YPLA- Week Two (if you squint a bit)

Never Fall Down

By Patricia McCormick

Okay, book number two: Never Fall Down, a story about a young boy, Arn, roughly 11 years old at the beginning of the book, living in Cambodia in 1975. This was the year when the soldiers of the violent and brutally repressive Khmer Rouge took over the government, and forced the whole population into the countryside, to work on rice plantations. Arn is separated from his family, and sent to a special plantation specifically for kids his age. He lives on barely enough rice to survive, and each day he sees kids die of starvation, exhaustion, and disease, and he sees people taken out to the mango grove and never return. And each day, he lives by the motto Never Fall Down. Then one day the Khmer Rouge needs children for the band, and Arn volunteers, in the hope it will keep him alive just a little bit longer. He becomes valuable to the Khmer Rouge, and learns how to manipulate the system. Arn is forced to watch the hideous acts of the Khmer Rouge, and forced to remain indifferent, at least on the outside, because if you show emotion, you die.

I enjoyed Never Fall Down, although I don’t recommend reading it when you already feel crappy. The story is rather bleak, but it’s one of the few YA books at least, that portray war and battle like it really is – brutal. I found the way in which it was written a little difficult to understand at first, because it’s written in the first person, but in the manner of a boy who’s had no formal education, however, after a couple of chapters, I got used to it, and the dialogue flowed more naturally. I think my main issue with the story is that the end peters out. The narration is so passionate and deep and there is one strand of hope running throughout. When you get to the end you expect it to have at least some form of positive closure, however, it lacks the depth and intensity that came through in the first two-thirds of the book. It almost seemed as if the author was drained from writing such a forceful, yet depressing book.

That said, this was a page turner, and it kept me hooked.

Oh and did I mention? This is a true story.

Feisty chick-o-meter: 4/10 There really aren't that many female characters
Age rating: 14 or 15 + I know because Arn is 11 you would think 11 would be okay, but by the end Arn is  15, and  this book is pretty hardcore
Rating: 8/10
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Book or audiobook: Book

Arn Chorn-Pond is now a human rights activist, and speaks out against genocide