Review: Fall For Anything

Fall For Anything
Author: Courtney Summers
Published: December 21, 2010
230 Pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on...but are some questions better left unanswered?

My hands are dying. These four words start the beginning of an emotional roller coaster of a story. It is the perfect sentence for capturing the feel of the book. Eddie Reeves is not suicidal, though most of those who love her think she might be. Maybe it's because she haunts the old warehouse where her father committed suicide. Her thoughts drift her there every night because she wants to know the truth about what happened that day. Not because she wasn't there, because she was, but because she can't come up with any reason why her father would do this. Why? This is the question that plagues her brain everyday and there is no escaping it. And maybe Eddie doesn't want to.

Her mother doesn't leave the house and she wraps herself in her husband's housecoat daily. Eddie feels like she's alone in the world even though she has a best friend who may love her as more than that. Milo is always there for her, but he has secrets he doesn't want to share with her. Eddie keeps her questions locked inside, even from Milo, but she still wants him to tell her exactly what he remembers from that day even though she was there too. Every sentence about that night demands to be felt. Small pieces try to form a big picture as Eddie gets closer and closer to the truth about why her father ended his life. Enter Culler Evans, a student of her father's, who also wants to learn the truth. Eddie attaches herself to him because he actually understands what she's going through. And when the possibility of real answers appears, she will stop at nothing to answer her burning question of Why? 

Eddie's grief is palpable. The moments where she just stops moving. The moments she tries to remember what her father looked like before he jumped off that roof. The times she tries to use her hands and they fail her. Tears clouded my vision as I read her thoughts, knowing that if I lost my dad that way, I'd want to find answers too. Her actions are too realistic and she moves off the pages and into my life. She is spontaneous and mysterious but it is all for her father. She does things that she probably wouldn't do in regular situations and it feels so real. Grief takes a hold of us and refuses to let go. It crawls into our souls and waits, ready to creep up at the on set of any emotion. Summers captures grief as its own character, controlling Eddie's actions and guiding her through life. There was no holding back the tears that poured from my eyes on the last page.

Summers has taken a hold of me and I never want her to let go. Each book finds a completely unique character but each of them relates to each other with their pain. They are so real that they make real mistakes and all you want is for them to get their happy endings. But Summers is too real for happy endings. Instead she gives us what we get, what real life is really all about, just endings and maybe, just maybe, new beginnings that come after a journey of pain. You will not regret reading any of her novels.

“Sometimes I feel hunted by my grief. It circles me, stalks me. It's always in my periphery. Sometimes I can fake it out. Sometimes I make myself go so still, it can't sense that I'm there anymore and it goes away. I do that right now.”