All Fall Down by Ally Carter

Summary (from Goodreads):

This exciting new series from NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Ally Carter focuses on Grace, who can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world, and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.

Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay--in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved.

Review:

I am a big Ally Carter fan. I was so excited to see another series by this author. I ate this book up in a day (another snow day). Grace isn’t my favorite character, but I loved the story. Grace is another one of those YA main characters whose sanity you are meant to question. She’s gone through a lot of therapy. And well, has called wolf a few times.

She witnessed her mother’s murder at the age of 13. However, she’s the only one who believes it to be murder. According to all the evidence found, her mother died by accidental fire. Grace can’t get the image though of a scarred man, shooting her mother out of her head. And after a few run-ins with scarred men who ended up not being her mother’s killer, Grace sort of built up a reputation of craziness. Or at least as being the girl who cried wolf.

And while I can get why people might not believe Grace over scientific evidence, the one thing I hated about the book, was how adamant all of Grace’s remaining family was that she was crazy.  Why would she make up a scarred man killing her mother? Seriously, her grandfather, brother, and father all refused to believe her or listen to her or trust her. And I cannot imagine such an awful family dynamic.

On the plus side, I’ve never read a YA book to talk about politics in quite this way. I loved the metaphor Grace made about the teens on Embassy Row acting as a younger, more attractive version of the UN. Each teen in this book represented a different country. I loved the politics between the teens. And I loved the skills and personalities they all developed because of their crazy, amazing life-styles.

I wanted Grace to be stronger, like some of Carter’s other main characters. And I really am tired of the non-trustworthy, possibly crazy main character thing as a whole.  I did enjoy reading about some of the side characters. And I loved the mystery. I was dying to find out what actually happened to her mom. And I needed to know who was in on it, and so much more.

Unfortunately, not all the answers are revealed at the end. If anything, a million more questions pop up. I was also not expecting the ending at all. I’m curious to see where things end up with the mystery and with Grace. I give it an 8/10.