Freefall by Mindi Scott

Release Date: 5th October, 2010

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 315pgs

The Story

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 another night, just another party, just another time when 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 soon realizes he isn't the only one who needs saving . . .

The Review

FREEFALL is an absolute breath of fresh air in young adult fiction. It might not have been my ultimate favourite when it comes to YA contemporary, but with a much darker side of a boy's crazy-driven life and a somewhat clever depiction of high school normality, Mindi Scott's debut novel brings the right amount of heavy issues - ones that impact us as a society - as well as touching on the true reality of how teenagers act, think, and feel in our everyday lives. Whether it's about drugs, sex or dealing with peer pressure itself, it's what happens to most kids and in this book it was written very well.

Lately I've been a huge fan of the male perspective and when I read the storyline of FREEFALL, I knew almost immediately that I had to read this book (especially with a simple and yet effective cover like this one!). I think what I miss most about these type of books is the male's view on life since there's so little of them voicing in YA fiction. And that's a real shame since there's way too many female perspectives in books and I think its one of the main reasons why boys don't read so much as they should be. After all . . . what's so appealing to a boy when reading the inside of a girl's mind? This book however is a nice change up and I could definitely see a lot of boys enjoying this novel.

In FREEFALL it tells the story of Seth McCoy who is your average teenage boy - or rather was. Because everything changed when his best friend died from binge drinking. Haunted by regrets in his past, Seth continues to fight through the unsteady world of high school life and find a place of safety for himself, in order to getaway from everything that he used to love. Especially music.

Seth for me was such an authentic character and he was written in a great boy-ish manner that I think girl readers can easily appeal to. He's the kind of character that is constantly trying to find himself - like so many teenagers are nowadays - but he is continuing to be pulled down into the very dangerous world of sex, drugs and alcohol, which again a lot of teenagers find themselves involved with when suffering from a tragic event in their lives. Even with a loss of a friend. The same goes with the other supporting characters who were just as dynamic as Seth was. Sure most of the characters had their faults, but they had a meaning to Seth's story. Rosetta, for example, is one of those characters. She's beautiful and rich, but she has an element of mystery about her, and much like Seth, you will be drawn to her character. And I think what I liked most about this book was their relationship, Seth and Rosetta's, that was a bumpy road at first but in the end . . . it was damn interesting to read about their struggle and their own personal demons. They had great chemistry.

Despite my liking of what was discussed in the book, the only reason why I'm giving this book 3 stars is because I couldn't exactly 'connect' with the characters themselves - either it's because I wouldn't be friends with them in real life (definitely not) or because they have way more issues than I, myself, do. Back when I was in high school, sure there were drugs floating amongst ourselves but that's not exactly the typical high school life like the teenagers in this book experienced. Trust me here - there's a lot of heavy stuff going on throughout the novel. Also another reason - another problem - was Seth. I liked him on a whole as character and I realize he was going through the several stages of grief, but some of the things he'd done in the past were not so swoon-worthy and he treated people - the girl's most - with some disrespect but he came through eventually which I was glad to see. Overall, FREEFALL is a very well-written contemporary novel and is an excellent read for people looking for something a little different.

The Rating

3/5 stars