Review - Freefall by Mindi Scott

Freefall by Mindi Scott -
4 out of 5 stars (release date October 5, 2010)

Summary via goodreads.
How do you come back from the point of no return?

Seth McCoy was the last person to see his best friend Isaac alive, and the first to find him dead. It was just another night, just another party, just another time where Isaac drank too much and passed out on the lawn. Only this time, Isaac didn’t wake up.

Convinced that his own actions led to his friend’s death, Seth is torn between turning his life around . . . or losing himself completely.

Then he meets Rosetta: so beautiful and so different from everything and everyone he's ever known. But Rosetta has secrets of her own, and Seth will soon realize he isn’t the only one who needs saving . . .


REVIEW:
I really liked this book! I don't have a whole lot to say beyond that, which sucks, I know. But I really liked this book a lot!

I love boy narrators, and I think Seth is one of the most realistic male voices I've read in a while. Seth is believable and relatable as he deals with the death of his best friend and the realization that due to his hard partying lifestyle, he might not have seen his friend and the things around him as clearly as he thought he did.

I love that Seth tries. He tries to find what's broken in his life and fix it, even when it's scary. I love his relationship with his family and Rosetta as well. It's appropriately complicated and his emotions and confusion about everyone in his life is right on. I especially enjoyed watching him grow as his budding relationship with Rosetta also grew.

What's great about this book is that all of the characters are fully realized and feel like real people. They're complex, particularly Rosetta and Kendall (who I think was my favorite character), and no one can be labeled as all bad or all good. The world of FREEFALL is also beautifully realized. I could really see the small Pacific Northwest town and get a sense of the types of people that lived there. (Plus, I always give bonus points to a character living in a trailer park and not being a cliche stereotype.)

There isn't a lot of "action" in FREEFALL but it still kept me flipping the pages, wanting to know what was going to happen next and how it all ends. If you like contemporary fiction, I highly recommend this book! Even if you think you don't like boy narrators, or "quiet" books. FREEFALL is a great debut and I look forward to seeing what Mindi Scott has coming next!

Cover: I think this is a really cool, eye-catching cover. I love the colors, the simplicity, and the sense of movement, and best of all, I think it's a cover a boy would not be embarrassed to be seen carrying.

Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 4/5