought the narrator clarified that her mom wasn't gone that much.....Liz just felt like it was too much (hide spoiler)]

Narrator (view spoiler)[ hmmm...who is this narrator? Her guardian angel? her imaginary friend?? Who is this? he's been there the whole time through her life....he knows every moment he saw all her mistakes and saw her ready to take her life and yet he never stopped her.... (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Juli wrote: "i read up to chapter 7 and i'm loving it :)
[spoilers removed]..."

Yes, Julie, this one is written kind of funny - like poetry. It is a little overly descriptive - but I do find some of the lines simply beautiful.

:) I hope you're liking it but if anything stays confusing, be sure to ask! we're here to chat

[Juli]

Trisha wrote: "5 chapters


i think i know who the narrator is but i'm not sure ..
yes i love the way it's written, i feel like getting a paper and writing some quotes down :)
i think i'll wait up a little before reading more i'm already chapter 15

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

YES! I love it too! i'm quoting all kinks of stuff on my feet LOL probably annoying every friend I have! hah!!
I'm loving it!

I'm also 15 chapters

Narrator (view spoiler)[ I'm off
it's a girl...I'm still going Guardian angel :) (hide spoiler)]

Liam (view spoiler)[ what a sweet boy. I'm so sad he never got to get to know her. but, near the end, it sounds like she was a bit off. Not her nicest self anymore and she might have really hurt him (hide spoiler)]

Monica (view spoiler)[ her parts are just hurting my heart
I'm a mom...of 2 kids. I just...I couldn't even IMAGINE (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

30 chapters and I'm done for today...I'll definitely devour this one tomorrow

something about the writing it just...lovely

7 days (view spoiler)[ ugh, I'm so sad that after 7 days, she couldn't find something to live for (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

I'm still at 10 chapters since I haven't read any more of it today, but I just wanted to comment to say that I agree that the writing is different than usual and I also think that it is beautiful. I'll read most of this book tomorrow probably, if not all of the rest of it.

[Chris]

I'm still at chapter 5 :/ Depressing lol

anyway Trisha I agree with you about what you said for Kennie
I though (view spoiler)[ kyle cheated with Liz or something happened like that (hide spoiler)]

The only thing that's intriguing me so much is the narrator . I'm thinking some kind of angles or spirit

[Katie]

I've read through chapter 20 now, and this book is good so far, but sad as well.

Kennie (view spoiler)[You were right about Kyle cheating on her with Liz. I noticed that in one of these chapters. Also, it was sad when she got home, happy after her competition, and went on Facebook and found out about Liz that way. (hide spoiler)]

Liam (view spoiler)[It will be interesting to read more of his parts and learn more about him. It seems like he loved Liz from afar, since he wasn't really friends with her, though I haven't read yet what it was about her that made him love her. (hide spoiler)]

Julia (view spoiler)[She is apparently addicted to drugs, which was also mentioned in the previous chapters, and it looks like she at least partly blames Liz for the addiction since Liz pressured her to try the drugs in the first place. (hide spoiler)]

Liz (view spoiler)[There were quite a few awful things that she did. What she did to Lori with the eyebrows was pretty extreme. Also, it was horrible that she acted like she would be kind to Melody, and then she insulted her, just like everybody else, because she was afraid to go against the crowd. (hide spoiler)]

Mackenzie (view spoiler)[I can't believe that she gave a speech about Melody being a wonderful person at her funeral when she was the main ringleader against Melody. That seems so disrespectful. (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

I've read 30 chapters now, and I'm liking this.

7 days (view spoiler)[I agree that it was sad that there was nothing that she could live for. (hide spoiler)]

soccer team (view spoiler)[It was sad that she realized that she didn't know the girls on her team that she had played with for years. (hide spoiler)]

Jake (view spoiler)[It sounds like their relationship was interesting, with a combination of fights and sweet gestures that weren't orchestrated by Jake. (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

I have a fairly long car ride today, and I'll be able to read a lot of this book during the car ride. I won't be able to update in the car, so I'll update on whatever I get read once I get back home.

[Juli]

i just got home, long day but now i can read :D today i went to my book store and got some books ... it's really hard to get English books here so when ever i go to the almost only book store which has English books i buy two books :) i got Let it Snow and Message in a Bottle (the thing is they never have the book i want so i just look around and ask for recommendations to the lady there )
But enough rumbling, on with the reading i left on chapter 16 so when i get to 30 i'll do an update 8)

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Juli wrote: "i just got home, long day but now i can read :D today i went to my book store and got some books ... it's really hard to get English books here so when ever i go to the almost only book store whi..."

yay! Congrats on finding those. I love Let it Snow!!! Great authors wrote the stories - I hope you love it!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Katie wrote: "I have a fairly long car ride today, and I'll be able to read a lot of this book during the car ride. I won't be able to update in the car, so I'll update on whatever I get read once I get back home."

Have a safe trip! no worries. between not feeling well and juggling another book, I didn't make it to this one today. I will read more tomorrow though, for sure! :)

[Juli]

I'm on chapter 30 i'm feeling sleepy so tomorrow i'll read more

7 days (view spoiler)[ she was looking for something worth getting by the day. Like something to look forward maybe rewarding... she didn't find it in her social relations. But what about her future i mean.. collage mayby a new start meaning school is kind of hell for some people is something you just need to get by... everyone forgets about it later ... I'm looking for the good part but there's no good part, she's falling into a never ending downwards spiral kind of depression (hide spoiler)]


soccer team (view spoiler)[ i do know how it feels to have a sport there to kind of take of your mind of daily stuff. Sooner or later she had to deal with the stuff (hide spoiler)]

jake (view spoiler)[ sounds so fake (hide spoiler)]

Friends (view spoiler)[ I feel julia is a lot closer than kennie. Julia i think is blaming Liz for something she did to herself it's kind of mean, but Liz sounds kind of bad person. I think Julia blames her not to feel guilt but at the same time it's like she knows the blame is onherself?. I kind of loved the chapter "missed calls" i want to know more about Liam. (hide spoiler)]
i still don't get a clue who the narrator is (view spoiler)[ i think it's someone who passed away or an old friend she never spoke again to (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

good night Juli!!! We'll chat more tomorrow

I agree (view spoiler)[ I love missed calls too
I'd love to find out more about Liam. i wish he'd been able to tell Liz she matters
but Liz is in such a dark place, I don't know if she'd have heard him or just been mean to him :( (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

So, I ended up finishing this whole book on my car ride, so I'm going to try to remember a bunch of my thoughts from the 150 pages that I've read since I last updated. I ended up really loving this. It hadn't really hooked me that much at the beginning, but as I kept reading, I realized at some point that I really loved it.

Liam (view spoiler)[What Liz did to him was awful, with spreading the video and making it appear that Liam was doing something that he hadn't actually done. Liam is such a sweet and nice guy who is too good for Liz, but since he loves her so much, I hope, for his sake, that there could be a relationship between them in the future. (hide spoiler)]

Kennie (view spoiler)[The part when she was thinking about how much she wanted to have her baby was so sad since I knew that she was going to end up to have an abortion. She seemed like a pretty broken character. I loved when Liam went to her while she was crying, even though she had never been kind to him. (hide spoiler)]

Julia (view spoiler)[I'm glad that it sounds like she's going to get help with her addiction. I agree that I think Julia seemed closer to Liz than Kennie did. The scene where she put on scrubs and went back to talk to Liz in the hospital room was so sad, since it was easy to tell how heartbroken she was. (hide spoiler)]

Jake (view spoiler)[He deserved what Julia did to him. It seemed like he was a jerk, since he was supposed to be Liz's boyfriend and care about her, yet he was already trying to pick up other girls while she was in the hospital. Plus, he had been cheating on her for a while before that. (hide spoiler)]

Monica (view spoiler)[The scene where she said Liz's name and then said "Don't make me write it on a tombstone" was a very heartbreaking scene, since it was sad to read about a mother who was so close to losing her daughter. (hide spoiler)]

the narrator (view spoiler)[I had read that the narrator was the imaginary friend a while ago when I first heard about the book deal, but when I read the book, I realized we weren't supposed to know the identity of the narrator at first, though it is revealed by the end. (hide spoiler)]

the ending (view spoiler)[If I interpreted the ending correctly, it looks like Liz lived, and went home from the hospital with her mom. And it looks like she's finally going to ask for the help that she needs. So it was a hopeful ending. (hide spoiler)]

[Juli]

i've just finished reading it
Kennie (view spoiler)[ at first i thought of her more like a brat if that's the correct word, but they i sympathized with her because a soft side was shown. I loved the chapter when she talked to Liz at the end everything she said sounded so real (hide spoiler)]
Liam (view spoiler)[ i felt so sorry about the flute thing, it made me cry. When he talks to kennie it made me feel like maybe a better couple would be kennie and liam. But Liam is all over Liz. (hide spoiler)]
Julia (view spoiler)[ she seemed like the perfect girl, and i think she fell for the drugs because she was tierd of being so perfect maybe? (hide spoiler)]

Over all (view spoiler)[ i really liked it, at some point i hated reading the parts about newtons laws it made me just want to skip them and go for the actual story... But i loved the vivid descriptions and the feelings shown over all 5/5. At one point i thought Liz wasn't going to make it through so the ending took me by surprise and i loved it (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

I'm finally done.
wow this was amazing

the narrator (view spoiler)[ ugh. I'm so sad that they killed that for you. I thought it might be an imaginary friend. I love that she was there to hold her hand in the accident. Ugh, the thought of that gets me every time (hide spoiler)]

Monica (view spoiler)[ her mom needs to check back in. you don't leave a highschool kid (who lost her dad) alone that much....
I was so sad when she said that part about the tombstone too. Ugh, it just killed me
I'm glad mom gets a second chance to fix this. she's lucky, not all parents do (hide spoiler)]

Liz (view spoiler)[ I think what I love the most about this book is that she is SO unlikable. If we were to ONLY sort throug her memories, she's awful.

but she's not - and that's just it. her reality is only HER idea of it. There are so many other sides.
kennie and Julia, liam and even jake - they see Liz differently and the situations differently. she only sees the bad she does. and she has done some really awful things -but we got to see some great things too.
she has potential, hopefully she can pull that passion around and be something good for the world
I was so glad she pulled through in the end
I love that both Julia and Kennie went in there and pulled for her
and that Liam told her to remember the sky. awesome awesome (hide spoiler)]

ugh, thank you guys for reading this with me. The cover of this book was kind of whimsical silly and I was completely going to blow over this book and read something else

so so so glad I read it. Thank you!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

oh and
lol
and one more thing

Liz (view spoiler)[ I like the hope here
that even tho liz did all those things, all those awful things

aren't we all rooting for her?

I hope it gives someone.....anyone...the hope to know that we are all redeemable. We are ALL worth saving (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

I'm glad both of you loved it too. All of us gave it 5 stars, so this was a good one for all of us.

Liz (view spoiler)[Like you said, I did love how she was redeemable. I'm thinking that she will try her best to be a better person after what happened, and I am really rooting for her. (hide spoiler)]

[Jacquelyn, thebrunettebooknerd]

So glad to see you guys loved this one! Incredible, isn't it?! And this author is really young! I think she was in high school when she wrote this book!

[Juli]

i read a her profile on goodreads and it said that when she was little she had imaginary friends and when she grew up she turned their stories in to books... i wonder which part of the book really relates to her, there's always a reason to write such book... it really got to me.