Customer Reviews

We All Fall Down

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book by Robert Cormier. The characters and the plot display the evil in our everyday life. However, I thought that some of the events seemed rather unrealistic. Cormier took many different plots and brought them together in unexpected and surprising ways. The book teaches lessons about regret, love, and loyalty. I think this is a book for mature readers. It taught one major lesson: every action recieves a consequence. This message was bold and understandable for all readers. In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book by Robert Cormier because it contained all the elements of a good, suspenseful, yet tragic novel.

Much like the Chocolate War, We All Fall Down deals with everyday problems teens' face in school, home, and in their personal lives. I loved how Cormier made this book accessible to teens but to adults as well. Abuse of alcohol, lies, the thought of death, and the deconstructing of family are issues that this book deals with. Cormier lets the reader see how Jane and other characters deal with these issues by writing from more than one point of view. For example, the reader can see how Jane copes with the fact her sister Karen is in a coma and might not wake up. Not only does this allow teenagers to relate to these feelings and emotions; it also connects to adults as well. They were once teenagers and have gone through the same situations as Jane, Karen, and Buddy. By reading this, adults can get a sense of what life is like for teens today and understand the reasons why teens do the things they do. It is the issues the book discusses and how the characters cope with their problems that makes this book so important to society today.

This book is one of the most emotional and real book I have ever read. It explains why we have to be careful and extremely catiuous at times. I love this author and the books he writes. I have already read I Am The Cheese, and liked the storyline. I hope other kids get to experience it also because it's magical in it's own way.

It is hard to imagine how you will feel when you are confronted with people who violate your house and your family. Robert Cormier has the imagination to show us exactly what a young adolescent will feel when something terrible happens to her. It also tells you how to get over the trashing and how to get on with your life. Oh yes, and there is also 'the Avenger'.
This book is a must read for young adolescents. It will give them an idea of what happens to other people if they commit these crimes and it could prevent them from doing these terrible things.

One would expect many problems to arise in one's life during adolescence, but never anything as twisted as the situations illustrated in this book. In this book, Robert Cormier uses a very disturbing yet absorbing plot of complicated relationships, and manages to create a story that will bother the reader's mind for weeks after reading the book. Through the use of very complex and sometimes unstable characters, Cormier shows that deception comes in many forms. One of the factors that adds to the suspense of the story and keeps the reader's attention throughout is what I call Cormier's 'split plot POV' writing style. Just as is seen in other works by this author, such as I Am the Cheese and After the First Death, he tells the fictional story through the eyes of more than one character, thus using different points of view and making it all the more interesting to read. The fast-moving chain of events also adds to the dramatic effect upon the reader. From what I've read of Cormier's works, he has a habit of unhappy, but nonetheless effective endings that leave the reader either wanting more, or wishing that they hadn't picked up the book. In my case, every time I finish one of his novels, I feel a little more sane and more human; We All Fall Down was no exception. In relating to the characters, no matter how twisted they may be, the story becomes more real to me, and the life lesson to be learned from it gains a deeper meaning. This is definitely the kind of book that encourages reading -- even in the twisted and hectic lives of adolescents.

This is one of those books whose words echo in your head for the rest of your life. You may forget the characters names, you may even forget the characters, but the essence of the book seeps into your fingers and colors your judgement. It is a subject that plagues the real world and cuts like a knife. It chills you to the bone like all of Mr Cormiers stories, and like all of them it fills you with appreciation for what you have

I did enjoy the story itself, however, referring to the Kindle edition, the typos were ridiculous. Obviously this edition was not proofed. I stopped counting after about 40 typos. While I did enjoy the book, the typos are very distracting.

Cormier's intense, suspenseful, and ironic plot makes this novel a great page-turner. The different characters and different point's of view make the book more exciting. How at the end all of the characters come together for a very strange ironic ending of the book. This is a great book but I would not recommend it for anyone under 14. This book was disturbing and included a lot of mature context.

There are 3 different sides to this story one from Jane Jerome a teenage girl whose house gets trashed and everything was ruined. Her sister Karen was admitted into the hospital and was in a Coma. Jane Jerome was never realized how much she loved her sister and her regular life routine. Now Jane struggles to live a normal life and forget about the past. Jane Jerome later falls deeply in love with a boy named Buddy Walker and she has never felt so much love in her life. She starts to feel like everything is going to be okay because now she has Buddy by her side.

The second main character in the book is Buddy Walker. Buddy Walker and his friends decide to trash a house for "Funtime". Later Buddy found out that the house he trashed was Jane Jermoe's. Buddy soon feel in love with Jane, and Buddy never admitting the truth to Jane and what he had done to her house.

The third main character in the book was the "Avenger". The Avenger is an eleven year old boy who seeks revenge from "Bad people". The Avenger was an extreme character in this novel and carried out many disturbing and engrossing acts through out the book. The Avenger is tied into the story at the end and his true identity was revealed at the end for a surprising twist.

I am currently doing this book for HSC this year and so far I loved it for it has shown me that violence, alcohol, and family are part of everyday living. The issues in the book is the same as what we face today, it shows us that no one is safe. The fact that you need your family when things starts to crumble around you. It also taught me that when we are vulnerable we seek the comforts of others, for Jane falling in love with Buddy gave her the sense of security and provide a means of escape to the tragedy that has the family in deep distress and pain.

I liked the fact that we are trown straight into the action at the start of the book. I was shocked and disgusted at the thrashers, at their recklessness in destroying the house even worse when I read on and discovered that 14-year-old Karen was assaulted and the shoved down the stairs that resulted in a coma. Some people get their kicks out of hurting things and others. It was bad anough that the trashers trashed the house - that was replaceable, but when they start to hurt people it intesify the curroupt nature of the trashers just for the hell of it.

Cormier is very clever in that he kept the identity of The Avenger till nearly the end, creating suspense that sets you as a reader on the edge. This book is shows the dark side of human nature, the part where it is concealed carefully by money, power and manipulation.

I highly recommend this book to every teenagers

This book was on my list for choices for summer reading for 9th grade. I really don't like to read but i thought this book was really GOOD! I normally would hate reading and get distracted but this one kept my attention you were always trying to figure out who the "Avenger," is and things like that. This book was a little bit confusing to me at first because it went from one person to another but it was easy to think of it like watchikng a t.v. show when they go back and forth between the people showing what each one was doing at a certain point in time. I would really recommend this book to anyone!