Two Review: All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t have high hopes for this novel. My last experience with Jennifer Weiner left me feeling let down and empty, so I have avoided the rest of her works for about a year now. When I saw that she had a new novel coming out, I was intrigued. Around the time that All Fall Down came out, I had just finished a very intense thriller/crime novel and was ready for something much lighter.

This book had me hooked within just a few pages and it’s safe to say it’s become my favorite of Weiner’s. I didn’t even finish the first chapter before I was texting L.C. telling her she needed to read it.

Alison Weiss is a stay at home mom with a booming blog business. She has the perfect husband, but a rocky marriage. She devotes all of her non-working time to taking care of her daughter, who is at the very least, a handful. To the outside world, she has the perfect life. What she’s hiding is how she manages to do all of these things and not lose her mind – prescription painkillers.

This book hit home mostly because my father was an addict. His poison of choice was heroin, which is known as the next step up from prescription pills because it’s cheaper but provides the same high. My entire life I’ve known that I am more susceptible to addiction than others, and have always stayed away from drugs because of that (among other factors). All Fall Down was like a glimpse into a life that could be mine if I inherited my dad’s addiction and let it get the best of me.

While I didn’t exactly get what I bargained for thinking that it would be a lighthearted, breezy chick lit, I did find a book that hit home and made me think about my own life pretty deeply. I rated it 5/5 on Goodreads and have been recommending it to anyone and everyone.

My first Jennifer Weiner experience was Good in Bed. After that, I was hooked. I blew through several more before venturing off into fantasy-land and forgetting all about chick lit.

This brought me back. We decided to do a double review because we both enjoy Weiner, and I’m so glad K.T. talked me into it.

I finished this book in a few days and stayed up waaaay too late to read more. Allison Weiss lives (seemingly) the perfect life. She’s got it all: hot husband, adorable (though demanding) child, beautiful house in the suburbs, huge blogging career. But that life is out of the Weiss’ price range, and Allison is also trying to handle a sick father, crazy busy job and taking care of a child. In an effort to balance everything, she becomes addicted to prescription pain pills.

I work in crime prevention, and prescription pill abuse is a national issue. Idaho has one of the highest addiction rates in the country, and the rates are raising every day. This book hit close to home, and I found myself enveloped in Allison’s world…and her addiction.

I had so much tension and concern for Allison while reading this book. On some strange level, I could understand her need to pop pills. I could understand how addicted she became. However, I could also see how it could tear her life apart—losing her child, her marriage, her life she’d worked so hard to build.

This book was a surprise from Jennifer Weiner, as I’m accustomed to her quick wit, humor, and easy reads. This book delved into tougher topics like addiction, marriage conflict and deteriorating parents, which was a nice change. Weiner’s writing is masterful, and I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I rated it 5/5 on Goodreads, and would highly recommend.