3.5 stars

I received an ARC of All Fall Down and initially I wasn't planning on picking it up anytime soon. All Fall Down is a mystery young adult novel with thriller action aspects, which is just not at all my literary scene. However, on a whim, to distract from my otherwise very heavy reading, I decided to give it a go and was quickly sucked into a world that is fast-paced and quick-witted, though not without its downsides. Grace, a 16 year old American girl, who is the granddaughter of the US Ambassador to Adria (fictional, Europe, Genovia sort of?), goes to live in the US embassy in Adria three years after her mother dies in a tragic fire. Except, according to Grace, her mother was murdered.

The diplomatic international relations were a huge selling point of this novel for me, I thought it was really fun to explore relations between nations. It upped the stakes of the story, immensely, and had the potential to add a variety of characters. Unfortunately, I think that is one aspect that Ally Carter did not fully play to - the opportunities for diversity and representation of individuals from a huge span of nationalities. In fact, I found characters to be the weakest aspect of her novel. Apart from Grace, the novel's characters seemed very one-dimensional through my eyes, though all of them had the opportunities to become something more. The dialogue was straight out of a bad after-school special and seemed silly at best, nauseously over-dramatic at worst.

-HOWEVER-

The question of mental health after a tragic event, the questioning of reality on behalf of oneself as well as others, and the stigma surrounding PTSD-like-circumstances, was an excellent aspect of this book. Being inside Grace's head during her healing process was a very unique experience.

The mystery seemed simplistic at times, yet left me reeling at the end, though perhaps that's because I seldom read mystery.

This novel was a fun journey outside of my comfort zone and for its targeted age group, age 12 and up, it is a huge success.