The Fall Of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo

The Fall Of Lisa Bellow

by Susan Perabo

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE GIRL LEFT BEHIND?

A masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, and Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the filthy floor, where she cowers face to face with her nemesis, Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in her class. The minutes tick inexorably by, and Meredith lurches between comforting the sobbing Lisa and imagining her own impending death. Then the man orders Lisa Bellow to stand and come with him, leaving Meredith behind.

After Lisa’s abduction, Meredith spends most days in her room. As the community stages vigils and searches, Claire, Meredith’s mother, is torn between relief that her daughter is alive and helplessness over her inability to protect or even comfort her child. Her daughter is here, but not. How can life ever move forward again?

The Fall of Lisa Bellow is edgy and original, a hair-raising exploration of the ripple effects of an unthinkable crime, for readers who enjoyed Everything I Never Told You and Room.

Praise for Susan Perabo's short stories:

‘Explores the very human question - in surprising and original ways - of what it really means to be afraid’ Elizabeth Strout, bestselling author of My Name is Lucy Barton on The Broken Places

‘Darkly beautiful stories about love and loss and every gradation between. Each one is suffused with astonishing wit and tenderness. Well worth the wait!’ Jenny Offill, New York Times bestselling author of Dept. of Speculation on Who I Was Supposed to Be

‘There's only one way to read Susan Perabo, and that's breathlessly. Each story in Who I Was Supposed to Be crackles with narrative electricity, and every one made me want to stand and cheer’ Richard Russo

Reviewed by layawaydragon on

1 of 5 stars

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Reader Beware: Racism, Slut shaming, mean popular girls, fat shaming, ablism, dysfunctional white family, white privledge, cliche single mom, talk of rape, off scene rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, and a bullshit nonending.

I was interested in this book because I love mysteries, running through all possible scenarios with my anxiety, and was never a popular girl.

It starts off promising, red flags start waving, and then it downright pisses me off. I hate-read the rest to find out what happened. What happens? NOTHING!

Chicken shit whitey couldn't work out the magical realism, waved it off as a mental problem, and not-so-merrily they drove off leaving Lisa Bellow a cold case. WTF?

Ugh. Such an absolute waste that I must warn everyone away from.

Racism: rumors about every black employee is a murderer and did hard time. These are the only black people. Steven, MC's crush, does a racist Haitian accent in their Social Studies class.

Slut shaming: absolutely every girl slut shames the popular girls. The mom names it in her head but doesn't say shit to correct them.

Talk of rape: There's this really disturbing passage how MC ponders if Lisa Bellow was still a virgin, ‘if she realized her worth and withheld some to save it for high school popularity ’ but either way, she's definitely not a virgin anymore. Creepy as shit. Yet not the creepiest part of the book.

Fat shaming : MC waxes on about popularity a lot. More than like every other YA I feel. Part of that is her saying she's overweight by 10 lbs but there's some people that are just too fat and stay at the bottom of the hierarchy forever. It's this disgusting justification of social norms but she's not like a total bitch like the popular girls. She'd totally be a benevolent dictator of the school social form *eyeroll*

Cliche Single Mom : Holy fuck, why does every single mom turn out to be poor trash who has a sordid history with men trying to hook a man and recapture her youth? I mean she wishes for a tropical vacation w her daughter so they can wear bikinis and pick up men together on the beach! I have literally never met a single one like this and I am one.

Dysfunctional white well off family: I got so sick if these two trading off bitching about their family and how they're all against each other. It was interesting in the beginning but I wanted to go down the mystery path instead of this angsty "literary" uselessness. Family therapy and couples counseling is seriously needed. We don't even get to find out what happens with them, so what was the fucking point?

Oh and if you think your dentist is harming you for no reason on purpose, they probably are.

Good fucking riddance to this damn book.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 18 March, 2018: Finished reading
  • 18 March, 2018: Reviewed