When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson
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Web ID: 2031211829 reviews
Beautiful!
Thank you @netgalley and @penguinteen for the opportunity to read and review this eARC. I got a late start on this one, but better late than never. I completed this one during @therealbookhustler and @reading2relax July readathon. It was well worth the wait. The story started out a little slow for me during my slump however as I got pulled into the lives of Dizzy, Miles and Wynton along with Felix and Cassidy and Bernadette and Marigold, I found myself wanting more and more. This was such a beautiful story of family trials and triumphs. Jandy Nelson has a beautiful ability to paint pictures with her words.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Amazing Read!
This book! All my expectations of how a book should ‘go’ have been turned inside out!! The various pov-current, historical, fairy tale-are interwoven in should a way to illuminate and obscure at the same time. The lineage of the characters and their relationships to each other are marvelous and a surprise til the very end. Read this book! Thanks to Netgalley, Dial Books and Jandy Nelson for this ebook to read. All opinions are my own.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Intriguing story with too many POVs
Thanks NetGalley for giving me access to this ARC. Jandy Nelson’s writing is lyrical and beautiful. I especially loved Miles’ storyline — how he evolved to be more himself throughout the book. In fact, I got irritated when the narration would change to a different character when I just wanted to stay in Miles’ world. I’m not sure Cassidy’s backstory furthered the plot or character development besides her own, so I could’ve done without those cut-aways. I wish this book was told in chronological order rather than jumping between narrators and timelines. Just when I was getting into it, it would switch to someone else and temporarily take me out of the story. I still read it much faster than I anticipated though. Once I hit the halfway point (when Miles became the focus), I was all in. It’s too long for classroom use but would be a good addition to my classroom library.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Magical, compelling family saga
When the World Tips Over is a five-generation family saga told through multiple character perspectives which uses a partial epistolary form to tell a story that is compelling, tragic, and magical. The story follows the Fall siblings who are struggling since their father walked out on their family many years ago. They are battling mental health problems, bullying, substance abuse and feelings of being lost and isolated. Cassidy, a rainbow haired girl enters the picture, a tragedy strikes and everything starts to change. When the World Tips Over is a long book because it's the coming-of-age story of not just one character, but of at least seven. The characters are well-developed and flawed. It is a story of family history, intergenerational trauma, love, drama, murder, grief, secrets and revelations. There are magical and fantastical elements interwoven throughout the story. I could not put this book down.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Totally Different Writing Style
This book was written in a totally different style than I have read in the past, which made it very interesting. It had several plots all circling different directions, which sometimes made it a little confusing. But in the long run they all end up at the same place. I don't particularly like stories with magical tones, but the ones in this story were subtle enough to be believable. I think Cassidy's fairy-tale stories probably gave a lot more insight to the story than I pulled out, but the addition of the letters that were never sent to help it along a lot. Somehow the mishmash of the story from several different points of view, the insertion of the letters and diary entries and the interpretations of events through fairy tales actually worked. The characters were very interesting. I particularly liked the story of Cassidy's childhood.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Touching family drama
When the World Tips Over is a young adult contemporary novel about siblings grappling with connection and acceptance, with elements of magical realism woven throughout. Dizzy, Miles, and Wynton Fall are still dealing with the abandonment of their father, Leo, more than a decade earlier. Meanwhile, a young girl named Cassidy has been growing up on the backroads of California, traveling in a yellow RV called “Sadie Mae” with her free-spirited mother. As she enters her teen years, the challenges of being out of school, isolated from peers, and dealing with her mother’s mental health begin to weigh on her. She longs for stability and a true home. When Cassidy crosses paths with each of the Fall siblings, she brings them together in unexpected ways, becoming a catalyst for revealing long-held secrets. When the World Tips Over explores a family cursed over generations by animosity between brothers, secrets, and betrayal. Yet, at its core, it is also about the deep love within families and how the universe can unexpectedly bring people together. I love Jandy Nelson’s writing—the depth and beauty of her characters truly shine through.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Jandy has done it again
Jandy’s two previous books have been sitting on my all time favorites shelf for years now! I’ve been chomping at the bit for my next 5 star read and Jandy delivered, after 10 years between books, but I am patient and will read all of her writing! I’ve known about this book brewing since Jandy and Nina LaCour did a Zoom fundraiser for their local indie bookstore during COVID in 2020, when the book was called Fall Boys and Dizzy in Paradise, and while I have a hard time thinking of it as anything else, the new title is so poetic and lovely that it is hard not to love too. This book holds some of the same threads of why I love Jandy’s books so much, while also bringing something new to the table. She described it as writing 1000 pages of 5 separate books for all of the POVs and histories of all the characters in the book and then spending 3 years figuring out a structure to combine them together, which was expertly done in the ‘found object’ kind of style that The Sky is Everywhere did with recipes, emails, and stories bridging the various POVs, further developing characters along the way. Once again each character has their quirks from seeing ghosts to synesthesia in various forms, and a touch of magical realism was thrown in to the historical retellings of the Fall family, as aren’t all family stories embellished over time? Why not have people literally be a light or float or grow wings? Jandy said that this story is mostly Miles’ and Cassidy’s book, and I can see that. They both go on such a journey of growth and love as they come to terms with finding joy in their lives again after hardship. Dizzy, Wynton, Felix, Bernadette, Theo, and the rest of the cast of characters are all incredibly memorable as they contribute to the threads of what has come before and what is unraveling in the story. How can a family whose troubled history of brother rivalry heal the generational curse? How can a girl with no roots find a family when she is so unmoored? This book brought me to tears twice as these and so many more questions are answered as generations of Falls fall in love and tell their stories. Mixed in with some mouth watering recipes by Bernadette Fall and soufflés that make you fall in love, a talking immortal dog, and humor and gorgeous prose, as well as some Jewish representation by Bernadette. I could not stop marking sentences that described things in the most beautiful way. Jandy’s writing is so distinctive and poetic, her previous work in writing poetry is so evident, yet her ability to write complex and emotional family stories is so compelling, I’m so glad she combined the two. The book is hard to put down and makes you really appreciate the beauty of the world, finding love, and family coming together to tip the world over and just let the joy spill out. Find your joy in a great book and read some Jandy!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Road trips and family secrets
When the World Tips Over by Janey Nelson immerses you in the stories of the Falls’ kids, Dizzy, Miles, and Wynton with alternating point of view (POV) chapters. Cassidy, a rainbow haired girl or angel, has a wild story to tell of her own which intersects with the Falls’ clan. It’s hard to put into words what the book is, it’s more about how it makes you feel fully what each character is experiencing. I recommend this book for young adults and adults. The story is intricately woven from various POVs, it’s worth the effort to get to know all of the characters and how they fit in the story. There’s drama, family secrets and a curse, love lost, love found, traumatic events, and above all, people finding where they belong. Thank you Penguin Group Young Readers and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com