When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson is magical, weird, heartbreaking, and completely captivating. I could not stop reading.

The story follows the Fall siblings—Wynton, Miles, and Dizzy—each carrying secrets, heartbreak, and the weight of a family curse. Alongside their story is another, about a girl named Cassidy growing up on the road with her mom. It’s hard to see at first how the two stories connect, but when they do, it’s beautiful and bittersweet.

This book is full of magic, messy family drama, love, loss, and forgiveness. The characters are all so wonderfully strange and real, you can’t help but root for them, even when they make terrible choices. I felt all the feelings reading this, and by the end, I was both heartbroken and hopeful.

I like Jandy Nelson. She’s an excellent and intelligent writer. Her previous novels are absolutely outstanding, especially I’ll Give You the Sun. Her latest novel didn’t quite live up to the hype. It’s been over a decade since she released her last book. I think the main reason I didn’t jive with this book is age. I’m a decade older now and this genre is no longer what I gravitate towards. I still appreciate her gorgeous writing style. This was a mixed bag for me.

I adored other works of Nelson but this one really didn't do it for me. The plot I found rather boring and the characters seemed to immature and whimsical to really take anything from this in my opinion

“When the world tips over, joy spills out with all the sorrow.”

What an amazing story. This is a story about connection, family, forgiveness and love. But it's also about secrets, curses, and loss. A family has been missing their dad since he disappeared. In the midst of their crazy, wild life - each of them have big and small things going on. We get each of their perspective - all 3 kids and the mom.

We also have a side story of a girl growing up with her mom in an RV. Homeschooling, exploring nature, and learning about the world.

It's hard to know how these 2 stories will connect and the ways they touch but you can tell they are going to collide. It was a beautiful story - one that, at first, made me sad for all the loneliness and secrets but then warmed my heart as they all opened up and were able to be themselves.

Another reminder that you aren't too much. And if someone thinks you are, let them go find less.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book

Easily 100 pages too long, the latest from Jandy Nelson offers lots to like and lots to be frustrated by. In addition to the book's extreme length, there was too much plot to the point that it felt like ideas that were only executed halfway. Despite Nelson's gorgeous, lyrical prose, it was hard to connect to what was happening because there was just so much occurring on and off the page. The connections between characters felt confusing and some of the plot points near the end were downright jarring. A lot of promise, and certainly there are readers for this kind of sensory fever dream - but the center didn't hold.

DNF @ 56%

This is definitely for those who were big fans of John Green back in the day and still maybe are. I really enjoyed Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun, however this one just did not land for me. It’s unnecessarily long, and the story drags on because there’s so much poetic prose written in every other paragraph that adolescents just shouldn’t understand the meaning behind. Also, there’s only so much sexual innuendo from a dog that a girl can take.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books, and the author for a copy of this book.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced read. This read felt slow to get into, but once it picked up, I couldn't put it down. I wish we were introduced to the Fall family and its "curse" earlier to have better insight to the siblings quirks. Overall, a good read. 3 stars.

Jandy Nelson uses languages so well in her YA novels. I think I would have loved this in my teens and even into college. Now, I think it's hard to read about that manic pixie dream girl that draws into multiple people. But Nelson writes about grief so well and so viscerally. Her work is really special and I suspect older teens will really love this.

This was such an amazing read! It was a beautiful tale with all of the feels and a touch of magical realism. The story pacing kept me engaged the whole time. I fell in the love with each character from Dizzy to Alonzo. The writing was mesmerizing and the story was so well written with all of the characters intersecting perfectly. I highly recommend if you want a big hug for your soul in a book.

My predictions from 2015 (yes, you read that right- this book has been rumored since I was in high school) were entirely accurate. This did give "Manic Pixie Dream Siblings" and threw me back to the early 2010s so hard I had flashbacks of the horrors of wearing low rise jeans and Abercrombie and Fitch embossed t-shirts, All American Rejects echoed in my ears, and I almost texted someone "rawr XD."

Okay, not really, but you get the point.

Jandy Nelson coming back to the publishing game after such a serious hiatus with this absolute banger resurrected my inner child.

There's so much to praise about this book. As she is known to do, Nelson weaves an intricate web of relationships and familial relations between a large cast across multiple generations. I would've needed a written map to guide me through if each character wasn't so distinct. It's been a few months and I can still feel the lingering ghosts of Dizzy, "Perfect" Miles, Winston, and Cassidy. Jandy Nelson can craft a character like few others in the business. Each of them thundered onto the page, struck a pose, and I was instantly in love (yes, even you, my grumpy "Perfect" Miles).

This is a "different generations connected through tenuous relations and a small town" novel and it felt like a love letter to the queer past's role in the queer present, and to the state of California. Maybe it's only the amount of food referenced in the book, but there were several times I felt like I was having a tangible sensory experience of the book- I could taste the cinnamon in the air at the family restaurant, smell the simmering dishes in rural Spain, and hear the crackle of the California sun baking the roof of Cassidy's RV. It was such a tender love story to family and place. Only Nelson could get away with something like this and still dodge the "cheesy" allegations.

While it was outlandish at times, and conveniently coincidental at others, Nelson delivers an epic tale that you won't soon forget. One that touches on all the time-honored themes of family and friendship, love and loss, and of course, the messy web we weave when first we practice to deceive. There are oodles of liars in this book and I love each of them dearly. I believe you will, too.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. I guarantee you'll remember the glory days of 2010s YA.

(For the full experience, post about it on Tumblr and create a pop punk CD to accompany it.)

I love Jandy Nelson and thought this book was really heartfelt. I had a bit of a hard time getting into it, although I thought the siblings were very interesting characters and I wanted to learn more. I felt the pacing was pretty slow at first, and struggled through the middle. Overall though I really enjoyed and would recommend!

Unfortunately, I did not finish this one. I could not get into this at all. I kept trying and couldn't get more than a page or two each time. There were so many characters to keep track of and I felt confused from page 1. There are a lot of great reviews on this so I'm definitely in the minority.

This is a book for those who enjoy generational tales and quirky lovable characters. I think it is a good book but wasn't for me right now, some books I have to be in the right mood to read and this was one of them.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for my e-ARC of this book.

This poignant, and enchanting narrative weaves a tale of family love and heartbreak, reimagining the classic story of Cain and Abel. It explores the intricate dance of love and hate within families, siblings, and friends, highlighting the myriad forms of love—romantic, parental, platonic, familial, and self-love. The generations of the Fall family bear the weight of a haunting curse rooted in the relationship between brothers, a curse that brings forth bitterness, secrets, and death.
Told through multiple viewpoints and enriched by letters and stories, the saga of the Fall family unfolds with layers of depth and emotion, culminating in an extraordinary finale.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group and Dial Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jandy Nelson really does a perfect job of balancing coming of age and heavy narratives like exploring grief. This book does just that. I liked the characters and the bit of magical realism.

This book! All my expectations of how a book should ‘go’ have been turned inside out!! The various pov-current, historical, fairy tale-are interwoven in should a way to illuminate and obscure at the same time. The lineage of the characters and their relationships to each other are marvelous and a surprise til the very end. Read this book!

Thanks to Netgalley, Dial Books and Jandy Nelson for this ebook to read. All opinions are my own.

Too ambitious for the length of the story. It might have been my fault i went in with the expectations that this book was going to be told from a certain POV to make it more interesting but unfortunately it wasnt. The plotting felt a bit all over the place and nothing felt organized.

While Jandy Nelsons novel When the World Tips Over is not a typical genre choice for me I do enjoy a fun YA novel and this was no exception. I actually loved the magical realism parts of this book as well as the character development, which stayed fairly true to young adult development. The writing style was absolutely wonderful and the storyline was very fun.

This is why I love fiction. The most perfect blend of characters and the story of a lifetime. All brought together by Nelson’s writing. And what incredible writing it was!

If you like books with strong character development, family secrets and flawed dynamics. Adventures that lead you down roads you never expected. You’ll love this book.

The first half was pretty slow but I promise you the second half is worth it!

This is a YA novel that really touched me. The story follows a teenager named Max who is struggling to find his place in the world after a life-changing event. As he deals with family issues and his struggles, he learns more about love, loss, and identity. I really connected with Max’s journey, and I liked how the book explored tough topics like grief and growing up. It’s a heartfelt story that had me reflecting long after I finished it. I highly recommend it if you enjoy YA novels that dive deep into emotions and self-discovery.