The Upside of Falling Down had a promising premise but it didn’t deliver the story I expected. I was all here for magical realism and Ireland but the uncomfortable romance that replaced it was not my cup of tea. Maybe if miscommunication and lying were not one of my biggest turnoffs in romance, it wouldn’t have been so bad. I just struggle to see how people can ship two characters whose entire relationship is based on false impressions and straight up manipulation… which is why Clementine and Kieran’s relationship didn’t work for me. Kieran’s behaviour was simply unacceptable. The lengths he took to pull off that level of manipulation made me sick. I cannot believe that he genuinely believed he was doing the right thing. I wanted Clementine to have nothing to do with him. I was in complete agreement with Siobhan.

The plot was also so goddamn unbelievable. I empathise with Clementine’s situation - meeting her father was a Big Step that she was not ready to take - but the plot preceding her escape from the hospital was kind of ridiculous. I couldn’t suspend my belief that far. It is probably a preference thing but I wanted to focus on Clementine working through her trauma, discovering who she wanted to be as a person and all of that, not a convoluted romance.

Oh well.

➸ Trigger warnings for

undiagnosed ptsd, pregnant sc, childbirth & labour, hospitalisation, death of a friend, death of a boyfriend, plane crash recounted, and dubcon/rape by coercion*.

*The situation is two characters in a sexual relationship are lying about their identities and manipulating each other

.

▷ Representation: Clementine (mc) has retrograde amnesia.

Blog • Goodreads • Twitter • Instagram