When the World Tips Over is a multilayered, multigenerational family saga, a sumptuous example of fabulism, and Jandy Nelson's first delicious YA novel since her Printz Award-winning I'll Give You the Sun.
Dizzy, 12, Miles, 17, and Wynton, 19, live with their mother in the idyllic Northern California vineyard town of Paradise Springs. The three children, as Dizzy narrates, were "all named after our missing father's favorite jazz trumpeters, only they're all men and Black and we're white and I'm a girl." Despite their shared roots, "this sibling thing between them [isn't] working out" and Dizzy and Wynton clash constantly with Miles. The dynamic is not surprising, though, given the "Cain and Abel curse" that has been on the Fall family since their great grandfather, Alonso's, time. Then a mysterious rainbow-haired stranger and potential angel/Energy Being/Divine Messenger shows up, and she may just be the catalyst for reversing the curse.
When the World Tips Over is steeped in the mysteries and missteps of the human condition, particularly those in familial relationships. Missing parents, flawed mothers, and always-battling brothers populate the 500-plus captivating pages. Nelson includes a definition for the word "fantasia" at the start, preparing the reader for this "work in which fancy roves unrestricted." Surreal storytelling by various characters includes kissing ghosts, people who float when they're happy, and boys who communicate telepathically with dogs. Nelson's narrative is told from multiple points of view and includes unsent letters, notes, novel excerpts, newspaper articles, family trees, texts, and phone transcripts. When the World Tips Over meanders wildly but purposefully to its complicated, satisfying conclusion. Luscious, start to finish. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor