Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies
by Lindsay Ribar
♦publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
♦release date: June 7th, 2016
♦hardcover, 336 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: arc from publisher for honest review
Twin Peaks meets Stars Hollow in this paranormal suspense novel about a boy who can reach inside people and steal their innermost things—fears, memories, scars, even love—and his family's secret ritual that for centuries has kept the cliff above their small town from collapsing.
Aspen Quick has never really worried about how he's affecting people when he steals from them. But this summer he'll discover just how strong the Quick family magic is—and how far they'll go to keep their secrets safe.
With a smart, arrogant protagonist, a sinister family tradition, and an ending you won't see coming, this is a fast-paced, twisty story about power, addiction, and deciding what kind of person you want to be, in a family that has the ability to control everything you are.
Aspen Quick has never really worried about how he's affecting people when he steals from them. But this summer he'll discover just how strong the Quick family magic is—and how far they'll go to keep their secrets safe.
With a smart, arrogant protagonist, a sinister family tradition, and an ending you won't see coming, this is a fast-paced, twisty story about power, addiction, and deciding what kind of person you want to be, in a family that has the ability to control everything you are.
Review: Wow, I can honestly say that I have never loved a story so much and dislike the main character at the same time. This twisty magical story is told in a casual contemporary voice, from the perspective of one Aspen Quick. He’s a boy in love, willing to use desperate sneaky measures to steal the object of his long-time crush away from his best friend. Only thing is, he actually has an easy way to do it. Aspen’s family has a secret---they can reach into anything that a person has touched and steal things away: feelings, fears, freckles, sobriety…even love. As much as I didn’t like the things he was doing, it was easy to see how a teen with an unrequited crush could easily fall into using this power the wrong way and taking for granted what a small “theft” every now and then wouldn’t amount to much. But he will learn quite the opposite by the end.
I loved the turns this story took, how the relationships between Aspen and everyone in the story---his parents, his friends (old and new), his aunt, his grandmother, his cousin---grew and morphed and stretched thin. I loved how the families secrets slowly seeped out and forced Aspen to take a look at what came so easily to him before. The romance is messy in this and turned out...exactly as I hoped it would. I loved Leah, she is fierce, unapologetic, wounded, and confused all at once and I might have shipped her and Aspen if I didn't want to ring his neck so many times xD.
It’s a super fast read, wildly entertaining, that’s about all the littlest things that make us who we are and what we might be without them. It’s about family and friends and fear and trust and power and when enough is enough. The twist ending is fantastic and hopeful and I left the story thinking this Aspen kid, he’s gonna be alright. Phew. ;)
•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•
Lindsay Ribar lives in New York City, where she works in book publishing by day and writes YA novels by night. She attends far too many concerts, watches far too much nerdy TV, and consumes fanfiction like it's made out of chocolate. She is fond of wine, cheese, and countries where they speak English but with really cool accents. Oh, and she has a Harry Potter tattoo.
