When the World Tips Over is a long await new book from Jandy Nelson! This book follows the Fall siblings and Cassidy, whilst also following a ‘curse’ spanning 5 generations.

There is a lot of magical realism in this book, and we get t to know the siblings individually. Dizzy, Miles and Wynton.

I really liked the fact there was letters throughout the book, which helped the story along, especially as it is a long book.


However, this book fell flat for me and I ended up dnfing at around 30%, I was confused and felt it difficult to keep up with the different characters. I did however really like previous books from Jandy Nelson!

A fun book with family drama, love, and adventure. It keeps your enthralled the entire time with new twists in every chapter.

I know it's cliché to say it, but I really do believe that magical books have a way to find you when you need them most. And gosh, how I needed a Jandy Nelson book when the notification of the approved e-arc arrived. I could never forget it: it was the first Monday after my grandma passed away, the "move on" day after a weekend of mourning. I bet that only Jandy Nelson herself and whoever reads this novel can understand how much that notification, at that very moment, for this specific book, meant to me. At that time I didn't have a clue about what this book would be about: I couldn't care, it would've been an auto-buy anyway since Nelson had already written THE book of my life (I'll Give You The Sun). So imagine my face when I realized that this would've been a family story. And of course, it became so much more than that. For me, it was an healing journey.

That said, I have to admit: I had a little fear of approaching this novel. I was concerned that after waiting years for a new Jandy Nelson book given the impact that IGYTS had on me, I would be disappointed. Fortunately, this wasn't the case. I believe that probably no book in the would could top I'll Give You The Sun, but oh how RELIEVED I was to find that Nelson's pen hadn't changed a bit.

She has a way of writing that is completely hers. I can only try to describe it by telling you that she makes you experience every word, she makes you taste them, and smell them, and feel them. It's not just magical realism, it's not just having a way with metaphors, it's Jandy Nelson's pen, and I could recognize it even if blinded. Her imagery is incomparable, it is unlimited. There are scenes in this book, as there were scenes in IGYTS, that are just printed in my mind, full-color, even if it's just feelings she describes. She does not write: she paints scenes, she is capable of translating feelings into imagery in such a powerful way.

And her characters are ever so vivid. Wynton, Cassidy, Dizzy, Perfect Miles: you become new favorites. I almost couldn't stand Miles at the beginning, but of course he turned out to be the one for me. Of course, she almost makes you hate one character only for making you want to adopt it once you start their pov. It's a pity that I felt that even though they were very distinguishable, sometimes they all sounded the same (I'm referring to the use of "hello?", for example).

There was such powerful symbolism in this book. They way she pictures depression through A DOG? Unmatched. And Cassidy's story helped me navigate through some heavy generational trauma.

It's YA literature at its finest, which also entails the John Green's Paper Towns\Looking For Alaska vibes, what with the mystical girl appeared from nowhere dispensing wise advice. And yes, I have to admit that it felt a bit too old school at times, but it's part of the magic of the book itself. Without Cassidy and her Tumblr quotes on her body, it wouldn't have been the same, and they matched well with the whole aesthetic of the novel.

It's also such a mom-children book. The space that it's given to Bernadette's perspective really makes a difference, and maybe it acquires an even more meaningful role if you're on your way to thirties. It makes this novel more family-centric (and innovative) than children-centric. And if you're an adult, and you've just been a teenager, the mom's parts are gonna hit you hard, because you do understand both sides, and being in the mom's head will make your heart explode.

I also loved that this is a sort of mise-en-Abyme story. There are stories within the story, with fairytale sections, which is something I LOVE. Or maybe it is better to describe it as a metaliterary novel: it tells a story but it also contains many drawers that you open and show you excerpts of life, of other tales.
This book feels like seven by Taylor Swift, which is a lot to say given that it's one of my all-time favorite songs.

Sometimes it felt a bit too didactic (more tell than show), a little too insta-lovey, a little too random or reach. Other times I thought that there was just too much mystery for a single family; there were also times in which I was confused about the family dynamics(...?) or by the use of religion...but all in all, this novel gave me more than I expected. Came for the incredibile writing style, stayed for a touching healing journey and for the celebration of family bonds.

I loved both of Jandy Nelson’s previous YA novels and knew that I’d become thoroughly engrossed by her latest. She has such a rich, distinctive style and it is certainly rife in this new release.

The Fall siblings’ father disappeared years ago and his whereabouts remains a mystery. Wynton is a violin prodigy destined for greatness. Miles is a handsome, straight A student who wants to find his Mr Right. Dizzy can see spirits and dreams of being the star of a romance novel. When a girl with colourful hair enters all of their lives, none of them know who she is but before they can figure it out, disaster strikes and their whole world tips over and collides with the past.

There are so many stories in this book and it was so much to watch them interweave and things slowly start to align. The revelations kept coming and 'In the end, we'll all become stories' seemed to resonate throughout the book. All of the characters are their own stories, just like us.

The intricately illustrated borders on some of the chapters reminded me of a beautiful fairytale compendium. It was such a small touch that somehow changed the whole vibe of the book. There is a Cain and Abel-esque, cursed brothers trope running through the book but due to it being very detached from religion, it felt more like folklore than parable. These glimpses into the Fall family past enhanced the novel’s depth and power and it’s things like this that make Jandy Nelson’s books stand out from other YA contemporary novels.

There are also excerpts from Bernadette’s, the Fall family matriarch, notebook full of letters that she never sent. Some of them are sad and poignant but others are silly, whimsical musings. Nelson could have introduced us to Bernadette via her own regular chapters but it was really lovely and unique to get an insight into her character like this.

Wynton is literally bursting with life and I knew very early on that he was going to burn out. Although it is never explictly said, he has a lot of ADHD traits. I actually expected a much more tragic end for him but he does actually act as the pivot point for the strands coming together. They are all united over Wynton and his brilliance is celebrated despite his numerous mistakes.

Miles has all the makings of a popular, carefree jock but his introversion and struggle with his sexuality make him a much deeper, more easy to relate to character. He takes on the outcast role even within his own family and I think a lot of readers will see themselves in Miles. I also loved his relationship with a neighbourhood dog called Sandro, who only Miles can talk to. I could probably read a whole book about Miles and Sandro on a road trip and thoroughly enjoy it.

Dizzy is a hopeless romantic but she’s also only twelve years old. Everything is so intense for her and I definitely felt like she was being pulled along with the events and revelations of the story. As is often the case with children, she wasn’t playing an active role in the action but she serves as a reminder of wonder, curiosity and magic.

Dizzy is also the gateway between the past and the present due to her gift. She is the bridge between everyone’s stories and perhaps her presence offers an easy way to join everyone together. Her visions shimmer with beauty and love, which makes the stories behind them even sadder but bittersweet that love prevails beyond life.

I think one thing that characterises a Jandy Nelson novel is the rich inner lives of her characters. There is so much emotion and spiritual energy flooding through the pages and we really get to know her characters on a level that is perhaps the deepest possible in fiction.

When The World Tips Over is ultimately about love. All-consuming, crazy, burning, heavy love. That’s what makes the world tip over.

Jandy Nelson has outdone herself again. When the World Tips Over is a beautiful, heartbreaking and yet hopeful book with the most wonderful characters that you will start to love once you get to know them. I can't wait to sell this book to as many people as possible!

the sky is everywhere is one of my fave books so jandy nelson has a place in my heart, this was one that took a while to get into, to immerse myself in this family who have a whole host of problems and fractious relationships, and the impact of an unusual girl

Jandy Nelson, you have been so very dearly missed!!!! What a joy it is to see her come back with an absolute banger.

I tried my best to read the arc but unfortunately I was not able to see it too well. However, I know it will be awesome due to prior books so I will look forward to buying it when it comes out on 24 September.

Thank you to NetGalley, Walker Books and Jandy Nelson for the ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

Thank you to the publisher for the earc!

I loved this book so much! It’s the type of book that captivates you from the start and doesn’t let you go even after finishing it. The writing was absolutely beautiful,and it made me feel what the characters felt. I loved the characters, but I really wish the main focus of the book were the siblings. I feel like the book was a bit longer than necessary, with all the backstories. I know they were important, but they took away time from the plot. And I have to admit, I’m still confused by the family tree. Oh and the ending, I was expecting a different outcome, but it felt a bit rushed.

Overall, while I had a few problems with the book, it wa a beautiful story and would highly recommend it to everyone!

A world where I don't give 5 stars to a Jandy Nelson book is not a world that I want it to live in - and luckily, this was another 5 star read from her! I've been waiting god knows how long to read a new Jandy Nelson book, so best believe when I got the ARC of this I jumped at the chance to read it (like if you had told 12-year-old me that I would get the chance to read a new Jandy Nelson book EARLY?! I'd have literally lost my mind). There is just something so magical and beautiful about her writing. I can already tell, just like with her previous two books, that this is one that I will reread time and time and time again, just to take in the gorgeous sentences she weaves together. This is so heartfelt, so soul-wrenching, so joyful and devastating at the same time.

I fell for each and every character in this book - Dizzy, Miles, Wynton, Cassidy, the mum, the dog, the ancestors, every single person, I adored and wanted to wrap up in a hug. While the pacing is slow, it allows you to devour every single word and feeling that the author evokes, and I flew through it - in fact I wish it had been longer, I truly did not want it to end. I loved discovering the history of the Fall family alongside them, through fairytale-like recounts and flashbacks and betrayals. I cried, I laughed, I breathed this story.

I truly cannot wait for this book to come out and get all the recognition it deserves. Jandy Nelson I am begging you, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not make me wait another 10 years for your next book, I literally need five per year.

"When the world tips over, joy spills out with all the sorrow."

Disclaimer: due to the short turn around between being approved and the archive date I was unable to download this to NG shelf before the cut off. A Kindle version would have been really helpful as I was so looking forward to this.

As I’m sure this book is great (based off my love of Jandy Nelson’s other books) and the appeal of the cover I’ve given a middle of the road rating.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since the last Jandy Nelson book. I absolutely loved her two previous novels, despite probably not being the target demographic. I was thrilled to receive this ARC from NetGalley.
This is a really complex tale of a family curse, of a sort of Cain and Abel variety, where two seemingly completely disparate stories interweave until they come together in a magical ending.
The three Fall siblings have a missing dad, and there is a strange rainbow haired girl with a missing mum. Her name is Cassidy and she plays a vital role for the siblings. Dizzy, the youngest, believes she’s an Angel after Cassidy saves her life, Miles, the middle child, spends a wonderful day with her, where things about his complicated life seem to make sense, and Wynton, the oldest child, wants to marry her.
There is a lot of magical realism in this book. There’s a dog who can communicate with Miles, there are foods and wines to make you fall in love, and a whole lot of synesthesia added in from multiple characters.
I think it’s fair to say that I really loved this book in many ways, but it takes some perseverance- for a long time I just couldn’t grasp what was happening - I even wondered if the town in which the Falls live was real, or some sort of Brigadoon-type fantasy. I was with Dizzy when it came to thinking about Cassidy and I spent too long in a state of confusion. Once I surrendered to the strangeness of everything I found myself loving the whole book. Nelson’s writing has a lovely poetic quality to it and the resolution is perfect.
I hope not to have to wait another 6 years for a book from this fabulous writer.

I ended up loving this book! The start was a little slow, but after about a quarter of the way through I became more invested in the characters. I think it just took time to adjust to multiple POVs, however, I appreciated all of the different perspectives by the end of the book.

The book is set in Northern California wine country and follows the Fall family over multiple generations. The main characters are 12-year-old Dizzy who is struggling with losing her only friend, 17-year-old Miles who is struggling with the perception that everything he does is perfect while in reality everything is unravelling and 19-year-old Wynton who gets kicked out of his mom's house after crashing her car into a statue of the town's founder (and his great-grandfather). Bernadette, their mom is a chef who owns a restaurant and there's a mystery surrounding their Dad who seemed to suddenly disappear twelve years ago. We also meet Cassidy, who is also nineteen and we learn about her tumultuous childhood and how she connects and ends up meeting each member of the Fall family.

I liked reading about how all the characters were connected and how little clues then came into focus and were referenced later on in the story!

Jandy Nelson's 'I'll Give You the Sun' was one of my favourite books for years and I avidly awaited her next novel until one day I thought it would never come. How honoured I was to receive an e-ARC of 'When the World Tips Over', thank you to NetGalley UK and the publisher.
This story, like JN's other books, blends the real world, with real and relatable feelings, with the fantastical, a world that is not quite magic but the characters believe it so, so much that you believe it some too. A world of seeing colours, kissing ghosts and talking dogs, bizarre and wonderful, JN's intricate and awe-filled description makes you want to see the magic in the real world like her characters do.
As a reader, there's a lot to take in. We experience many different perspectives in the story- I liked how varied they were, each fantastical in their own way- there's the story within a story of the Fall family history told in a twisted fairytale format, which ultimately ties other details of the plot together.
Wynton and Cassidy's relationship is revealed to be a little bit icky in a way that wasn't comfortable for me - it's one of those, it's not technically wrong but doesn't feel incredibly right either.
Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed a return to JN's writing and hope to dive into more of her worlds soon!

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free ARC for an honest review!*

----------- WHAT I ENJOYED: ------------
- So, I had super high expectations going into this book as I have absolutely loved everything that I have read from Jandy Nelson in the past. And let me tell you...this book surpassed each and every one of them.

- First and foremost, I have to mention Jandy Nelson's writing style as it continuously blows my mind at how well she crafts her stories. This book felt almost like it was multi-media, being made up of different POV narratives, diary entries, letters, and story fragments. It really gave a depth to this story that spanned generations, and always left me wondering what was going to come next. Her writing is also just simply beautiful - it is lyrical and descriptive in a way that doesn't feel pretentious or "too much". She perfectly captures simple moments of human existence and makes them something extraordinary. You can tell that a lot of love and care was put into this book, and it really pays off.

- This book felt very whimsical, and you could never truly be sure of what was going on. The magical realism contrasted the difficult, very human elements of the story, giving it a quality that was almost like a fever dream. It made the narrative unreliable in a way that always kept you guessing about what elements were embellished by the narrators, giving the reader an insight into how each character used fantasy to handle their individual trauma and insecurities. I can understand how a reader might get confused by the way this story is told, and might be put off by this, but I found it to be ridiculously clever and I was left just feeling fully "wowed" by this book.

- Another thing that made this book special was the characters. I loved all of them. The Fall siblings and Cassidy are all quirky and a bit weird, but so special. They each see the world in such a breathtaking way, and it just felt special being able to see the world through their eyes. I think that the magical realism elements of this book help to off-set the quirkiness, so that it didn't feel too overbearing. I could understand how the almost stylised nature of their characterisation might not be for every reader, but it certainly worked for me.

- I also thought that the way Jandy Nelson used these characters to explore different facets of mental health, and just general insecurities, was fantastic. Mental health conditions were never named and were given a magical quality, such as "going to The Silent World". I felt like this made exploring these conditions more accessible for younger readers, without overlooking the severity of them. As well as this, all of the Fall siblings had their own general insecurities: whether that be feeling weird, feeling ugly, feeling unworthy, feeling abandoned, feeling lonely, or feeling distant from their family. Between them, they covered a wide range of negative thoughts that a teenager struggling could have, and I think that seeing characters experiencing these thoughts could be very validating for readers feeling the same things.

- However, the thing I loved about this book the most was that it was a story all about family. We get to see different relationship dynamics that can exist within a single family, but we also see other families with different lifestyles and experiences, such as Cassidy and her Mum. It highlighted how difficult relationships and families can be sometimes, and that not all families are picture perfect. I think it is a very accessible way of exploring the conflicting feelings someone can feel towards their family, and held a very important message that it is okay to have these feelings.

- I especially loved the way that the author shaped the dynamic between the Fall siblings. On the one hand, we see their distinct personalities and experiences which have shaped them into who they are, and the individual struggles that they each have to face. These differences even cause tension and distance between them, mainly because they don't truly know or understand each other, despite being siblings. But then we also see the moments of a shared connection, which seem small and insignificant to them (like all unknowingly reading the same romance book), but highlights how they have grown up together and have a connection that is soul-deep. I thought the way Jandy Nelson approached this was very nuanced and subtle, but created a depth to these characters that just made me love them so deeply.

--------- OVERALL THOUGHTS: ---------
I could just keep going on about this book honestly because, as you can probably tell, I absolutely adored it. I loved how this was essentially a deep-dive into such a magical family, and how I was just swept along by their story. As I mentioned, I can see how this might not hit the same for every reader, but this was a perfect read for me. I 100% recommend you give this book a shot if you are even a little bit intrigued by the synopsis!

The story took me a while to get into, and while some of the character dynamics didn't fully click with me, I found some joy in this book and really liked the author's writing!

Amazing! Another heartbreaking and heartwarming novel from the author who wrote my favourite book: I'll give you the sun. Its a modern YA family saga, brimming with magical realism, reminiscent of One Hundred Years of Solitud. Absolutely unique, and a must read for anyone looking for something to lift their spirits.

It’s been a long time since i sobbed at the end of a book, not because it was sad, but because i was sad it was over.

This books is beautiful, magical. Warm and wise and funny and charming. I loved all the characters, the setting, the writing style.

I wish I could read it again for the first time.

I would have loved to have been able to read this book but due to poor eye sight and the lack of features on the Netgalley app, I was unable to comfortably read this book. It’s sad I’ll have to wait until the release of the book physically to enjoy the story.

I’ll give it five stars regardless as it’s Jandy Nelson and she’s one of my favourite authors.

The way jandy Nelson writes is truly like nothing else. This book played out like a move in my head. The metaphors and smilies are so incredibly beautiful. The messy characters & uniqueness!

I’ll give you the sun is one of my top 3 books of all time so I did probably have high expectations going into this.

Although I loved parts of this, overall it did feel too long, slow paced & slightly messy for me.

3.5 ⭐️

(I do think not being able to read it on my kindle may have effected my enjoyment)


Felt soo happy to get an e-arc from a fave author! Biggest thank you to NetGalley & Walker Books 💛