Book Review: All Fall Down by Ally Carter

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All Fall Down

Embassy Row #1
Author: Ally Carter
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery | Contemporary
Release Date: February 5th 2015
Review Source: Hachette Children’s Books | Netgalley

Grace can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.

Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay - in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved.

I’m on a winning streak with books. Since the New Year rolled in I’ve read nothing but amazing books. I’m not joking. 12 books read so far in 2015 and I’ve only dished out 4 and 5 stars. I’m loving it!

Imagine if no one believed you. You saw your mother die and it was concluded as an accident. But you know the truth. She didn’t die in a tragic accident...it was murder, but you’re the only one who knows it. And worse yet, no one believes you.

Grace is struggling. She’s positive her mother was murdered but to everyone else she’s just The Girl Who Cried Wolf. No one believes her. She’s the black sheep of the household. And still holding on tight to her mother, there’s a battle within her to make everyone know the truth; to make the man who shot her mother pay. But things aren't black and white. Will she really like the answers she gets?

I couldn’t wait for the truth to come out about what really happened the night her mother died. At some points in the novel it seemed as if Grace was so close to breaking point, as if she were a mere centimeter from losing it and going nuts on everyone. I felt so so sorry for her. Then again, about half way through the book I had my own doubts about her mother's death. She’d “identified” her mother’s killer before...a lot. Anyone with a facial scar seemed to set off her murderer alarm. Who’s to say she didn’t mistake the man? Or what if it was the case of mistaken identity? There was a lot to consider, and I didn’t have a clue which side I was leaning towards.

All Fall Down was a pleasant change. Though I’m no stranger to YA books with famous characters, I’ve never read one quite like this, in which the main setting was centred in Embassy Row. I’m used to rockstars not political figures. But the way Ally Carter pins together so many different elements—it’s impossible not to like it. It’s a world of elegance, grace, power and knowledge. And they know what they say about power..."Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best."

There’s bare minimal romance, if you can even call it that, in All Fall Down. Funny thing is, the lack of romance is what made the book as good as it is. A romantic element would have taken away from the plot. Ally Carter doesn't need romance to make her books, she makes her books.

It was captivating, shocking and held a plot twist at the end which made my jaw drop.

Favourite Quote:  

“Part of having the world think you’re crazy means you always have to remind yourself of the truth.  Always.  Especially if you don’t necessarily like what you have to say.”