Free to Fall by Lauren Miller

Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore — a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.

The book that I got to read and provide a review for is “Free To Fall” by Lauren Miller. Upon receiving this book and reading the summary I thought for sure I would enjoy this novel and I was right. While reading this story some of the content reminded me of The Giver (movie). I felt like I really connected with the main character of the story “Rory”, like her I am very introverted and I have always felt like an outsider in my family; the only difference between “Rory” and I is the age.

One of the things I couldn’t understand was why Ms. Miller put “The Doubt” as the whisper within children and adults instead of naming it “The Conscience” or something similar. To me that is what it is that is inside everyone. Ms. Miller wrote an amazing story! She was able to “draw” me into the book and its characters from the first sentence and she was able to keep my interest until the very last word. I found that although this is a fictitious story I started questioning about if there would ever be an app like that for the world. I also wondered if that would be a good thing or not for the world. I loved how the story was different from a lot of other novels that are out there right now.


I feel like both young men and young women will enjoy this story; I am a little older than my teens, but I really enjoyed “Free To Fall” and I think my daughter will as well. I hope Ms. Miller makes a series out of this story; I think teens and adults alike would enjoy reading more about these characters and the situations they end up in. I give “Free To Fall” an “9” and Lauren Miller an “7.”

 
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  Tiffany