{Review} Freefall by Mindi Scott

FNL Character Rating: Vince Howard!!!!!

{Editor’s Note: This is one of my favorite all-time novels, and one I recommend to people who think they don’t like YA fiction. I recommended this to Laura and I was thrilled that she loved it as much as I do. What’s even better is that Laura got different things out of it because of her own experiences with music, so it was doubly awesome to read her review. ~Sarah}

The first thing I loved about this book was the voice.

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It is so rare and refreshing to read a YA book from a male POV. Author Mindi Scott, manages the very difficult task of making me, a 31 year old female adult, relate to a 16 year old teenage boy’s POV. It is seriously freaky how Mindi Scott managed to write wrote the male version of me (personality and humor) wise into a book character in Seth McCoy. 

Examples:

• Seth and I both are musically inclined people with horrible stage fright. 
• Seth and I both seem like we are reading off of cue cards when forced into awkward social interaction.
• Seth and I both think that rooms with fancy furniture and no TVs are silly. 

Then we have the characters.

Obviously, since Seth seems to be me, I love him. Then we have the object of Seth’s affection, Rosetta. Mindi Scott reverses the John Hughes “Pretty in Pink” scenario by making the male, Seth, the poor boy who lives in the trailer park, while privileged Rosetta lives on the upscale “Rich Bitch” hill. Her friends look down on him. But she is nerdy, smart, and witty, with a profound experience in her past that helps her and Seth connect. 

And then, Kendall. Kendall is a bridge. She grew up in the trailer park with Seth, but moved to the hills when her mother remarried. She’s good friends with Seth’s mom, and the ex-girlfriend of Seth’s best friend Isaac, whose body Seth discovered a few months prior to the start of the book. She’s a thorn in Seth’s side in many ways…but also looks out for Seth in many unexpected ways. I started out finding myself annoyed by her, but then firmly ended up on Team Kendall. (Her love of Gilmore Girls doesn’t hurt). 

I read a review that voiced disappointment that Isaac was not more fully fleshed out, but I personally liked that he was someone that we knew only through the living characters’ memories. I liked learning and being surprised about Isaac alongside Seth as different interactions revealed new, but never complete, information about who Isaac was. 

Rosetta has the line that sums up the book in the best way,

I just love that feeling when things are about to change. Like when you know that in a few seconds you’re going to do something and become someone else.

I love the idea of loving change and loving the potential control we have to take action and change ourselves.

The end.

Verdict: Must Read

{Buy this book.}