ARC Review of Free To Fall by Lauren Miller

Goodreads Summary:
What if there was an app that told you what song to listen to, what coffee to order, who to date, even what to do with your life—an app that could ensure your complete and utter happiness? What if you never had to fail or make a wrong choice?

What if you never had to fall?


Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision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.

My Review:
When you look around what do you see? You see people on their smart phones. Everywhere. I admit, I am definitely one of those people. If I forget my phone at home I go crazy all day until I have it back. So the concept of Free To Fall is basically a glimpse into our future. A future where an app is available to make decisions for you. Who wouldn't want that?! It would make life so much easier! Lux is just that app. Rory has been living life with Lux for quite some time. She knows that it wouldn't send her down the wrong path. Everything seems to be going great for Rory, she even got accepted into her dream school. The same one her Mom attended. Her Mom died after Rory was born so going to the same school means a lot to her. 

She hasn't heard The Doubt for sometime. The Doubt is basically your inner self, the part of you that helps you make decisions. It can be very irrational and cause you to do things that may end badly or painfully. That is why Lux is so popular. When you can simply ask it what to eat, who to date, and where to go why would you need that inner voice? After Rory get's to school things start to change. Things are not as they appear on the outside. Will she be able to unravel the secrets? Is everyone in more danger then they know? 

While Rory is at school, some of the classes involve simulations. These simulations are interesting. You have to choose who to save in the event of a major accident. Who is more worth while to save? Who is given a higher value of life? It is an extremely interesting concept. I loved all the technology in this. The simulators, pods, and handhelds. It is honestly where we are headed as a society. Her roommate Hersey is a high maintenance kind of girl. Glued to her handheld and constantly update stuff. They are unlikely friends in all this. They do get along though and Rory needs a friend in all this. 

Rory meets a guy at a coffee shop named North. He has a mohawk and tattoos. Not the kind of guy Rory should be with. But, she is drawn to him. He doesn't really use a handheld and has a thing for really old laptops. He is in a bad that makes awesome music. She starts to get to know him and really likes him. Turns out he is a good guy. These two get into some pretty serious stuff. Things that will change how the whole world works. As long as they have each other they can handle anything, right? 

It turns out that Rory's in the middle of  a much bigger problem then which boy to like. She has been lied to her whole life and all the clues lead back to a secret society at school and the company that has created Lux. Not only is Rory in for a wild ride but, she has some decisions to make. Who can she trust? What actually happened to her Mom? Is Lux really what is best for people or is it the most dangerous app ever created?

About the Author

Courtesy of her blog. Links below 

I grew up in Atlanta.  I went to college at Yale and law school at Berkeley, then I got married and moved to Southern California to practice law.

I liked it.  But after about a year, I got the itch to be doing something more creative.  The itch got stronger.  I found myself typing out random bits of dialogue on my Blackberry (remember those?) and pitching story ideas to my co-workers.  One of those ideas became a script for a TV pilot.  When it didn’t sell, I wrote another one and another one.  Soon, I was ducking out of work to go to pitch meetings at studios and networks.  It felt like I was getting somewhere.  

Then I got pregnant. Unexpectedly.  This freaked me out.  Not because I didn’t want kids (I did), but because I was afraid (ok, convinced) that motherhood would zap my creative potential.

To prove myself wrong, I resolved to write a novel in the first 100 days of my child’s life and blog about it, an experiment I called “embracing the detour” (if you’re looking for an embrace the detour fridge magnet, I’m your girl.  If you’re looking for old embrace the detour blog posts, click HERE).  At the time, it seemed like a brilliant idea.  Looking back, it makes me laugh at the childless version of me.

Then again, she’s the reason the current version of me ended up with a two-book deal at HarperTeen.  And my very first script sale (but that’s a whole other story).

Thanks to to Kristyn Keene at ICM and Sarah Landis at HarperTeen, my debut novel, Parallel, hit bookstores on May 14th.  My second novel, Free to Fall, will be out next Spring.

Links

Blog | Twitter | Goodreads Page