Fall for Anything

If I could give this book ten stars I would. It's well written and emotional without being overwhelmingly so. After Eddie's photographer father kills himself, she is determined to find out why. Despite his sparse suicide note, she knows there must be a bigger reason. Her best friend Milo alternately helps and restrains her attempts to find an answer. Then she meets Culler Evans, a student of her father's. She's swept up into his world and struggles to understand his art, as well as the art her father had produced just before he died. This leads her on a scavenger hunt for what her father left behind. The suspense builds up perfectly, to the extent where my stomach was actually tied in knots at the climax. Though I predicted a third of the way in what the resolution would be, it wasn't a let-down when it was revealed. I also have to applaud the realistic ending; a small part of me is hoping for a continuation just because I loved the characters so much, but the rest of me loves that I can let the story play out in my mind.

I was extremely disappointed in this book after reading "Some Girls Are." I found 17 year-old Eddie extremely irritating and didn't like her narrative voice at all. Even though she was questioning the suicide of her father, I found it difficult to empathise with her. Culler Evans, her father's student, was unbelievable and I couldn't understand why he did what he did. In fact, the only character I really liked was Eddie's best friend, Milo. Despite the way Eddie treated him at times he stood by her and was there for her whenever she needed a helping hand. A ho-hum read!

Meaning. We all search for it or believe it is tangled up in our day to day. But we look for, beg for meaning most when the unthinkable happens. Eddie's search for meaning takes her on a journey with her father's former assistant, Culler Evans.

The search for meaning is primarily what this book is about. Death changes the people left behind. Some become bolder, while others turn inward.Watching Eddie and her mother cope (or not) with the sudden loss of her father is heartbreaking, but impossible to look away from.

The turn of events in the novel is surprising. Without giving away some necessary details, I can't comment further. So I'll skip ahead and say that some of the best endings are in the form of beginnings.

If Beth doesn't get eaten by angry snakes at some point after this book finishes, then the world knows no justice.

Warning: May contain spoilers Even though I own all of Courtney Summers books, the first time I had got around to reading anything by here was last month. It was This is Not a Test and it was a really good book. I'll be honest, at the moment I'm not really into the whole realistic YA books, maybe its because I'm just a little bit obsessed with dystopia but I've only got a short while to finish any of my reading challenges on Goodreads and this was on the list, so I picked it up. It did not disappoint one bit.This book is set from Eddie's point of view. Its a few weeks after her dad committed suicide and while her mother is falling apart she is trying to figure out why. He seemed happy, a well known photographer and a dotting father, so Eddie just could not understand why he would do it. Until one day she meets Culler. Culler Evans was her dads one and only student, and someone else who misses him just as much as she seems to. Her best friend, Milo, who has always been her rock, has now turned to and ex instead of helping Eddie through this hard time. Milo, someone she's been friends with for as long as she can remember, was the one who found Eddie with her dad (her dad having jumped off the top of an abandoned building in town) and refuses to talk about it with her. Lost and confused she seeks comfort in Culler, who is able to give her an insight into the person her dad was while working, leaving Eddie feeling more and more like she didn't truly know who her father was.On one of their many trips to the abandoned building that her father jumped from, somewhere Eddie likes to sit when she's got no where else to go or needs to clear her head, her and Culler find the initials SR carved into the wood, and while cleaning out her fathers things at the studio they find only photos, photos Culler says her dad had took just a week before his death. So Eddie and Culler set off on an adventure to find the places in the photos and see if there is anything else there, something that could give them some insight into why he decided he didn't want to live any more.Confused and torn between Culler and Milo, Eddie struggles to cope even more, especially as its seeming more and more that her dad just wasn't happy, that he didn't want to live any more because there wasn't anything to live for.This book was so well written and heart wrenching that the only way to truly explain to you how I felt reading it is just to read it yourself, because I cant explain it. The characters felt so life like and real that I sometimes forgot that I was reading a fiction book.

Seventeen year old Eddie's photographer father, Seth, committed suicide by jumping off the roof of a 7 story warehouse. She's been searching for answers to the question "why?". He'd enjoyed fame and notoriety years before for plastering his Cityscape photos all over the city, but has since moved to a small town for solitude. While visiting the warehouse, Eddie runs into Cullen, her father's student, about whom she knew nothing. Cullen discovers her father's initials carved on one wall. All that was left in her father's photography studio were six photos of different locations. Eddie and Cullen, also devastated by Seth's death, decide to visit the locations to look for clues.Fall for Anything is a pretty good book. There was a twist at the end which I kinda saw coming, in a way, but not exactly as the author wrote it. You like Eddie and can understand, on some level, her need to find answers. The premise of the story is good as well. A pretty good read.

lots of angst but well told

Courtney Summers is one of those authors I come to for a really depressing read, and she really delivers in Fall for Anything. Eddie Reeves' has not been the same since her photographer father committed suicide. Of course, who would be with a loved parent dead and no idea why he would do such a thing? Fall for Anything is a girl's search for answers.

In the wake of her father's suicide, Eddie's mother has fallen apart, refusing to leave the house or take off her husband's housecoat. A nosy friend of the family, Beth, moves in to keep the family functioning the way she thinks they should be. Eddie does not approve. I really like how up front Eddie is about her distaste for this person coming and messing with their mourning. The moments when she complains about Beth or about her best friend Milo's girlfriend are when she feels most like a normal teenager.

Seth Reeves hardly left anything behind to explain why he killed himself. Until she knows why, Eddie doesn't know how to deal. To cope, she turns her focus to frustrating Beth and thinking about boys. She's looking for meaning, and if she can't find it in her father's action, maybe she can find it in Culler Evans, his only student. Eddie makes some really dumb choices with regards to romance, but they're so obviously a cry for help even she doesn't know she's making.

My favorite part is the mystery of why Seth jumped from the roof. Eddie and Culler find a box of photographs. From them, they discern clues as to his reason for exiting this world. Their search turns into a road trip and a bunch of life lessons. Those left behind when a loved one commits suicide will always wonder why, and feel culpable; this is why Eddie searches.

One of the most fascinating techniques Summers uses to highlight Eddie's discomfort is the coldness in her hands. Since his death, her hands have not been warm, even though it's the middle of summer. She has trouble using them and it's almost as though they've been damaged by the ordeal and cannot be fixed, in much the way Lady Macbeth couldn't get the damn spot out.

Unfortunately, I never personally connected with Eddie, and I viewed her solely from a distance. My heart didn't ache for her the way it did for Sloane in This Is Not a Test. Both are withdrawn, unhappy, messed up girls, but for some reason Sloane captured my heart and Eddie did not. I think part of my disconnection was how incredibly sad every aspect of this book is. I prefer a bit more humor, even really dark humor, mixed in to lighten the mood. That juxtaposition tends to make points more strongly, I find, than a book that stays consistently sad.

Courtney Summers writes amazing books, though I do not think this one will be my favorite of the bunch. I do, however, plan to revisit this one later in life, because the themes of dealing with grief might be more meaningful for me then.

Story wise, this book is quite a departure from Summers’ previous works of CRACKED UP TO BE and SOME GIRLS ARE. While both those titles center around a school environment and the social pressures within them, FALL FOR ANYTHING centers on grief and how it effects people who are left behind after a loved one passes on. But Summers’ particular take on this story is new and different. The loved one is a tortured artist famous for his photographs. (No doubt influenced from the author’s love for photography) When this tortured artist commits suicide, his daughter Eddie must try to make sense of…why? Why did her father do it? The struggle to answer that question fuels the story while the tension sends it into overdrive. Like SOME GIRLS ARE, the protagonist in FALL FOR ANYTHING must deal with a world pressing against her from all sides. Eddie must deal with her mother who has checked out of life since the funeral. Beth, her mother’s best friend who wants to paint over death like it was simply wallpaper. Eddie’s best friend Milo, who tries to understand Eddie and what she’s going through. And Culler, a mysterious photographer who admired Eddie’s father and takes a keen interest in Eddie who realizes this guy might hold the key to explaining why her father killed himself. Courtney Summers is an outstanding writer. FALL FOR ANYTHING is just as edgy as her previous works which is good because Summers excels in this particular category, able to bring a strong realism to her fictitious worlds that keeps the reader involved and turning to the next page. I highly recommend this book.

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, most notably, she doesn't hide her pain and vulnerability behind a mean exterior. She's had one best friend, Milo, for years, and, except for the occasional girlfriend, it's them against the world. That is, until her father commits suicide, Milo refuses to talk about what happened that fateful night, and Eddie meets Culler Evans.Eddie's quest to find the reason for father's sudden death is painfully sad and incredibly moving. The novel begins "My hands are dying" and this line stayed with me throughout the novel. Since the night her father died, of which she only has a hazy, incomplete memory, Eddie does not feel alive. She constantly analyzes her father's actions, his words, his life, looking for the reason behind his departure. And when Culler Evans, her father's student whom she's never met, reaches out to her, she holds on for dear life because he's the only person who makes her feels alive. For the first time, something and someone has come between Eddie and Milo, despite the fact that Eddie might need Milo now more than ever.I'll openly admit that I love everything I've read by Summers, so maybe my opinion regarding this novel is biased... or maybe, my love for her previous novels, CRACKED UP TO BE and SOME GIRLS ARE, and newfound adoration for FALL FOR ANYTHING, offers proof of just how wonderful her stories and characters are and will convince you to pick up these titles for your own collection.

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 loved her. Why would he kill himself and leave them wondering. Eddie is consumed by this question and nothing her best friend Milo does can get her out of this funk. Eddie is constantly sneaking out and going to the place where her dad committed suicide. One day she notices she isn’t alone. A guy is there and he says that he was a student of her father’s. He seems to be just as lost as she is. They find her father’s initials engraved in a building and sequential numbers on the back of her father’s photos, the only thing that he left behind. They will go on a journey, looking for clues as why her father killed himself. Eddie has to make the choice of moving on or giving up like her father did.This was my first Courtney Summers book and after reading it, I’m going to buy all of them tomorrow. Not even going to read what they are about, just going to buy them. Eddie’s voice in this book was so heartbreaking and so alone. I felt for her, I found myself wanting to comfort her, knock some sense into those around her. I wanted her to be better, be happy, and find all of her answers. She was just so stark and solitary. I connected to her. As for Beth and Eddie’s mother I wanted to punch one and tell her to leave Eddie the hell alone and wanted to shake the other and tell her to remember she had a daughter. I liked the contrast between Milo and Culler and how they related to Eddie in their own unique way. I can’t express how much I loved this book. I connected to the characters and found myself invested in how her life would be after her questions were answered. I couldn’t get enough. I devoured this book. What more could a reader ask for? I give this book a 5 STAR rating. READ IT!

Whoo! Fall for Anything was the first book I’ve read by Courtney Summers. I’ve heard how awesome her books are from a lot of people, and I finally decided to read Cracked Up to Be, but then Fall for Anything came in the mail, and wow!I mean really – wow. This book is beautifully written. It’s phenomenal. Courtney Summers really knows how to make a reader feel. I cried so many times while reading this book. Her writing style is wonderfully descriptive and I loved reading each sentence because even though some of the sentences are really simple, it all just flows so…awesomely. If the rest of her books are this way, I can’t wait to read them.The story itself broke my heart as well. I couldn’t picture myself in Eddie’s shoes because it’s just so hard, but Courtney Summers did a freaking fantastic job of putting me there. I cried for Eddie, and her mother, and everyone affected in the story. It was a beautifully crafted story, with a very, very unexpected twist.I enjoyed all of the characters. I loved reading Eddie’s internal struggle and frustration and hopes, and I just…I don’t know. She’s an amazing character and I really rooted her on throughout the book. She went through a lot before the start of the book, and she’s still dealing with it throughout the book, and because of that I feel like there wasn’t a whole lot of her personality showing, but somehow – she wasn’t flat. There was nothing boring and flat about Eddie’s character at all, and I give Courtney Summers a lot of credit for that.I also loved the character of Beth. At the start of the book, I felt like we weren’t really supposed to like her, and I didn’t really. But I found myself wanting to know more about her and even feeling sorry for her.Fall for Anything, overall, was just awesome. I loved everything about this book, and I really cannot wait to read more from Courtney Summers.

I liked this book a lot which I kind of already predicted because I love Courtney Summers' books...but I didn't like it as much as cracked up to be which is still one of my favorites. The resolution at the end of the book was still kind of murky to me, and I think it could have had a more finite ending but all in all it was still a good read

The intensity of Courtney Summers‘ latest novel hits you on page one. I love books like this — books that grab you around the middle and don’t let go until you’ve turned the last page. FALL FOR ANYTHING definitely had a hold on me.Eddie Reeves is the daughter of the notorious once-famous photographer Seth Reeves — a man who seemed to be contented in his work and in his family. But he killed himself, leaving Eddie and her mother to grieve, alone, and to wonder how well they knew the man at all. Eddie’s mother is practically catatonic — barely speaking, wearing her father’s housecoat day in and day out. As if it wasn’t already bad enough, Eddie’s mother’s best friend is taking over the household. Beth is too peppy, too health-nutty, and too demanding of Eddie, overly concerned about her mother with no regard for the hole suicide left in Eddie, too. Secretly, Eddie starts visiting the site of her father’s death, which is where she meets Culler. Culler was a student of her dad’s, and he’s older, and mysterious, and he has ideas that could lead her to maybe understand her dad a little better. And even though Eddie’s best friend, Milo, thinks he’s totally bad news, Eddie can’t help herself. She wants to spend every moment she can with Culler — even if Milo’s right.FALL FOR ANYTHING is a book that’s impossible to let go, with characters that spark a deep emotion in the reader. You can’t help but loathe Beth, feel for Milo, and want to shake Eddie’s mom. And you so just want to pull Eddie aside and tell her it’s going to be okay. If you’ve loved books like Laurie Halse Anderson‘s SPEAK or THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson, you need to pick up FALL FOR ANYTHING as soon as possible.

When I knew that Courtney Summers was going to have another book, I knew I was going to get it. Although they didn’t have it the first time I looked for it in the store, eventually they did the second time. This is the third book I’ve read from the author, and actually in order by how her books are published. I find it quite strange how I managed to do this because it never happens to me. Now, here’s the thing. I’ve read a lot of books involving death so some of them are not as appreciated as some because they kind of get repetitive after a while, no matter how the way the author treats the subject. Which I kind of feel sad for when I don’t like the book as much when it deals with that topic. So having death be a suicide was something I haven’t read before. Like any Courtney Summers’ book, the voice for their main character is just classic and easy to fit into like a comfortable pair of shoes. The conversations felt real. Eddie’s feelings felt real to me because I could relate to her in one moment of this book very much.The characters in this book are complicated. Flawed for a better word, actually. I was pretty surprised about Culler’s actions in the novel. And what he planned to do after his actions. (Just… really?) Milo kind of gave me a mixed relationship, but I eventually did end up liking him as I wanted to.An intense book about loss and death pretty much had an ending that didn’t need to fill in the spaces to complete everything. And that’s why it was a perfect way to end it. Now it’s time to wait for Courntey Summers’ next book.

When someone dies – no matter the circumstances surrounding their death – it is the people left behind that have to pick up the pieces of their broken hearts and try to live. But when that person ended their own life, those pieces are shattered into pieces so miniscule that they can’t even be found. Eddie’s questions are painful because, not only is the one person who could answer them gone forever, the people left behind are so absorbed in their own grief that they don’t even realize how lost Eddie is – until Culler. He not only misses her father, he wants answers of his own, so when he finds something at the site of his death, both he and Eddie hold on to that as the last thread of hope for closure, or something close to it.The journey they go on in their attempt to find answers is emotional. Eddie’s pain is so fresh that everything they find is like someone prodding at a wound. She pushes aside everything else in her life to follow this obsession, and as I read I ached for her as it seemed apparent that, no matter what she found, it wouldn’t help. And even though I had a pretty good idea of what was at the end of the road, I kept hoping that Eddie would miraculously find all the answers she needed and be perfectly whole again, even though I knew that wouldn’t happen. (Not a spoiler, I swear. I mean, is anyone ever really perfectly whole again after the death of a parent? No. This is my point.) That’s the wonderfully brilliant thing about Courtney Summers – she writes things that are so painful yet so compelling at the same time that I can’t look away.Also, a bonus: this book addresses the hard questions in life, like, Why in the world do people send you lame sympathy cards when someone you love dies? They don’t help, and you’ve killed innocent trees in the process. I think sympathy cards should be outlawed. For real.

Eddie’s father committed suicide and she’s become consumed with wanting to know why. I can see how that would could easily become an obsession. It’s difficult enough when people die without throwing in the fact that they committed suicide. It’s also easy for kids to absorb some of the blame for things. They feel that surely they played some part in things. I felt for Eddie trying to grapple with everything and only having her best friend Milo to count on. Her mother is too deeply mired in grief to even realize the pain that Eddie is in. She’s checked out, emotionally anyway. She can’t see to her own emotional needs, let alone be there for Eddie.Eddie meets Culler Evans, a student of her father’s. They begin exploring clues left behind by Eddie’s father as Eddie grows closer to Culler. She clings to each message in hope that it will give her the answer she’s been longing for. How will this triangle between Eddie, Milo and Culler work out? This book was as lovely as a book about a girl’s agonizing trip through grief can be. There’s hope in Eddie’s and Milo’s relationship. The writing was wonderful, evocative, and thought provoking. In the end you realize that sometimes there are no answers. I’m giving this one 4 kisses!

Have you ever had a delayed reaction to something? You don’t react when it actually happens, but later, the enormity of what has happened and the emotions you have because of it sort creep up behind you and hit you in the back. Not to your head, because you’re always conscious, but right to your spine, so you feel the hit.That was my experience with Fall for Anything. When I finished it, I was like, “Yeah, good book: steady plot, interesting characters, good writing, some shocking moments at the exact right times. Yeah, solid read.” But I wasn’t emotionally attached. I just wasn’t – something didn’t click.And then I started writing my review, and I was really surprised at the emotions that sneaked their hands around my waist from behind. And then I realized precisely how much I liked Eddie. And how much I wanted to absolutely punch almost everyone around her, including her catatonic mother. And then I would find her dad’s grave, dig him up, and punch him, too (hey, he left her in horrendous situation – completely pro-Eddie, here). We won’t talk about what I wanted to do to her mom’s best friend.Wow, does that sound angry? Yeah, I was angry. What Eddie went through was bullshit, pure and simple. Unfortunately, it happens. In short, dad checked out permanently, mom was present but um, vacant, you could say, and mom’s unwelcome best friend (Beth) checked-in, but not for Eddie, the 17 year-old in this story. Oh no, she checked in for mummy WHO SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER! Basically, everyone (save one person) abandoned Eddie in the book. And then Eddie’s grief high jacked her own better judgment and sense of clarity (thanks, daddy-o).Excuse me why I go take friggin’ deep cleansing breath (I hate you, Beth). Okay, good now – let’s get back to the basics then, shall we?Right from the start, Eddie simply wasn’t a character I could pity. I actually think she’d be pretty pissed at me if I did. It got me thinking, “When did pity become a bad thing?” After all, it’s akin to sympathy, and feeling a heartfelt, emotional connection with someone isn’t usually a bad thing. I think pity is different because the word has developed this connotation of being a face value emotion. It’s like saying, “Oh, that’s such a shame. Well, call me next week – I have to fix dinner now.” Feeling pity for a character like Eddie would’ve been like leaving a casserole on her doorstep, but never actually being there for her. It’s thinking someone won’t be able to claw back to hope, and you're already looking at them like they’re washed up. Pity is too defeatist and shallow an emotion to offer up to someone who has been through a personal hell and just wants answers.Eddie’s father has left her in a severe state of mental anguish with absolutely jack to hold onto. When we first meet Eddie, I don’t think she even knows how deep the pain runs – it’s literally to the point where she's numb, and she’s experiencing psychosomatic symptoms. If her mom was with it, maybe she could've have gotten Eddie into grief counseling, but that was a no-go. To make matters just peachy, her best friend has moved in to ***motivate*** her mom back to life – think a female version of Richard Simmons with a more militant attitude and less compassion, but she would completely whip out some jazz hands if she thought it would help Eddie’s mom. I could appreciate it, if she wasn’t so harsh towards Eddie.Cherry that sundae of sadness with Culler. Yes, please do say that name with an italicized emphasis and disgusted sneer – out of the people who used Eddie and/or her mother’s loss for personal gain (although they lied to themselves and called it something else), this guy was the worse. He could’ve been a great, big brother type for her in a perfect world, or picked the road of aloof kindness, but life’s about decisions, no? And Mr. Artsy Photographer made his. He was the variable in this book, the what-if monkey wrench who turned into a. . . well, I won’t tell you what he did, obviously. Drop me a line when you find out and we’ll have a character roast.And, oh Milo, bless that guy for being Eddie’s personal lighthouse. She needed a rock Unfortunately, both she and Milo were both dealing with grief, and that clouded both their decisions. The choices that Eddie made from her grief, from her father’s selfish, selfish decision. . . he would’ve died twice had seen the circumstances his daughter put herself in. Grief can make you do crazy things, but you are searching for peace so hard that the decisions seem rational and needed. Eddie felt she needed to do something because the actual truth of why her father took his own life had no rationale to it - it wasn't something she could face, especially since he had rational reasons for staying (like being there for her). Eddie wanted steady ground to stand on. The things she did were stupid and naive, but no, I can’t bring myself to blame her. After all, would I have done any different, being 17, physically abandoned by one parent and emotionally by another? That’s the real trick about this book – most of the characters were authentic. So believable. Even when Eddie was doing something crazy, it still felt real. If you had to switch shoes with her, you might find yourself doing the same. That’s the sad part: I still don’t know if she’s going to be okay. I don’t think we’re meant to.I didn’t cry while reading this book. Like I said, there was a detachment there that kept me from really sinking in. But, if Eddie were real, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from checking on her at night, just like Milo did. I didn’t completely connect with her, but I sure did care about what happened to her.Okay, now I’m tearing up a bit.Yeah, I recommend this book.

The Quickie ReviewEddie’s father has committed suicide and the grief of it is consuming her, swallowing her whole, she cannot continue with her life until she discovers an answer to a question she may never find, the question being why? Why did he commit suicide when he had a seemingly perfect life? Was it because of Eddie or her mother, did they disappoint him in some way? Was it because he lost the passion he had for his work? Now Eddie’s whole life is all about finding an answer to this question even if it means distancing herself from her best friend and mother in order to join a man, Culler Evans, she barely knows who is helping her find the answers she so desperately wants, but can Eddie really trust Culler, is he genuine or does he have ulterior motives? Fall for Anything is an amazingly powerful novel which describes in such raw and honest language how the suicide of a love one can affect a family.You simply cannot read Fall for Anything and forget about it, it stays with you well after finishing it, it’s a novel which gets under your skin and makes you think and really question things. Whilst these novels are not for everyone, as the subject matter is quite depressing, for me these are the best kind of novels. If this sounds like something you’d like you definitely should read this novel it’s, to put it simply, amazing, I just adored it.The Full Blown ReviewEddie Reeves life has basically stopped, her whole life is consumed by finding out why her seemingly happy and loving father, Seth Reeves, committed suicide. But finding out why he committed suicide is not an easy task after all how do you get answers from a dead man? But trying to figure out why her father committed suicide brings up things Eddie never thought she would have questioned like whether or not she really knew her father at all? Who exactly was he to do this and how could he do this to Eddie and her mum if he really loved them. To Eddie it’s like her father had this whole other life he kept separate from Eddie and her mother. Whilst Eddie is going through this emotional turmoil Culler Evans, Seth Reeves’s student, enters Eddie’s world. Suddenly Eddie is not alone in her grief someone else appears to be just as concerned as Eddie is at trying to discover why he committed suicide. He also appears to know more about Seth Reeves’s other life which Eddie has no idea about. Now with Culler in the picture it’s more important than ever for Eddie to find out why he committed suicide even if it means distancing herself from her best friend Milo and her mother, who seems to be just a shell of the person she used to be before her husbands death. Whilst each step taken with Culler seems to bring Eddie closer to the answer she so desperately wants, is she really ready for the answer?I don’t know where to really begin this review as I don’t believe I can give this book the justice it deserves, I was simply blow away by how emotional and confronting this book was for me. Part of the reason I was so emotional over it was probably because the day I started this book I went to a funeral for an old friend from primary school whose father passed away unexpectedly and I saw with my own eyes how it affected everyone, there are no words to describe how sad it was. So before I even started the book I was already thinking about death especially when it comes unexpectedly as is the case for both the book and my old friends father.When describing grief and loss, words seem so inadequate, how do you put someone’s grief into words? It is so difficult and subjective, yet Summers’ does it brilliantly. It is because of this I adore Summers’ writing style there is something so raw and honest about it, Eddie’s grief was so palpable throughout the entire novel and the way it was written I could understand and feel her grief, it made me want to cry for her and give her a big hug whilst telling her it’s going to be ok.Death especially suicide as well as how people deal with their grief is still often treated as a taboo subject and is not often discussed, but when it is it must be handled with care and Summers’ achieves this. She never sensationalizes the suicide or the grief the characters are going through. It is a realistic novel with each character showing grief that individuals would actually show with Eddie fixated to the point of obsession on trying to figure out the why of her father’s suicide, Eddie’s mother’s complete breakdown with the loss of her husband and Milo’s refusal to discuss what exactly happened that night.Eddie was such an emotionally damaged character, it was so depressing reading from her point of view. The only way Eddie found she could deal with her grief over her fathers loss was to find out why he did what he did which became an obsession. To me Eddie seemed like she was shell, she was going through the motions of everyday life but nothing was getting through, all she cared about or thought about was her fathers suicide and discovering why. Her father’s suicide encroached on every facet of her life even her friendship with her best friend Milo who found Eddie the night of her fathers suicide but won’t tell her what happened on that night which frustrates Eddie no end, she cannot understand why he won’t tell her what happened. In order to help her come to terms with his suicide Eddie separated the two facets of her father’s life into 1) the loving and kind father Eddie knew and loved with all her heart who would never kill himself and 2) the famous photographer and the person she knew nothing about. It is this person that Eddie wants to discover more about in order to find out why he committed suicide because she simply cannot comprehend her father committing suicide due to his life with Eddie and her mother whereas there must be something in his other life that left him suicidal. However, soon Eddie starts to question this line of thought, perhaps it was his home life, and more specifically Eddie, that caused his suicide.Now we get to Culler Evans, Seth Reeves’s student, he was an interesting character and after finishing the book I definitely have strong feelings about him however I am not going to say which way those feelings lean (I either really love him or really despise him) as I don’t want to give away the plot of the novel, you’ll just have to read the book in order to find out what I feel about him as I’m sure you’ll feel the same way as I do. My feelings aside I did have an issue with Culler (which continued throughout most of the book), I was never really sure Eddie could trust him even when he appeared to be helping her I was still suspicious of his motives, I mean yes he wants to find out why Seth Reeves committed suicide just like Eddie but still what’s a 21 year old man hanging around a 17 year old high school student for, it’s a bit creepy.Milo (l absolutely love the name) was another interesting character who had real depth to him and FYI he’s pretty swoon worthy and oh heck I’m going to say it I wanted Eddie to end up with Milo. Both Eddie and Milo were so close before the suicide but now things are strained partly due to Milo’s refusal to tell Eddie what happened on the night of her father’s suicide. Throughout the novel Eddie was always asking Milo to tell her what happened on that night but Milo kept on refusing to talk about it which frustrated Eddie and I have to say me as well, by the end of the book I was so desperate to find out why he wouldn’t tell Eddie what happened. Finally when he does tell Eddie the answer it is so emotional and shows how much he loves and cares for Eddie whilst also indicating that Eddie and her mother were not the only people emotionally affected by the events of that night, Milo was as well, he just had a different way of coping with his grief.In the end Eddie doesn’t get the answer she’s searching for but I don’t think anybody that’s left behind when someone they love dearly commits suicide can ever understand the why of it because those committing suicide are in a totally different frame of mind which is incomprehensible to everyone but them. All you can really do is acknowledge that it happened and hope they have finally found the peace they failed to find in their life. Whilst the reasons for suicide are often uncertain what is certain, which is conveyed perfectly in this novel, is that suicide tears families apart.Whilst the subject matter is not easy (I found it quite confronting at times) Fall for Anything is such a beautiful novel about grief and how suicide leaves such a lasting effect. I feel like there is so much more I could say about this book but I’m going to leave it there, if you want more you’ll just have to read this book, trust me you’ll love it.

FALL FOR ANYTHINGBy Courtney SummersSt. Martin's GriffinThis book puts the whys? of death into your face like a punch for an answer. With each book Courtney Summers offers up to her readers characters who with every mouthful of air are part of what we all are as human beings. These are not cookie cutter characters for a writer’s goal but characters of living life through a story.I love the harshness, the reality, the drinking of tears she shows with bravery in all of her books; which have been better with each one. Starting with CRACKED UP TO BE. Then SOME GIRLS ARE. And now FALL FOR ANYTHING.Fall For Anything explores suicide, death, selfish grief, artistic shortsightedness, and the road of answering what truth can be found in the thoughts of someone after they have lost someone important from their life? These are not things which are made up of one superior answer or one way of thinking.This writer can write pain as if she was holding you down and holding a scalpel to script the words into memories of events from your own life. Like with Some Girls Are, Fall For Anything connected with me not through pages of things that are similar to things that happen in my life but from little moments, scenes even that existed within the book as a sum total. I believe it sometimes can be more powerful within a book when you are reading and a sentence or a scene rips you back to you life for a little while. You pause. You remember. You may even cry but then you continue with the story now invested in a way that maybe even the writer did not expect.Even though I had a friend who committed suicide who was family to me it was the character of Milo who I identified with in larger ways in this book for reasons I will not get into for this review but that is the power of books. A great writer creates great characters who live their lives within a story that can make us smile, talk to a friend, tear, or need to take a break in proceedings to go watch something really stupid like Two And A Half Men. But you have to love books for that because they create that connect that makes you want to rush back to them as soon as you can.The short cast list gives us time to really get into the lives of each character as time unfolds. Eddie stands in the after time of her father’s suicide with a mother who seems to have almost died in her own way, a pushy friend of her mother’s always getting into her face, a best friend who have information she wants, and a stranger linked to parts of her father’s life she didn’t know about.I think in the end Eddie just wants to scream to her father, “Why did you have to do this now!? I’m not ready for something like this now!” But that is how life strips us of our days sometimes, by giving us things that we are not ready for but nonetheless faced with.4 out of 5 Stars

I am crowning Courtney Summers the Queen of Contemporary YA fiction. Very rarely do books play with my heartstrings and make me actually feel for the characters, but she hits the ball of the park. My first experience with her phenomenal writing was with Some Girls Are, where she did the impossible and made me sympathetic for a school bully. In Fall For Anything, she made my heart ache for Eddie, a girl barely coping from the unexpected suicide of her nearly famous father.Plot wise, there’s not much to this book; Eddie runs away with Culler, a former photography student of her father’s, to seek out the markings that have been popping up in places that he’s photographed. She spends the entire novel searching for answers. She’s desperate to know why he killed himself, but with the dramatic and intense emotions that come to life off the pages, it’s easy for the reader to become desperate for answers as well. From the first sentence, I was hooked and affected, but by the time I finished, I was downright mentally exhausted.Overall, Courtney Summers exceeds and soars over expectations with Fall For Anything. Eddie’s painful thoughts and narration reach out and grab you, strapping you into the backseat of her brain as you delve into this heartbreaking tale of loss and the aftermath surrounding it. I absolutely recommend it to everyone; it’s a must-read-this-second kind of book!

When Eddie Reeves’ infamous photographer father commits suicide, she’s left devastated, alone, and desperate to figure out why her father killed himself. With her mother incapacitated by grief and confusing tensions springing up between her and her best friend, Milo, Eddie takes to trying to figure out the mystery behind her father’s death by herself…until she meets Culler.A former student of her father’s, Culler also wants to know why Eddie’s father commited suicide. Eddie and Culler bond over their mutual grief and, following a string of clues that might give meaning into the suicide, they attempt to seek out answers. But what they find out might not be what they want to know at all.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 three-dimensional characters using her trademark sparse prose. Even with this tight prose, there is never a moment when she just comes right out and tells us something about the characters and their relationships with one another. Instead, the characters’ issues, histories, and desires are allowed to unfold on their own. It is in this way that we see the growing tension between Eddie and Milo—not melodramatic tension, but the achingly relatable confusion that arises when old, cherished friendships seem to be on the cusp of becoming something more.Some characters ring truer than others: Beth, Eddie’s mother’s old friend, is callous perhaps to the point of incredulity, and there is something unsettling about Culler, the way he insinuates himself into Eddie’s life. But instead of detracting from the story, they simply add to the novel’s insistent pace, that there’s always something, something just beyond the next page that will give some relief to poor Eddie’s desperation to find meaning in her father’s death. The dramatic climax, followed by the quiet resolution, makes it all the more clearer to us the complexities of grief, and the lengths that we might need to go to in order to find peace.In that sense, then, FALL FOR ANYTHING itself reads like a story of our own grief, from the anxiety we feel for Eddie, to its breathless yet not quiet restful ending. Regardless of whether or not you’ll enjoy that, there is no doubting the fact that FALL FOR ANYTHING is an incredible read. Courtney Summers is three books into her writing career and showing no signs of faltering. I will read anything she reads, and no matter which Summers book you start with first, you will most likely come to the same conclusion, too.

Eddie's father committed suicide and Eddie needs to find out why. Her mother has had an emotional breakdown and only wears his housecoat. Eddie is depressed, detached and determined to find out why her father did this. Her best friend Milo tries to be there for her but she isn't letting anyone in. The book was heartbreaking in its emotional intensity. I couldn't put it down but had to take reading breaks to diffuse the intensity. A very memorable read.

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 loved it. This was an uncharted area.Courtney Summers keep readers on their toes who expected the worst of a situation. She always seems to surprise me with every new novel on how she’s stretching the line of no-man’s-land. How evil can a character be while still making them well-rounded and letting the reader connect to them? And with every new novel, I sit back and ponder that question: can I really blame so-and-so for acting in such a fashion?Fall for Anything deals with the emotional trauma of not only a death, but an intentional death. Eddie deals with it by just not letting it go. She becomes obsessive with the reasons why her father killed himself. (Her father, might I point out, is much older than Eddie’s mother. He can possibly pass for Eddie’s grandfather.) When Culler Evans appears with the same obsession and a different link to her father than she has, Eddie is drawn to him. He is the connection to the world of photography and the apprentice of Eddie’s father. But Cullen does something unforgettable that makes the reader go ‘holy ****’. It goes back to the question, can you blame him? The intention was good, but did he overstep the line of no-man’s-land? There are some hints along the way that readers can pick up so this wasn’t something completely from left-field. The climax and the resolution was something that I really hoped Summers nailed and she did.I love how open-ended the novel is. I love how not nothing can be solved because in real life the real reason why behind suicides are only known by the people who committed the suicide. While it’s frustrating not having a 100% positive sure answer after going on this journey with Eddie, it is a realistic ending. The novel itself is the journey to accepting this fact and moving past it.Despite not having the spotlight on the mother, I believe she follows the typical behavior of dealing with deal that I seem to see in novels. Just this complete shut-down and shut-off. Fall for Anything has two characters who deal with death separately that affect the entire community and each other. Readers will come across classmates, acquaintances, best friends who are affected through ripple effect.P.S. I love Summers’s sense of humor.P.P.S. I love Summers’s novels period.