Although it started off slow, the payoff was beautiful. When the World Tips Over weaves in and out of multiple narrative points of view, spanning several generations. Jandy Nelson has a poets voice and a true gift for weaving narrative prose. Each of the characters is dealing with something deep, troubling, and profound, and they each do so in their own way. A masterclass in voice.

The book deals with concepts surrounding the following: LGBTQ; identity; sex/love/romance; parental trauma; generational traumas; abandonment; a search for self; music.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review an early copy of this book! All opinions are completely my own. I will be posting my review on Amazon, B&N, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok closer to publication. My Goodreads review has already been posted.

Review:

When I heard that Jandy Nelson was finally releasing another book, I jumped at the chance to read it early.

I'll Give You the Sun was one of my favorite standout books from 2015. It was an intimate and colorful insight into the lives of twins as their relationship fractured, and the road they took to finding each other again. As a twin myself, that book spoke volumes to me, and I loved the queer rep and lyrical writing style.

In When the World Tips Over, there's that same blend of lyrical writing and family relationships. We follow the Fall family, and a Cain & Abel curse that plagues each new generation of brothers. This book feels like not only an ode to complicated families, but also to storytelling, and the way that family histories are shaped and passed down like myth. The way Jandy Nelson layers and breadcrumbs the different stories throughout the novel - given to us from various POVs - is nothing short of masterful. This novel is told through so many lenses and literary devices that I felt as if I were reading a hidden fable. I would even describe this book as contemporary fantasy. The town has magical properties and some of our main characters can see ghosts, talk to dogs, and float into the sky.

For each sibling we follow, there's romance, questions of identity, and an exploration into the ways we can misperceive others. I think this book would have really spoken to me in high school. As it was, I still enjoyed this as an adult and would argue that Jandy Nelson writes in a way that YA contemporary needs.

This one is for the lost teen (past or present), the artist, and the unseen.

Triggers: Sexual assault, neglect, drug/alcohol usage and abuse

I can't even put into words how excited I was to receive this book as an arc in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley! Jandy Nelson's "I'll Give You the Sun" is one of my all-time favorites and will always hold a special place in my heart.

"When the World Tips Over" did not give me the same butterflies in my stomach and stars in my eyes as Nelson's previous books, but here are a few things that I enjoyed while reading:

- representation! gay and bisexual characters
- a long timeline of family history explained -- there's always a crooked branch on the family tree :)
- dynamic characters who think and feel deeply
- beautiful writing and swoon-worthy quotes from Jandy Nelson

However, my lower rating stems from these things that seemed to overtake my overall enjoyment of the book:

- it became very confusing - it was hard to tell what was actually happening versus what the characters were imagining. A sort of weird fantasy
element came into play, but it didn't blend well with the story.
- the pace was super slow and didn't really pick up cadence in any of the chapters. It took me way longer to finish this book than it normally does.
- I understand the need for character development, but some of it was nonsensical. The nicknames for the characters and their weird hobbies just
didn't make much sense to the story.

With all this being said, I still consider Jandy Nelson an automatic author. I will read anything she writes :)

A moving story, a little long at times but heartfelt. Secrets. feeling alone and different with more in common than they realize and more in common with everyone who carries their heart on the inside. I think my students will relate and find heart and hope in this book

Frankly, I do think people who loved I'll Give You the Sun will enjoy Jandy Nelson's newest, especially because they're very similar in tone and themes and characterizations (a bit too similar in some aspects for me). There were a lot of moments in this book that I really liked, but sadly it didn't work for me as a whole.

I just think it was much too long for the story we ultimately got. Admittedly, this is partially because I'm not much of a story-in-a-story person, so I found a good chunk of the book to be useless even if it did all tie together at the end (and I mean the very end). There were four POVs, but they weren't balanced at all. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but again this book was so long that I thought a lot could've been cut or at least shortened. Honestly, to me, this story was juggling too much, with the multiple POVs, the stories, the letters, the emails, and so on, so it ultimately didn't work for me but might work for you, etc.

Thanks for the review copy. I liked Dizzy the best. I liked Miles the least. This felt more like a YA book than adult, though.

When the World Tips Over by Janey Nelson immerses you in the stories of the Falls’ kids, Dizzy, Miles, and Wynton with alternating point of view (POV) chapters. Cassidy, a rainbow haired girl or angel, has a wild story to tell of her own which intersects with the Falls’ clan. It’s hard to put into words what the book is, it’s more about how it makes you feel fully what each character is experiencing.

I recommend this book for young adults and adults. The story is intricately woven from various POVs, it’s worth the effort to get to know all of the characters and how they fit in the story. There’s drama, family secrets and a curse, love lost, love found, traumatic events, and above all, people finding where they belong.

Thank you Penguin Group Young Readers and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Set in a town that sometimes disappears from maps, a family is slowly uncovering their old secrets. The book has multiple povs that are distinctly unique, along with newspaper articles, journal entries, letters that were never sent, and recipes.

Each of the characters in the book has something about them that makes them so interesting:
Winston is looking for the father who left them years ago, going to where he thinks he will be able to hear his dad’s trumpet again.
Miles looks like the all-around Perfect kid, but he just decided to run away from his life looking for something that can make him feel alive again. He can talk to dogs, loves to read, and is secretly part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Dizzy has synesthesia, sees ghosts, believes in angels, and probably received unrestricted internet access way too early. She is the embodiment of childish joy, curious, and trusts people others give up on.
This might seem like too much unimportant info about these characters, but I am not sure I can put into words just how wonderful they are - from the first chapter, I could just feel that this book would take me out of a reading slump. The book wasn’t just character-driven, but for me, they definitely carried the story. I also loved how they stressed the importance of friends and family, not just romantic love! These people made a place for themselves in the universe, and it was so much fun to be part of that journey.

I absolutely LOVED the underlying narrative with the romance book they all secretly read :’) A small little connection between characters who thought they were alone in the world. Even the side characters reek from loneliness: the baker mom who leaves a meal for the guy who left her years ago; the uncle who is known as drunk; and the entire backstory of Cassidy who collected bugs when she was young because her mom didn’t let her meet people (that entire plotline still HUNTS me, omg I don’t know if I will ever recover from her story).

Jandy Nelson has such a whimsical and wonderful writing style - her books feel like art pieces. I was never fully sure if the magic in the book is real or if these characters just cope in weird ways, which was a really cool part of the narrative.

Each of the main characters had such a unique personality that you could distinguish from their different povs. It was actually so cool to see the difference between what others thought about them vs their own thoughts. In the beginning, Dizzy describes Miles as this untouchable, perfect person (to the point that I thought there's no way I could connect with his character). But the moment you switch to his pov, you can see that he's just a mess. The author makes all of them feel like /real/ people, and you can't help but root for them.

The ending was a little bit too slow and repetitive for me, but the author is just so talented - I eat up her books every time. To write this review, I reread all of my highlights, and I WISH I could add all of them to this review - this book and these characters made me so happy to be alive?? They are so optimistic despite everything and make even the most mundane parts of life feel so important.

I received a free ebook from Netgalley in exchange for fair and an unbiased review. I hadn't read the authors first book. I heard it was amazing. I don't read YA often but I like fiction. I thought I would really enjoy the book.

The book is pretty complicated, especially for a YA novel. It has a lot of characters. The characters keep growing throughout the book. You learn how the characters are related. The chapters are told by different characters.

The book is about love, family, trauma, illness, loss, identity, and acceptance. The topics are very in depth. It didn't really seem like a YA book. It dealt with real and difficult topics.

The book was quite long. Sometimes in the book, it would digress into other stories that we'ren't related to the current story. There would, also, be emails or journals that would take place in the story. Sometimes I had to reread to figure out what happened in the story.

I felt the book would have been better if it was a little shorter. Less digression. At times, the book was so good. I was amazed by the writing. At other times, it was too much.

I am so thankful to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book. Now I do want to read the authors first novel.

I couldn't put this down. At times I felt there was too much going on, or too much time spent on backstory, but it was all really woven strands of the same story. I liked how it all came together and also kept me guessing about whether magic was real (in the world of the book). Interesting and vivid characters, constant surprises, and things that turn out to make sense in unexpected ways.

I loved Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun. This story seemed to want to cover far too many bases. A lot of the time was spent dealing with the curse handed down through the generations and it seemed to become the excuse for a lot of bad behavior. The adults in this story did not come off very well. Mom's past and Cassidy's mom's ongoing behavior just didn't lift the story.

Cassidy's stories took precedence throughout the book. Wynton and Miles and Dizzy were great characters, and Sandro the dog pretty much stole the show. I wish we heard more from them and about them. Felix seemed to happen along at an opportune moment.

There were a lot of plots going in a lot of different directions which was confusing and trying to tie each person's story into the greater plot was hard. Nelson's writing is wonderful - it just felt like she tackled too many things at one time.

♡ Angst
♡ Lots of Backstories
♡ Multiple Point of Views

My thoughts with this book have been “huh?” and “what is even happening?” I was so confused with so much of this book. The plot only made sense near the last 80% as things tied together but up until then it was a cluster of confusing and random backstories.

The switching point of views was a bit annoying, for the most part it was third person point of view for Miles and Dizzy, first person point of view for Cassidy mostly, and a bit of second for Wynton. I liked that it had multiple point of views I just wish they were all in third person point of view or even first person point of view. The letters/notes were kinda confusing at first but I got used to them later on. The characters themselves were okay. They had depth and a backstory but I didn’t really find them all that likable.

Dizzy was so random at times as if the author wanted to make her seem younger than she was or something. She was so frustrating to read. And all the mentions about her lack of sexual experience was weird for her age in my opinion. Miles was okay. He clearly had a bit more trauma and things to work through but at the end of the day he was also frustrating to read just a bit less than Dizzy. Cassidy was the only one I even remotely liked, I could have honestly read a book about her on her own and all the adventures her and her mom went on. Her growing up and working through all of the trauma and grief pushed onto her at a young age. Wynton was just kinda there. I didn’t care either way for him. His character didn’t really add anything to the story in my opinion other than when he was in a coma.

The ending was also kinda meh. I was expecting a bit more after so much build up. Nonetheless, thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spice Level: n/a
Angst Level: 💧💧💧💧 (4/5)
POV: Multiple, Third Person, First Person, and Second Person (kinda)
Release Date: 24, September 2024
Rep: Synesthesia (Main Character), Bisexual (Side Character), Gay (Main Character)

I liked but didn’t love this. It felt a bit too long, and while I love Nelson’s writing style, it became a little too much for me in the long storytelling sections about the Fall family.

I'll Give You the Sun is one of my favorite books ever, and so when I saw that Jandy Nelson had a new book out, I just HAD to read it.
Within the first few pages, Nelson's unique style of beautifully poetic prose flowed out at me and started my reading journey on a great track.
It's a wacky and whimsical story about a magical family with a magical story. The way Miles is written is eenage angst translated. And I like the way she writes about boys falling in love with boys.

When the World Tips Over is full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing, and keep you reading.

This delightful YA book mixes magical realism with family drama and I really enjoyed it (I wasn’t one hundred percent sure it was YA when I was reading it…pretty sure, but while for a book for adults it might have been a bit too twee it was perfect for YA.)

Years ago the Fall kids’ dad disappeared and they’ve been raised by their chef single mom in small town California. Now Dizzy Fall, 12, thinks she sees spirits, Miles Fall, 17, is a smart, gorgeous athlete/loner who is dying to meet the guy of his dreams and Wynton Fall, 19, is a bit of a ne’er do well who is also a virtuoso violinist.

Then rainbow-haired Cassidy Snow turns up and turns the Falls’ world upside down.

I hope this finds a wide audience. I wish there had been more Sandro, of course.

When the World Tips Over is set in the extremely peaceful and happy town of Paradise Springs. It follows the Fall siblings, Wynton, Miles, and Dizzy—whose lives are changed by their father, Theo, who went missing. Their world takes a turn when a mysterious rainbow-haired girl, Cassidy, arrives and brings them a touch of magic that changes their lives forever.
The book definitely had my attention. I was brought into a really interesting world of family dynamics, secrets, and magical realism. Every character, with its imperfections and struggles, explores love, personal development, and self-discovery. Although I thought it would be confusing, it is really easy to understand and follow the multiple viewpoints. I will be grabbing this for my nieces when it comes out later this year!

From the incredible author of "I'll Give You the Sun" and "The Sky is Everywhere", Jandy Nelson has done it again. It felt like a privilege to be welcomed into the Fall family and the town of Paradise Springs.

The Fall siblings, Wynton, Miles, and Dizzy, live in the mystical, idyllic town of Paradise Springs. Only their life is not as perfect as their father, Theo Fall, has been missing. One day, an angel girl with rainbow hair shows up and saves each of the Fall siblings lives in a different way. This story is a beautiful exploration of family, mistakes, love, growth, finding one's voice, and feeling whole.

This author's artistry is incredible; Nelson has an incredible style of writing that draws you in from the start, creating a vivid and enticing universe that I did not want to leave. Each character had a flawed but beautiful story which felt real. I found myself becoming MAD (in the best way) at the characters and appreciating the humanity of them all.

I highly recommend giving this a read if you enjoy stories with multiple POVs, a touch of magical realism, and characters that feel human in the best way. I feel so lucky to have had a chance to read this before it hits the shelves. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

You’d think a Dizzy Fall would be in the midst of an idyllic childhood amid the beautiful redwoods and vineyards of Northern California, but it was far from it. Her brothers hate each other, her uncle is always drunk and her dad, well, he’s been MIA her entire life. Just when everything begins to crack open at the seams and the family fall apart completely, a beautiful rainbow-haired girl appears. Dizzy thinks she’s an angel and it seems as if she just may be.

I enjoyed this family story of loss, love, curses and maybe a tiny bit of magic. The story was engaging and full of twists and turns impossible to predict. If I have a complaint, I didn’t care for the negative portrayal of the adult women in the novel. They had few redeeming qualities and paid heavily for their mistakes while it seemed the adult males seem to skate by their issues with few consequences. Overall, it was a good and entertaining read.

*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 ⭐️

Let’s start by saying that I’ll Give You the Sun is one of my top 3 favorite books. Ever. Being able to read an ARC of Jandy Nelson’s first book in a decade made my daughter and I scream out loud in full book nerd giddiness. Reviewing this book is both an honor, and an intimidation.

In pure Cassidy fashion, I was left with words, rather than complete thoughts. This book is: Phantasmagorical, tormented, lyrical, profound, amorous, compelling, resplendent, intricate, brilliant, unexpected, peculiar, enchanted.

It’s not at all what I expected, and I often thought, “what am I reading and where did this come from?!” Ultimately, it’s a divine journey not to be missed.

This was my first Jandy Nelson book and I really enjoyed it.

It deals with dysfunctional families, hidden secrets, and generational curses. Nelson’s writing was colorful, and I mean that quite literally and in a positive way.

The story was just touch too long, I think just a little bit of it could be left out, but I did enjoy all of the different POVs and the letters. It was great to see how everyone ended up being connected and how certain characters got to the places they were. I would definitely read another book by this author.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. This published 9.24.2024.