Free to Fall

by Lauren Miller

[Angie]

I was very, very excited to read Free To Fall after falling in love with Parallel, and I'm happy to say that I loved it too, although not as much. It's the near future and Gnosis has taken over as the lead technological company. Nearly every person has a Gemini with the Lux app installed. Lux is meant to make life much simpler and run smoother by making decisions for you. Don't know what you want for breakfast? Ask Lux! Not sure if you have time to do whatever? Ask Lux! Should you go out with that hot guy in your math class? Ask Lux! It'll lead you down the path of happiness...or conformity. Rory gladly uses Lux, although she's not as obsessed as others. It's not until she's accepted into a prestigious school that she learns that Lux isn't really the awesome program she thinks it is.

Free To Fall was quite great! I love the idea of an app that makes decisions for you, but what I loved more was that it didn't go over into cheesy mind control territory. You still had to consciously decide to ask Lux for advice, and then still decide whether to follow it or not. I'll admit, that I probably would use Lux a lot. It's so much easier to just have someone who knows more than you tell you want to do, while knowing they have your best interests in mind (or so you think). And it's all too easy to imagine something like this actually happening. We're all so plugged in all the time, constantly checking our phones and using apps for everything.

The plot of Free To Fall is very National Treasure meets the Garden of Eden. There's a lot of talk about free will and making decisions for yourself but also their effects on those around you. Plus there's a great conspiracy surrounding a school, technology, and pharmaceuticals! And a secret society! And a murder mystery! And solar flares! Yeah. There's a lot going on, maybe a bit too much, but it all fits together nicely so I thought it worked for the most part. I can definitely say I was never bored.

There are a few inconsistencies and lingering questions that bothered me in Free To Fall. The two inconsistencies aren't huge, but once I notice these things I can't unread them! The first was that Rory's shoes change between scenes without her ever changing them, and the second was that a major character is introduced as having "deep-set green eyes" and then having black eyes every other time she's mentioned. And her eyes are mentioned a lot. As for the lingering questions, Rory learns something about the circumstances surrounding her birth and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. The reason for it made sense, until later in the book when that reason is completely void, which brought me back to how this circumstance was even possible or why it was done. I know this is incredibly vague, but this information was a kind of turning point in the story. It really nagged at me!

I really enjoyed Free To Fall despite those few issues. It's thought provoking, has a good amount of action, and a bit of romance. All things that I love. I do wish things hadn't become quite so convoluted, since I thought it was going pretty well without all of the twists thrown in.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.