Perabo's novel takes place after a robbery and abduction that leaves one girl questioning the mysteries of life and death. This is an interesting look at how we respond to intense situations, but it limped to an ending.

The Fall of Lisa Bellow is a stirring and unique meditation on suffering, loss, and survival. A book that will haunt me for quite a while.

Lisa Bellow & Meredith Oliver are not best of friends, they are schoolmates whose lockers are next to each others. Lisa Bellow is introduced as a mean person who is good at bullying other kids.

A masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, and Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the dirty floor,Meredith comes face to face with Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in her eighth grade class. In a span of few minutes the gunman orders Lisa to follow him and then the story spirals around the consequences to Meredith's mind thinking about Lisa's fate.
As Meredith is going through the turmoil of the consequences, her mom Claire is going through her own suffering between the injured son (Meredith's brother) and Meredith's helplessness!

What I liked - Meredith's character was well thought, but the rest of them could have been improvised better!
Her brother who gets injured in the eye and cannot play baseball was annoying, and the father was even worse though their roles are not as much as her mom and Lisa's mom's in the book.

What I didnt understand - why Meredith suddenly felt close to Lisa though she was ignored by Lisa & her friends!
also is there a 2nd book coming out as I felt the ending was very abrupt with unanswered questions - what happened after the abduction to Lisa???

Such a fun summer read! I will be telling everyone about this one!

I really need to know what happened to Lisa Bellow! There seemed to be so much more possible with this story. Very ambiguous...I want to know what happened with the other characters as well.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced digital copy.

Haunting... A look into the mind of a 13 year old girl who witnessed a robbery and the abduction of her popular classmate and the fallout in her own life, family and community. Meredith goes through a range of emotions as she sorts through her memories of what happened during the abduction as well as her memories of Lisa Bellow before her abduction and the "could of's" that go through her mind about the abduction and after. It is heartbreaking and shocking what goes through her head. Then there is the way Lisa's mother is acting, wanting Lisa's friends to spend time at her house and to talk to at their homes and on the phone. The police can't seem to figure out who the kidnapper is and if Lisa knew him. Meredith's mother doesn't know how to handle Meredith's sudden distance from her and everyone else and her thoughts and mindset is sometimes refreshingly honest and at other times sort of scary. Meredith's relationship with her brother, who is also still recovering from a life-changing event of his own, helped carry the storyline at times. Overall I liked the book, especially the character development, but I wished the book did not end as suddenly as it seemed to because I got attached to the characters and wanted to see more of their future.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I received a free advanced copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

Meredith Oliver is a 13 year old girl, Lisa Bellow is her nemesis. One day during an armed robbery at the local Deli Barn Lisa is kidnapped, while Meredith crouches on the floor nearby. Over the next several months, Meredith struggles to make sense of what has happened and even imagines what possibilities her kidnapped classmate is now experiencing. he Fall of Lisa Bellow explores, what happens to the girl who is left behind. There are several threads running through this story which I thought seemed to distract from the focus of this story. Although I enjoyed listening to the audio, in the end I felt like I wanted something more in terms of a resolution. (3.5/5 STARS)

http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2017/05/books-read-and-week-in-review-we-5132017.html

What happens before, during, and after The Fall of Lisa Bellows?

Meredith, a self-conscious and nerdy 14-year old girl, attempts to decipher what’s real and what’s trauma-induced fantasy in Susan Perabo’s coming-of-age novel, The Fall of Lisa Bellows. After a classmate gets kidnapped in a deli robbery that Meredith witnessed, she along with her mother Claire, father Mark, and teenage brother Evan (who recently suffered his own trauma when his left eye was blown out in a freak baseball accident killing his once superior athletic skills and almost his spirit) are lost in a sea of confusion as to how to deal with luck and whatever the opposite of luck is. Meredith’s travel to anther place mentally not only seems natural in the aftermath of the crime but, like her, we hope that it’s true that Lisa is alive and kept company–at the very least by the little white dog.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I was trying my best to give it a chance, but felt that I could no longer continue reading a story that was more of a character study than a mystery or psychological thriller, which I prefer. As a mother of 3 children, I felt disconnected from the narrators: the mother and Meredith. While the author is clearly a talented storyteller, her tone of voice in this book didn't strike a chord with me. I wish her well.

Meredith is just drifting through middle school. She has her friends and family but she spends more time focusing on the popular kids and what they are doing. Then, while she and one of the popular girls, Lisa Bellow, are in a local sandwich shop it is robbed at gunpoint. The robber kidnaps Lisa but leaves Meredith behind. Afterwards, Meredith slowly becomes a part of Lisa's crowd - becoming friends with Lisa's friends and even Lisa's mom. Meredith even starts to dream that she is still with Lisa at the kidnapper's apartment. Meanwhile, Meredith's mom and dad struggle to help Meredith get past the trauma that she has been through..

I'm not sure what I was expecting but I'm not sure this was it. While the writing was excellent, the story itself felt a little flat to me. I think I was hoping for more in terms of a resolution and that wasn't there.

I'm no longer interested in reading this book at this time. Thank you for the opportunity!

This book has a story line that attracted and interested me from the start. The author hints at the possibility of a shocking or dramatic ending. In actuality, I found the ending to be a bit rushed and not what I expected.
I was also a bit irritated by the typical but catty behavior of the teen girls. I suspect that a younger reader would be more appreciative or at least tolerant of this aspect of the story.
In spite of this, I enjoyed the book. I found the writing realist and interesting. I had conflicting feelings about a few of the characters, but was sympathetic to most of them.
I thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This novel is told from the point of view of Meredith Oliver, the girl left behind when Lisa Bellows was kidnapped, and her mother, Claire Oliver. I loved the portrayal of the mother; not such a fan of the author's choice about Meredith's coping strategy.

Meredith Oliver is a very average middle school girl. She and her two best friends keep to to themselves and try not to be embarrassingly singled out in the cafeteria by the popular crowd. Especially Lisa Bellow. Although when they were much younger they had their friendship moments, Lisa is now at the tippy top of the totem pole. Pretty and already experienced with the older boys, she has a way of making everyone outside her inner circle uncomfortable. One day Meredith is waiting behind Lisa at the deli on her way home from school. What feels like a typical boring day turns upside down when the door opens and in walks a masked man. After lying on the floor terrified, the man asks Lisa to get up. And then she is gone. And so begins Meredith’s second life, the one after the fall of Lisa Bellow. Suddenly Meredith is getting an incredible amount of attention, wanted or not, this is her new reality. How Meredith deals with the aftermath only adds to the dynamics of her own presently tumultuous family. I thought this was an interesting take on a unfathomable situation. The writer’s interpretation of these young girls was so accurate, it was spooky. More a thinking story than action - so not necessarily suspenseful. Highly recommend this unique, well written and thought provoking novel. Looking forward to more from author Susan Perabo.

The Fall of Lisa Bellow 4 stars Headline: Left behind

I received a copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book came at a bad time for me. When I started reading the book I had just read a newspaper article of a friend that had gone missing. There were periods I could not bring myself to read this book. Then I would read it with the hope of solving the mystery just as I would hunt through the internet looking for new clues on the whereabouts of my missing friend.

The book revolves around the drama suffered by two of the main characters and how that drama effects everyone around them in different ways. The detail in the emotional trauma suffered by Meredith and her family was engaging and realistic. However, if you are wanting to read a mystery that is not the focus of this book. It is more of a family drama.

As a mom, it was disappointing that the writing makes it appear the whole family is against the mother. She cannot say anything right, everything is misconstrued. It is heartbreaking how she struggles to protect her family and maintain her marriage with so little support or success.

Personally, I did not like the ending. I needed more closure. I felt like it was a writing cop-out to leave the book “unfinished”.


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Simon & Schuster does not leave restrictions on posting reviews. This book will publish and archive on March 14th. I have seen several vine voice review posted, therefore I will include links to my posts.

Amazon —under pen name toReadistoEscape
https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Lisa-Bellow-Novel/product-reviews/1476761469/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_ttl?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent#RG1RRJ7ZW489S

Alibis.com —under pen name toReadistoEscape
http://www.alibris.com/reviews/book/35864912/The-Fall-of-Lisa-Bellow
I was the first reviewer on the Alibris site


Barnes & Noble —under pen name toReadistoEscape
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/the-fall-of-lisa-bellow-susan-perabo/1124016020?ean=9781476761466#reviews-header
I was the first reviewer on the barnes & Noble site

goodreads.com
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1938955383

What a great fresh take on what has quickly become an overdone issue. Well written, well plotted and well paced. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And I wasn't disappointed.

This book is the perfect literary slow-burning read. With alternating points of view, it was refreshing even the eyes through a younger character contrasted against the thoughts of her parents as they both work through their first and second-hand traumas. While it took some time to get into the book' I still found it a really enjoyable read. I didn't feel an anxious pressure to keep turning the page, it a comfortable pull that made me want to spend more time with the characters.

I adored Susan Perabo’s short story collection, Why They Run the Way They Do (my review), so was thrilled to hear her first full length novel was coming out this year. While I still prefer Why They Run the Way They Do, The Fall of Lisa Bellow is a psychologically suspenseful novel that gets to the nasty little heart of things (thank you, Catherine!), a type of story I’m always game for. This story is not about what happened to Lisa Bellow, but about the survivors and survivor’s guilt. It’s about the often ungenerous, but brutally honest thoughts, of those who escaped the worst. And, it’s about the minefield of life as a middle school girl. Perabo’s biting portrayal of middle school made me alternately chuckle and cringe…just like actual middle school.

"Lisa looked at her. There was the look. This was why everyone hated her. This was why middle school girls had stomachaches when they woke up in the morning. This was why girls were afraid to read the next text, or turn the corner into the cafeteria. This was why Jules could think, why they all could think, all the girls who were not her friends, why they could all secretly think: Good riddance."

My major gripe lies with the publisher’s blurb, which calls The Fall of Lisa Bellow “gripping” and “suspenseful,” leading readers to expect a page turner. The suspense here is the emotional type rather than “what happens next” type, and readers going in expecting the latter will likely be disappointed. I’d call it more of a coming of age novel with a crime in the background than a page turning mystery.

I found this novel to be more of a psychological drama than a thriller. A lot of time is spent in character introspection, which made the story a little tough for me to follow. The Fall of Lisa Bellow is very much a coming of age story, a triumph of will, as it were. Once I realized the trajectory of the story, I liked the narrative so much more. The pacing is measured and even. The portrayal of the young people and their dialogue seems believable.
I found it to be entertaining, though not as riveting as I had expected. I rated it 4 stars because the overall story is well crafted, just not to my taste.

This is a smart and compelling story about a human’s capacity for coping, healing and hope.

Two middle-schoolers in the same place at the same time - one is abducted and one is left behind. Meredith is traumatized and struggling with survivor’s guilt in the tragedy’s aftermath. Meredith’s mother, Claire is flawed (what human isn’t?), but she is a sympathetic character and my heart went out to her, her feeling of helplessness and fiercely trying to protect her daughter. Although I didn’t agree with choices she made, they felt realistic. This is a well-conceived story in which my emotions ran the gamut from compassion to frustration.