Suicide In Liz Emerson's Falling Into Place

There is nothing romantic about taking ones’ life. Yet you can’t deny that it’s happening, and that it’s real. Amy Zhang was able to skilfully weave together the fabrics of physics and the intangibleness of emotional distress that eventually leads to suicide in her novel, “Falling into Place”. Her debut novel, which classifies as contemporary young adult book, tells us the story if Liz Emerson, who is portrayed as a stereotypical queen bee, and at the same time a smart yet depressed teenager who is silently planning her death.

The story is told in loops and flashbacks and amidst the skipping across time, it was successfully able to show how Liz can be both on the same plane as that of a shallow, self-centered mean girl and sensible person. Throughout the story, you will notice that contradiction is a constant theme - the cause and effect of everything. Liz wanted to end her life, and she’s going to use the laws of physics to help her do that. But Liz is not stupid. She knows and understand that life is precious, which is why she gave herself a way out - a week. A week for her to plan everything out – the gas, the date, the place, and most importantly, the “how”, and a week for her to see redemption. A week for her to see her something that will make her stay. The problem with Liz is not that she’s sad or lonely. The

And this is also what Liz had in mind throughout her entire ordeal. Her self-loathing made her think that her actions deserve an equal reaction – suicide. The simplicity of this equal and opposite reaction (which can also be seen on several different aspects of the novel) is only the surface of a much more complicated thread that is shown in the story through all the character’s emotions and issues. Emotions are never simple, that we know of. And Zhang uses this as an underlying current of the story, a sub-theme, for the ever contradicting nature of