Review: When The World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson

Rating: 5/5 stars

Genre: Contemporary YA, Magical Realism

First of all big thank you to Jandy Nelson, Walker Books and Tandem Collective for the gifted early copy of this book and the invitation to take part in the When The World Takes Over Readalong over on Instagram!

Okay so.. I was a little bit nervous going into this one, I haven't really enjoyed many YA novels that I have read this year, finding them a little bit too young and not nuanced enough, I was very pleasantly surprised by this one.

When The World Tips Over follows the story of the Fall Siblings, Wynton, Miles and Dizzy and how they have dealt with the disappearance of their Father 12 years ago. One day Dizzy is saved from being hit by a car by a girl with rainbow hair, launching the mystery of the rainbow haired girl and her connection to Dizzy and her brothers. When the Fall family faces an impending tragedy, is the rainbow haired girl the only one who can save them?

If you are considering reading this one, I would definitely go into it as blind as possible, so I wont give too much away but I will talk about my favourite elements of this magical story!

1. The writing and format

Jandy Nelson's writing is just beautiful, she weaves this story into a magical fairytale. Using different formats such as letters, emails, monologues, a storybook and ordinary prose. Switching from different character's PoV's into the different formats, not only gave each character a very distinct feel it also added this sense of mystery throughout. It also added an element of urgency once you (the reader) found things out and you were waiting for another character to find out from their PoV. It kept me HOOKED the whole way through.

2. The characters

I loved them all! Each character really did have their own little arc to them, they weren't 'just there'. They each added something to the story and were multifaceted. This is something that I have struggled to find within a YA novel lately, and I think it meant that it felt a little bit older.

3. The 'magicalness'

I have already sort of mentioned this, but there was this dreamlike sense to the story, where you didn't always know what was and wasn't real. It did read like a fairytale and there was this strong melancholy feeling that kind of ran through it. The imagery was so vibrant and I could really vividly picture everything.

If you like YA and magical realism this is a MUST READ. If you like stories that include complex family dynamics or stories about siblings, even if you don't normally like YA I think you should give this ago.

(Please check the trigger warnings before reading, off the top of my head it includes neglect, child abuse, sexual assault, serious injury, hospitals, substance abuse, depression and possibly a couple of others)