Fear of Falling

In Fear of Falling Maddie Hickman is sixteen, and fresh off the worst year of her life, which includes not one but two ex-boyfriends. Maddie swears off love and her once-beloved self-help books, and spends her afterschool hours editing the school paper and banging out weepy poems—until the gray March morning a letter arrives, addressed to her. “Anonymous” is a student at Maddie’s school, and a guy who likes a guy who suddenly hates him. Terrified of being caught by parents, peers, and the boy who now loathes him: a jock with everything to lose if he’s outed to their homophobic high school, Anonymous pleads for Maddie’s help.

The letter forces Maddie to step out of her grief and into the real world, and she soon finds herself imploring the school’s administration to publish an article protesting homophobia. When they refuse, she decides she has to go outside the lines to help Anonymous and other gay students. But even with her friends’ help, how far is she willing to go? Will she and her friends jeopardize their good standing? Their friendships with each other? Their safety.

Fear of Falling
Maddie Hickman is sixteen, and fresh
off the worst year of her life.

Review of Fear of Falling
March 24, 2010
Kate from
http://theravenousreader-kate.blogspot.com

I fell in love with the character of Maddie. She was like an ordinary person that I would want to be friends with. The fact that Maddie was obsessed with helping people with their problems was very familiar to me. I have a tendency to try to fix problems when they occur and I am the person that my friends come to when they need to talk. Her character is the kind of person that many people can relate to.

I thought it was a brave choice to write a book about having a friend who was gay. This is a topic that many people still struggle with accepting. I had never read a book with a gay character in it and I am glad that I have had the chance to. This book has shown me that some teenagers have a fear of exposing their true selves to family and friends. Peter had many obstacles to overcome and Maddie was trying her best to help him and spread the message that people should not be afraid to say that they are gay. Society has not realized the preasure that teens are under to fit in. Peter was like any other teen, except he figured out that he was gay. He struggled with telling his closet friends that he was not who they thought he was.

I enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. This was a new experience for me to read this book. The characters were very relatable and I began to form an understanding with them as I read further. I also liked seeing all the characters grow throughout all three books, but I believe that Maddie did the most growing in this book. She began to understand that she needs to focus on herself in order to move forward in life. Maddie also came to the conclusion that there are sometimes in life when we need to stand by the people we love no matter how much it hurts.