Many thanks to Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book. I wasn't ready. The first part felt so familiar and natural, teenage girls in western countries are quite similar even with completely opposite personalities, with their dreams and wishes and the wall of reality to crash into at full speed. Although I'm younger than the characters, I have memories of this period that the author brings up and it was easy to fall back in time. I also volunteered in Senegal for my very first plane trip and Callie's views were so perfectly matching my expectations. I got really attached to Rosie and Callie and that made the second part so much more unbearable. The acknowledgement part of the book refers to many Rwandans coming forward with their stories, so I suppose most horrible things happened for real and the scale of the tragedy is really inimaginable. It was also interesting to see how the hurting and healing can take different forms while the scars will always be bare. And noting that the conflict is still not really over is an important reminder that even after all that happened, Rwanda and the rest of the world is still not out of the horrors of war and genocide.

Two young ladies, 17 and 18 years of age embark on an adventure to Rwanda. Rosie from Ireland, to help out her Gran, Callie from England, to help in a poor country. They meet on the airplane, then again in Rwanda. All is well at first and they experience a life that is so different from their upbringing. You will also meet Blessing, a 11 year old Rwandan girl who has been helping out Rosie’s Gran.

One day the President’s plane is shot down and everything changes. All three have to flee for their lives. A tragic story that many of you will remember, that happened in Rwanda in 1994, but one that we should not forget.
Well researched and written. A very good read, but there are some graphic details that will disturb you.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley and Betimes books. It covers an area of history that I really know little about and considering it happened in my lifetime that is truly shocking. Through the voices of two teenager the author weaves a story of internal unrest and racial hatred indiscriminate killing and pathways to escape.
Rosie and Callie have only ever experienced life in relatively normal settings and both suffer from teenage angst and a belief in the unfairness of life. What they are about to experience will change all that.

This is beautifully crafted and yet simply told the author truly brings the places and emotions to life
I will certainly look for more from this author

The proposed plot of this novel was intriguing, but I found the execution to be a bit sloppy. It was a huge undertaking for a white Canadian to write about genocide in Rwanda from the perspective of a Black Irish teenager, but it was the perspective of Callie, the naive white Canadian girl, that really puzzled me. The author seemed hellbent on making sure the reader knew how entirely naive and sheltered this girl was. It got to the point where it started reading as fake to me, and I wondered if there would be some huge plot twist that would reveal more about her. Spoiler alert: There wasn't. This simply appears to be Hood's style of writing, and that became clear as she repeatedly drove home the point that Rosie was DIFFERENT from her white Irish peers in their small Irish village, and that made her feel things. The repetition of this point served no purpose besides to grate my nerves. Apart from that, something felt off about the description of Rosie's survival of the turmoil and terror around her. There were moments that were done well, but then the following description would seem so off that it detracted from the previous success. Lastly, I felt that their treating of Blessing, as a character, was exploitative. She came across as an amalgamation of various tropes and thus was Cassie's wet dream of an African child fantasy. But the cavalier way she was used as a martyr seemed all too cruel, especially since she was given barely enough play besides as a magical sage/guide/object of affection/etc.

Wow. This small word kind of sums up my feeling towards this book.

They All Fall Down deals with so many themes at once that it' overwhelming trying to write them out. What is clear is that Kim Hood did a lot of research and was able to lay out quite simply such an intricate topic, while also pointing out the absurdity of it all.

Although the main event of the book is the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, I think that this is a story of self-discovery. The story of two (three) young girls trying to find their own place in the world, in a world where home feels foreign and you are a foreigner at home. A journey of accepting yourself for who you are and that being or wanting to be different is not such a bad thing.

As someone that lives alone in a foreign country, I loved and connected to the first chapters, the struggle of finding yourself and belonging somewhere, never being local enough, The clash between the perception you have of yourself and that of others.

I highly recommend this book to everyone

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