All Fall Down
Author: Ally Carter
Publication Date: February 5th 2015
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~
Grace can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.
Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay - in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved
Ally Carter's done it again. Seriously. Can she do no wrong? The answer to that, obviously, is no. She cannot do no wrong because she always seems to create a story and a set of characters that are hilarious and relatable yet serious and kind of untouchable. She creates characters that in any other, would make you hate the character, but you'll instantly love and suck you in, because they are fleshed out. They are each their own and balanced. All Fall Down are not short on those characters, though this is my little glitch and why it was almost perfect for me instead of perfect. Some of the secondary characters felt a little left out. I wanted to get to know them more than we did, and that is literally my only complaint. Which, when you think about it, is pretty good since this is book one, we'll have time to get into the secondary cast more. I loved Grace though, she made my very sarcastic heart very happy. She's a little, uhm, shall we say, unstable? Yup. She's a little unstable because of people constantly telling her she is unstable over how she saw her mother die. The 'official' story versus Grace's story, but since she was thirteen when it happened, the adults like to tell her she's crazy.
This is where I get a little annoyed. BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES. ADULTS. I know, I know, technically, I am one, but whatever. The whole reasons behind Grace's actions lies on no one believing her, t the point she thinks she is indeed crazy, because of course, you don't think you're crazy, but everyone telling you you're crazy makes you think am I crazy? And you know, people telling you you're crazy makes you crazy. It's a cycle of crazy. The whole story and plot we see relies on this fact, because we don't know what is real or what is potentially in Grace's head. Yes, it's been done before, but this is Ally Carter. She does it well.
There isn't much going on besides that in this one just yet, but I never got bored, there's plenty of sarcasm and banter and charming characters that kept me entertained, and the whole mystery surrounding Grace's mother's death. Oh, and Embassy Row, now that is interesting. There's also no romance, though I was hoping there would be since you get a vibe from Grace and Alexei.
If you loved her Gallagher Girl's or the Heist Society series then you won't be disappointed, All Fall Down has Ally Carter's signature style.
Rating: 4.5/5
