Review: See How They Run

SEE HOW THEY RUN
Embassy Row #2
Ally Carter
Young Adult/Thriller
336 pages
Scholastic Press
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Inside every secret, there's a world of trouble. Get ready for the second book in this new series of global proportions--from master of intrigue, New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter.

Grace's past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.

The twists get twistier and the turns get even more shocking in the second thrilling installment of Embassy Row.

MY THOUGHTS
See How They Run returns us to Embassy Row and the life and death situations the children of politicians constantly barrel their way into, only this installment raises the stakes further as murder creates an international incident.

In the first book our protagonist Grace was in a fairly dark place, struggling to differentiate between fiction and reality with regard to the tragic death of her mother years before, and we couldn’t help but be sucked in as she drew ever-closer to the truth. With this sequel Grace has fallen even farther into darkness, the truth handing her ways to punish herself again and again, allowing her to drown in guilt while refusing any lifeline extended to her by friends and family. As a result of her determination to be solely responsible for what she uncovered about her mother’s death, she pushes everyone around her away, and that unfortunately includes us as readers.

So much of this second installment is Grace running away both literally and figuratively, retreating into herself even more than she did in this first book, and fleeing physically whenever her friends or her brother inquire after her well-being. Much of the dialogue consists of friends and family yelling “Grace!” at her back as she leaves them behind time and again, refusing to acknowledge that they could care for her after all she believes she’s done. Such a mental state, while understandable, makes it incredibly hard to really settle in with her, and we’re instead left to run up against the emotional wall she’s erected just as everyone else around her does.

Overall, See How They Run is a difficult read in terms of our main character, and while the murder and subsequent investigation succeed in grabbing our interest, Grace’s severe depression and unwillingness to accept even the smallest of comforts from her friends, brother or love interest leave us more detached from the second leg of her political journey than we otherwise might have liked.

Rating: 3/5

Find Ally:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: All Fall Down

ALL FALL DOWN
Embassy Row #1
Ally Carter
Contemporary Young Adult
320 pages
Scholastic
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things:

1. She is not crazy.
2. Her mother was murdered.
3. Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay.

As certain as Grace is about these facts, nobody else believes her -- so there's no one she can completely trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands.

Everybody wants Grace to put on a pretty dress and a pretty smile, blocking out all her unpretty thoughts. But they can't control Grace -- no more than Grace can control what she knows or what she needs to do. Her past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.

MY THOUGHTS
All Fall Down is pure entertainment, the kind of book perfect for picking up after a long day and letting ourselves settle into as we escape reality for a while. Grace’s story does require the suspension of disbelief and the capacity to go with the flow as she follows possible assassins down dark tunnels with absolutely no backup, but this story is in no way meant to be a serious behavioral examination of the children of prominent politicians. Instead, it's a story full of murder plots and power exchanges–with a bit of humor mixed in–and it ensures we keep the pages turning well into the early hours of the morning.

Grace is someone whose sorrow is a tangible thing, the death of her mother three years prior and the fact that she witnessed it something that haunts her hours both waking and not. She’s not in an overly healthy place when we meet her, reciting a mantra of “I’m fine” to anyone who asks, but what keeps those two words from being frustrating is the fact that Grace herself doesn’t believe them any more than those on the receiving end of it do. She knows she’s struggling, but her fear of being forced back into a hospital and heavily medicated forces her to put on the bravest face she can, and we can’t help but hope her desire to pull it together will eventually make it so.

Even though Grace is weighed down heavily by her mother’s murder and the fact that no one believes what she saw that night, the story itself doesn’t feel overwhelmingly sad, and we move forward quickly and easily with Grace as she tries to extract the truth from both past and present. We’re left with the full reveal of exactly what happened the night of Grace’s mother’s death, but it’s also very clear that things are just beginning and everything we thought we knew after spending a few hundred pages in Grace’s world is going to be called into question moving forward.

Rating: 4/5

Find Ally:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.