The Way We Fall Review

The Way We Fall
Megan Crewe (@megancrewe)
January 24th 2012 by Disney-Hyperion
Goodreads

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 pulled me in from the moment I started this book to the second I finished it.  I was drawn into Kaelyn's world on a island off the coast, of what I'm assuming, is Canada. Everything is going great, she is smart, has an adorable cousin, and loves nature. It's when her friend's father makes an unusual comment one day when Kaelyn is over at their house, Kaelyn gets her first clue of things to come.  Friends start sneezing and coughing and then, insane itching that won't stop no matter how much you scratch begins...and more and more people become infected and dying, and the island is quarantined by the government. What Kaelyn does not know is this virus will devastate her family and her small community and force everyone to decide exactly what they will do to survive.

I love how The Way We Fall was written in a diary format.  You don't know if this diary is Kaelyn's up-to-date account of the events or something someone found years after the catastrophic events which killed everyone.  I went through the story hoping it was the first, but fearing it was the second. What really got to me while reading this book was how I became a part of this story. If I sneezed or had an itch, just for a moment, I would pause and think to myself, what if this is the beginning?  What if this guy coughing next to me in line at the grocery store is how an epidemic begins? The Way We Fall creeped me out even when I wasn't reading it!  That's the sign of a great story!

Lagniappe

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Books recommended by Megan Crewe for after you read The Way We Fall

If you liked The Way We Fall, check out these stories of suspense and survival:

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien

Plague by Jane Ure

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Taylor Five by Ann Halam

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman