All Fall Down - Book Review

All Fall Down - Jennifer Weiner D+
Motherhood Interrupted

Published June 2014

Of the five Jennifer Weiner books I've read, All Fall Down has the most ambition and unfortunately is the most disappointing. I've never been the target audience for Weiner's novels, but I usually find something in her stories that speaks to me. In All Fall Down Allison Weiss is feeling the weight of the world- her marriage is flailing, her kid is annoying, her father has Alzheimer's, and the general stresses of being a middle-aged working mother and wife are piling up. She develops a dependency for prescription pain pills (initially prescribed for a legitimate back injury). The pills, and lots of them, become the only thing that alleviates her physical and mental pain. The pills get her through the hectic days and helps her cope (or not cope) with a deteriorating home life.

In real world, scenarios like these happen all the time... I get it. But here it feels like our protagonist spends the majority of the book whining that she doesn't have a problem. I understand her behavior was that of an addict in denial; yet, I still didn't care. Allison isn't an unlikeable character, but she's not particularly interesting or original. All Fall Down feels like a Lifetime Movie waiting to happen (not that there's anything wrong with that).

For more on All For Down, check out this video courtesy of HLN via youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzjjgOrNFlk