My issue with the book is that I think it had too many sensitivity readers. I mean, if the author is really a racist transphobe than they should have doubled down on that and written a novel with their whole heart in it. I'm sure it would have been terrible for being a racist transphobic rant, but it probably would have been more interesting to read. BTW, I don't think the author is a racist transphobe. Reading the book, I got the impression that the author was one of those people that tried to think through everything in eight different ways without even questioning why they were trying to think through everything so much or question the ways they were thinking/were being told to think. Books are about feelings. Including the feelings of racist people. Yeah, a white woman, who goes by the name of Jack, who murdered her father for repeatedly raping her sister when she was a child, whose job is to act as muscle for a monster mob, falsely accuses a Black man of murder, only feels bad about it when she's caught doing it, and gets away with it. This happens in "real" life all the time. Well, a white woman falsely accusing a black man, feeling no guilt about it, and getting away with it does. Why shouldn't a book portray this reality? It certainly isn't held up as a "noble act." Yeah, Jack is the "hero" and she does get to have feelings, along with the monster, the maiden, and the king, and the witch, and random minor characters, but they are all reactive. She is a character devoid of thought about her own actions. She's a cop. Then there's this whole set of accomplice characters who do things and have things happen to them, like Jack's sister, who aren't portrayed as having feelings at all. And the weirdness about who has feelings and who thinks about/reacts to their feelings or has an emotional story outside of the fairytale story they're trapped in is just so uneven and, well, thoughtless, that I found it difficult to care about any of the characters.

Writer can write, though; real technical prowess in switching gender pronouns without causing confusion about which character is being referred to.

TLDR review: Writing is didactic but lesson is lost in performance of confused virtue signaling. ( )

We All Fall Down held my interest despite its flaws. This book demonstrates imagination, originality, creativity, and talented writing. It is not a classic high fantasy as one might assume from looking at the cover. It is a mash up of urban fantasy and fairy-tale. The plot was convoluted; it meandered, stalled and then exploded in a rapid denouement which occurred in the last twenty pages. The magic system and prophecy were not explained well.
The author attempted to take on the topic of police violence against Black people, but didn't handle it sensitively, or in a way that was relevant to the plot. In the story a white woman, Jack, falsely accuses a Black man of a murder, resulting in the man being mistreated by the police. Jack does not face consequences for her behavior and seems to shrug it off. LBGTQ+ readers have identified harmful themes such as misgendering. Other reviewers address these issues in far more depth and with far more eloquence. This book is a case for the employment of sensitivity readers during the editorial process. It was promoted as a YA novel but is really New Adult since most of the main characters seem to be in their twenties. Overall, We All Fall Down had an interesting premise, but faced problems with pacing, plot and the insensitive handling of racial issues. ( )

Weird one.
Starts out decent but then it becomes part confusing, part annoying, part boring, part interesting.
My biggest beef is that the history of why everything came to is not explained, if there are hints on why, they are so badly placed that they are not obvious, but without knowing why the people thought magic needs to be destroyed, the whole story becomes, meh. Why should I root for the heroes when I do not know why?
The book also suffers from the age old too many main character problems who can't be developed in an even pace.
I still would like to know the back story of the city, but I don't think I will get to it immediately once the second book is released, I just don't feel very invested in the characters. ( )

In the eccentric River City, anything and everything could happen, and this is where Rose Szabo adeptly incorporates their exotic imagination and creativity into this dark fantasy world of WE ALL FALL DOWN.
With the hidden force of destiny, four young queer people, each possesses some unique talent and potential, are brought together to the River City to restore the magic power that’s been fading over the years and re-establish the law and order of River City.
Are they able to conquer the unforeseen and unpredictable challenges and obstacles along the path and achieve their goals? The readers will only find out in the sequel of The River City Duology!
Loved the eye-catching graphic of the book cover that illustrates the fantastic four who are going to save the River City!
I would like to thank BookishFirst and Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan Publishing for this dazzling ARC. ( )

Dnf'ed
When I read the summary and saw the book cover I was so excited. I couldn't wait to read and enjoy that promising read that the book looked to give. The reason for why I dnf'ed the book was becuase there were negative issues of which affected the BIPOC community excruciatingly bad, those details being; racism, homophobia, police brutality, white fragility, discrediting the black characters in the book, ect.

The writing style was easy to follow, but the context of the book had made me easily stop in my tracks. The characters could have easily been written well and without all the problematic and oppressive issues.

The cover art is gorgeous and I loved the diversity of it, but alas, I'll can't be ignorant and my reasons up above, stay firm as to reasons of my strong; dissatisfaction, disappointment, disapproval, of this book. I do not recommend.

For more details, you can go to goodreads and read the BIPOC reviews that were left on there, because they were the ones who were the most negatively affected by how this book was written. ( )