All Fall Down by Ally Carter Series: Embassy Row #1
Published by Scholastic Inc. Australia on February 15th, 2015
Source: Purchased
Genres: Young Adult, Thriller
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Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three certain things:
1. She is not crazy
2. Her mother was murdered
3. Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay
The thing is, nobody else believes her and there's no-one she can trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands.
Grace's past has come back to haunt her... and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes and one wrong move can make them all fall down.
The Good Things
- YA contemporary/ thriller. A refresher reread for me so I can finally finish the trilogy.
- Ally Carter! Her books are always fast paced fun reads. First person present tense with short chapters that end in cliffhangers makes for a very addictive read!
- Grace’s PTSD and panic attacks are a big part of the story.
- Along with the murder mystery, there are politics and secrets! It’s set in an old city with mysterious hidden passageways.
- THE TWISTS AT THE END!!!!! So excited for more secrets and surprises in the next book.
- Love the characters! Grace is sassy and reckless. Noah is funny and sweet. Alexei is incredibly mysterious and caring. Rosie is surprising and daring (she needs her own book). And Megan is resourceful and a badass (and probably a Gallagher Girl).
- No romance (…yet. There are hints. At least I hope they are hints).
The-Not-So-Good Things
- Not as much non-stop suspense as I was expecting (possibly because I have read it before so had a vague idea of what was coming).
- The really big plot twists don’t occur until the last 100-150 pages (which isn’t surprising. This is very much a building book, establishing the characters and world).
- I wish it was longer! Just to get some more character scenes (especially with Alexei) and world building stuff.
- The ending left me with more questions than answers, with a big vague cliffhanger.
- Didn’t care for some of the cliche high school drama/ politics stuff. There’s not much, but it’s meh. Lila is a very typical Queen Bee Mean Girl in this book.
Like all of Ally Carter’s books, All Fall Down was a fast and fun read! It wasn’t as suspenseful as I remembered, but a good YA thriller overall. I can’t wait to see what twists come my way in the sequels.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Trigger warnings: PTSD, anxiety/ panic attacks, murder.
I’ve been wanting to read this series for the longest time, but me not liking Heist Society made me hesitant :/ It sounds really fun though!
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That’s a shame you didn’t enjoy Heist Society 🙁 I personally had a lot of fun reading it
I remember really enjoying this one when I first read it, but then I remembered not much about it!
Haha story of my life! It was fun