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The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego
The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego chronicles a young girl's downward spiral until she is caught in the throes of an existence she can no longer physically nor mentally tolerate.
Devon believed she had found her soul mate in Wil at the tender age of fifteen, but instead of weaving a beautiful love story, she and Wil spun a web of lies, abuse, and manipulation. After the tides of violence turned with such force that her alter ego emerged as her only guardian, Devon's downward spiral hurtled her towards a dangerous decision she now has only one day to change before someone's life ends.
Inspired by a true story, The Fall is a cautionary tale that explores dependencies, disorders, and domestic abuse from the vantage point of a young girl who at times must separate from herself entirely in order to endure. Devon wanders from the deep South to the bright lights of Hollywood as she navigates her personal capacity – and desire – to survive a life that has become imminently threatened by her own bad decisions.
While the novel is dark and salacious at times, it is at its core a story of strength that can be a powerful and positive message to any young woman whose chosen path makes it difficult or painful to broach the question: "Who am I?
Devon believed she had found her soul mate in Wil at the tender age of fifteen, but instead of weaving a beautiful love story, she and Wil spun a web of lies, abuse, and manipulation. After the tides of violence turned with such force that her alter ego emerged as her only guardian, Devon's downward spiral hurtled her towards a dangerous decision she now has only one day to change before someone's life ends.
Inspired by a true story, The Fall is a cautionary tale that explores dependencies, disorders, and domestic abuse from the vantage point of a young girl who at times must separate from herself entirely in order to endure. Devon wanders from the deep South to the bright lights of Hollywood as she navigates her personal capacity – and desire – to survive a life that has become imminently threatened by her own bad decisions.
While the novel is dark and salacious at times, it is at its core a story of strength that can be a powerful and positive message to any young woman whose chosen path makes it difficult or painful to broach the question: "Who am I?
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 22, 2013
Wow. What a book, like a punch to my innocent face! Definitely a book for adults who can handle mature content. Seriously through if you pick up this book, plan on finishing it! There is nothing like the full effect. I feel like I’ve grown in knowledge and my eyes have been opened to a dark world I didn’t know existed. This was also one of those books I wanted to quote constantly!
I found that The Fall had some very creative aspects. One of my favorites was the naming of the characters. Dimples, Jazz, Sweetheart, Swagger (he was nice), Big Mama, Sexpot (not a fan), Cowgirl and the list goes on. I felt like the naming was a testament to how “important” the people in our life are. These Characters changed Devon’s life but they weren’t important enough to have a real name or remember fully. This really added to Devon’s experience and her lack of memory. I found it also made the book that much better because instead of making it a chore for the reader to remember names that don’t actually matter, it made it fun and different. Each nick name also gave insight. It really helped capture the youth of Devon as you looked at her past.
I also really liked the way Elle described things. For instance describing her mother as having a “parasite” was very clever.
Mostly I’m glad that Elle shows how weed is a gateway drug. Really she shows the whole process to a teen changing in an unhealthy way due to small stepping stones.
While talking about drugs she described them as “a coat of wax that makes the fall seem thrilling from the outside but only serve to speed the descent into a place too numb to house much emotion...”
A few other lines I enjoyed. “There will never be a drop of sympathy dripping from that faucet.”
Also... what a sandwich “fried-chicken-melted-cheese-grape-jelly sandwich.” Is that for real?
Overall as a whole I think this book is really great as an insight to parents or a crutch for people who have gone through something similar, or maybe just an eye opener for a very innocent mind.
I found that The Fall had some very creative aspects. One of my favorites was the naming of the characters. Dimples, Jazz, Sweetheart, Swagger (he was nice), Big Mama, Sexpot (not a fan), Cowgirl and the list goes on. I felt like the naming was a testament to how “important” the people in our life are. These Characters changed Devon’s life but they weren’t important enough to have a real name or remember fully. This really added to Devon’s experience and her lack of memory. I found it also made the book that much better because instead of making it a chore for the reader to remember names that don’t actually matter, it made it fun and different. Each nick name also gave insight. It really helped capture the youth of Devon as you looked at her past.
I also really liked the way Elle described things. For instance describing her mother as having a “parasite” was very clever.
Mostly I’m glad that Elle shows how weed is a gateway drug. Really she shows the whole process to a teen changing in an unhealthy way due to small stepping stones.
While talking about drugs she described them as “a coat of wax that makes the fall seem thrilling from the outside but only serve to speed the descent into a place too numb to house much emotion...”
A few other lines I enjoyed. “There will never be a drop of sympathy dripping from that faucet.”
Also... what a sandwich “fried-chicken-melted-cheese-grape-jelly sandwich.” Is that for real?
Overall as a whole I think this book is really great as an insight to parents or a crutch for people who have gone through something similar, or maybe just an eye opener for a very innocent mind.
April 23, 2015
Have you ever started reading a book so dark and seedy you wished you hadn’t started, but by the end of the first page you were so invested in the story you couldn’t stop?
That was my experience with The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I sat down to read this ARC, but it wasn’t what I got. It was better. The author, simply known as Elle, expertly weaves a tale of personal destruction — both physical and emotional — and ultimate salvation. This story will rip and claw its way into your heart and mind, even though you don’t want it to. There is so much heartache, so much abuse, so many drugs. I wanted to hide and turn away from the reality of young Devon’s life, but I couldn’t. I had to find out if she was going to be okay. I had to find out if she was going to live. Her journey shocked and surprised me. It made me angry and made me weep. More importantly, in the end, it made me hope.
What did I love about this novel?
Everything, from Devon’s voice, to Elle’s style of writing, to the plot line itself. Devon and her entourage leapt off the pages. I heard them, saw them. I could smell their sweat and fear and taste the alcohol and drugs. Never once in this spiraling, out-of-control story did I ever feel I was reading a book. Not since The Fault in Our Stars have I read such a well-woven tapestry of words!
The plot line was well thought out and executed. The pacing was spot on. I was a hundred pages in before I knew it. I couldn’t put it down. Despite the novel’s depravity, the writing was so brilliantly executed, so smart, I was compelled to read on.
What didn’t I like?
The subject matter was depressing, sad. I kept looking for the joke, the laughter, the uplift, but it never came, at least not in hefty doses. The language was rough, and I was forced to remove the blinders and see a hidden truth that plagues too many young people in our society today. It also made me face some of my own age-old demons that swarmed unexpectedly out of what I thought was a well-barricaded, forgotten closet.
As I pondered my review, I wanted desperately to give this book 4 stars. After all, there is no such thing as a perfect novel, but The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego deserves nothing less than a solid 5 stars. The writing is that good. I am honored Elle provide me with an ARC to read before the official release on June 30, and I will most definitely keep my eyes open for any other books written by this author.
In closing, I urge you to head over to Goodreads and add The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego to your TBR list. Then scoot over to Elle’s website to see what she’s up to. There you can learn about a wonderful program in California called “Break the Cycle”. It's an agency that provides comprehensive dating abuse prevention programs exclusively to young people.
Elle, thank you for writing such a provocative story. I bow to your awesomeness.
That was my experience with The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I sat down to read this ARC, but it wasn’t what I got. It was better. The author, simply known as Elle, expertly weaves a tale of personal destruction — both physical and emotional — and ultimate salvation. This story will rip and claw its way into your heart and mind, even though you don’t want it to. There is so much heartache, so much abuse, so many drugs. I wanted to hide and turn away from the reality of young Devon’s life, but I couldn’t. I had to find out if she was going to be okay. I had to find out if she was going to live. Her journey shocked and surprised me. It made me angry and made me weep. More importantly, in the end, it made me hope.
What did I love about this novel?
Everything, from Devon’s voice, to Elle’s style of writing, to the plot line itself. Devon and her entourage leapt off the pages. I heard them, saw them. I could smell their sweat and fear and taste the alcohol and drugs. Never once in this spiraling, out-of-control story did I ever feel I was reading a book. Not since The Fault in Our Stars have I read such a well-woven tapestry of words!
The plot line was well thought out and executed. The pacing was spot on. I was a hundred pages in before I knew it. I couldn’t put it down. Despite the novel’s depravity, the writing was so brilliantly executed, so smart, I was compelled to read on.
What didn’t I like?
The subject matter was depressing, sad. I kept looking for the joke, the laughter, the uplift, but it never came, at least not in hefty doses. The language was rough, and I was forced to remove the blinders and see a hidden truth that plagues too many young people in our society today. It also made me face some of my own age-old demons that swarmed unexpectedly out of what I thought was a well-barricaded, forgotten closet.
As I pondered my review, I wanted desperately to give this book 4 stars. After all, there is no such thing as a perfect novel, but The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego deserves nothing less than a solid 5 stars. The writing is that good. I am honored Elle provide me with an ARC to read before the official release on June 30, and I will most definitely keep my eyes open for any other books written by this author.
In closing, I urge you to head over to Goodreads and add The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego to your TBR list. Then scoot over to Elle’s website to see what she’s up to. There you can learn about a wonderful program in California called “Break the Cycle”. It's an agency that provides comprehensive dating abuse prevention programs exclusively to young people.
Elle, thank you for writing such a provocative story. I bow to your awesomeness.
April 21, 2013
This is not my normal read: Not my genre, not my generation, not my clique, yet I was unexpectedly enthralled by the real-life experience of this brilliant young woman's chain-reaction response to "stimulus lost".
My greatest fear? Inescapable boredom. Sherlock Holmes had his escape mechanism, and Elle's was not so different. But in The Fall, the antiheroine's escapades become an always careening, sometimes sordid, downward spiral toward self-destruction propelled by rational self-doubt and misplaced self-loathing, that ultimately at least avoids tragedy.
The writing is smart. I wanted to [read: needed to and did] look up a lot of cultural references (lyrics, artists), because some of Elle's world is alien to me, and there is a deep poetic tapestry she has woven. Teens through thirty somethings won't have that problem, especially if they're cool, but even ignoring the adornments, the truth in her experience grips.
A wild-child cautionary tale? Definitely. But for me, wearing the parental hat, it was more valuable as an explanatory tale: Why do such things happen? Why Amy Winehouse? Why Kurt Cobain? It's not just a poverty issue, not just a celebrity issue. This could happen to anyone's kids. Elle is a uniquely qualified talent who happens to have been there and made it back, and now lays herself bare to explain the experience. Appreciate this.
April 14, 2013
Are you in the mood for something different than what you would normally venture into and read ? The Fall : An Autobiography of an Alter-Ego tells the story of Devon in two parts , the first part which is at the beginning of each chapter is a diary sequence and the second is the story part giving us a more detailed insight into the story of her life. The Fall too me reminded me of a part Alice the wonderland type story and the author Elle has made references to the Lewis Carroll story and the book Go Ask Alice by Anon which was the autobiographical fictional diary by a fifteen year old girl Alice in the last year of her life -the year she discovered the drug "E". In The Fall , the story starts out innocent with Devon meeting an handsome guy named Will. Though Will has a dark side, he is into his drugs which soon Devon starts to participate in and then of course lands a downward spiral of Devon's life as she gets deeper and deeper involved with the drugs scene and soon it becomes all she knows. At the same time though as we read later on in the novel we discover and read along as Devon goes through physical abuse, emotional abuse and eventually the act of self-harm when she develops a severe eating disorder.
Can Devon find her way out of the rabbit hole and return to a life she once had before she even knew what "drugs" were just like Alice from Wonderland ?
Or will Devon become another statistic , another casualty to the world of drugs, eating disorders and bad choices ?
The Fall : is an interesting read and one that really opens your eyes to how easy it is to succumb to peer pressure.
Can Devon find her way out of the rabbit hole and return to a life she once had before she even knew what "drugs" were just like Alice from Wonderland ?
Or will Devon become another statistic , another casualty to the world of drugs, eating disorders and bad choices ?
The Fall : is an interesting read and one that really opens your eyes to how easy it is to succumb to peer pressure.
December 10, 2013
The fictional autobiography of a junkie in an abusive relationship.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews