Lauren Miller

From the author of Parallel comes a high-stakes romantic puzzler set in a near-future where everyone's life is seamlessly orchestrated by personal electronic devices. Imaginative and thrilling, this fast-paced story with two starred reviews is not to be missed. Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision-making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is to follow what Lux recommends. When she's accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn't use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux's recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore—a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.

Free to Fall

Rachel Kanyid

4/5 stars
To start with: I loved this book!
I loved the premise of the story, I loved the characters, I loved the plot twists and turns!

In this story, the population of the world is very dependent on their phones/tablets, and an app called "lux" which tells every person what decisions they should make for every situation of life based on what causes the most "net-based good" for everyone around. 

The obsession with this app is in part because there has been identified in the recent past a common 'mental disorder' among humans called APD(Akratic Personality Disorder) which causes those who have it to make bad decisions and act out against their better judgement because of listening to "the doubt" inside of their heads which often tells them to act against what is the correct thing to do.

This book starts with the main character, Rory(Aurora), getting accepted into a prestigious high school that she later finds out her mother(who died during childbirth) went to, and then proceeds shortly right to her attending the school.

This starts off a domino effect of her finding out a lot of different things about her mother and herself that she did not know, some good, some bad, some very very exciting!

As she is at the school, she meets a cute barista, named North, at a local coffee shop, and they hit it off-- quickly falling for one another. 

Around that time, things start to go really weird for her, and she starts realizing that this app, "lux" that everyone depends upon might not actually be the great thing that everyone thinks it is, and so she starts to unravel a really intriguing plot surrounding the app and those who run it, and what it really does. 

This book was fantastic!

There were some slightly cliche moments, I will admit, but I absolutely loved the story that developed around the main characters.

There were plot twists around every corner, but not so many that it got confusing.

For me, the story flow was amazing, and I never once felt like it was dragging or moving way too fast. 

Rory and North were very "real" characters, though they could have been fleshed out a little more, maybe. I would have liked to learn a little more about North's past, but as it was, they still worked as characters.

I think that the whole situation with (view spoiler)[ her 'father' that turns out to not actually be her father was a little contrived. I feel like there should have been more of a betrayal aspect--more emotions flying, because they both seemed way too calm about the whole thing. But that's probably my biggest problem with the book as a whole. (hide spoiler)]

In this book, I especially loved the usage of Paradise Lost along with many quotes from Biblical scriptures! 

I thought that the visible dialogue from 'the Doubt' was a really great addition to this book, and as a Christian, I found myself thinking of it slightly like I would the Holy Spirit, since it never seemed to lead Rory astray. I'm not saying in any way that this is a religious book, or that that was what the author was trying to do, but that I found myself interpreting "the Doubt" as such.

I cannot wait to read more books by Lauren Miller! I really enjoyed her writing style! Very easy to understand, but still somewhat artful!

Julia Lotz

Eine super Mischung aus Dystopie und einer Menge Spannung

Inhalt: Als Rory an der berühmten Eden Academy angenommen wird, geht für sie ein Traum in Erfüllung! Doch kaum hat sie ihr Zimmer in dem Elite-Internat bezogen, kommen ihr Zweifel an der schönen Fassade. Wer schickt ihr mysteriöse Nachrichten und woher weiß der Absender so viel über sie? Ist an den Gerüchten über einen Geheimbund an der Schule etwas dran? Und was hat das mit der App zu tun, die alle benutzen? Als Rory den geheimnisvollen North kennenlernt, fühlt sie sich sofort zu ihm hingezogen. Doch er scheint ihr etwas zu verschweigen ... (Quelle: Verlag)
Meine Meinung: Mit Eden Academy habe ich eigentlich ein Mystery Buch erwartet, welches sich aber ganz schnell als Dystopie herausgestellt hat. Erst war ich ein bisschen enttäuscht, da ich Mitte Mai, als ich das Buch gelesen habe, plötzlich unglaublich große Lust auf eben ein Mystery Buch hatte. Schnell habe ich aber erkannt, dass sich das Dystopie-Thema viel besser in das Buch einfügen kann, als es Mystery je könnte.
Wir befinden uns in einer Zukunft, in der eine Smartphonemarke mit einer ganz besonderen App ein Monopol auf dem Markt hat. Jeder hat ein Gemini. Und jeder hat die App Lux. Lux kennt seinen Benutzer. Er weiß alles über dich. Kennt deine Schwächen, deine Stärken, kennt Vorlieben und Abneigungen. Alle verlassen sich voll und ganz auf Lux. Lux wird immer zu Rate gezogen. Sei es damit es den Kaffe empfiehlt, den man am meisten mögen wird, wenn man gerade in einem bestimmten Café sitzt oder sei es das beste Referatsthema, das man wählen soll, wenn man die bestmöglichste Note haben will. Lux weiß alles und man vertraut der App und nicht dem Bauchgefühl. Dieses Bauchgefühl, das für uns alltäglich ist und über das wir eigentlich sehr froh sind, ist in Rorys Zeit eine Krankheit und jeder fürchtet sich vor einer Diagnose. Doch was bei euch jetzt aber die Alarmglocken klingeln lässt, ist für Rory und ihre Mitmenschen normal. 
Rory ist für mich eine tolle Protagonistin. Sie ist so klug und sympathisch und ich habe mich sofort im ersten Kapitel schon für sie freuen können, als sie auf der Eden Academy, einem College für Begabte, aufgenommen wird. Was mir an Rory so gefällt ist, dass sie erst einmal wirklich angepasst ist und die App und das Gemini ganz toll findet. Ich mag diese Art von Protagonistinnen, die ihr Misstrauen etwas gegenüber erst im Verlauf der Handlung entwickeln. Aber mehr dazu müsst ihr selbst lesen. In Eden angekommen lernt Rory North kennen und obwohl ich mit ihm nie wirklich warm geworden bin, ist er ein toller Typ und vor allen Dingen ist er sehr geheimnisvoll und wirft dem Leser eine Menge Rätsel auf. Neben North gibt es dann auch noch alle anderen Charaktere, die im alltäglichen Wahnsinn eines Teenagers nicht fehlen dürfen, wie der beste Freund, die Schuldiva, die sich als beste Freundin entpuppt und natürlich Lehrer über Lehrer.
An der Eden Academy angekommen wird die Dystopie dann aber doch ein wenig Mystery denn Rory bekommt Nachrichten von einem Geheimbund, der sie aufnehmen will und von dem sie noch nicht so wirklich weiß, ob sie ihm trauen soll und noch dazu ist sie dem Geheimnis ihrer verstorbenen Mutter auf der Spur. Das sind furchtbar viele Handlungsstränge, die parallel laufen und sich hier und da mal überschneiden und besonders zum Ende hin stärker verknüpfen. Das steigert die Spannung natürlich enorm und hat mich dazu bewogen, das Buch schnell durchzulesen. Ich wollte nicht mehr aufhören und meine Augen hafteten förmlich an den Seiten. Dennoch muss ich sagen, dass es mir hin und wieder zu viele Baustellen waren. Mir wäre es lieber gewesen, wenn man sich auf ein Thema stark konzentriert hätte und die anderen eher in den Hintergrund getreten wären.
Das Ende geht zwar plötzlich unglaublich schnell, dafür aber mit einer Menge Spannung bei der man sehr gut mitfiebern konnte. Ich bin auf jeden Fall sehr zufrieden damit, obwohl mir die Auflösung und die gesamte Lösung am Ende viel zu glatt und zu leicht erschienen. 
Was mir an Eden Academy am meisten gefallen hat war wohl das Thema, das die Dystopie behandelt. Während in anderen Dystopien die Menschen augenscheinlich als Opfer behandelt werden, die ungewollt in der Hand einer fiesen Regierung sind, ist es bei Eden Academy ein bisschen anders. Denn dadurch, dass alle Menschen Lux gerne benutzen und so freiwillig Privatsphäre und somit auch Freiheit abgeben, bekommt das Thema einen ganz anderen Geschmack. Und genau das ist es ja, was wir heute machen. Immer mehr geben wir unsere Daten Preis. Und das freiwillig, egal wie sehr wir über Geheimdienste und Angebote, wie Payback etc. beschweren. Somit wurde von Lauren Miller ein sehr ernst zu nehmendes Thema sehr gut umgesetzt und öffnet so sicher vielen jungen Lesern die Augen.
Bewertung: Alles in allem bin ich begeistert von Eden Academy. Die Dystopie behandelt ein auch schon heute sehr wichtiges Thema und öffnet die Augen für wichtige und ernstzunehmende Probleme. Außerdem überzeugt es mit einer gut durchdachten Geschichte mit eingebauten Mystery Themen und erzeugt durch die vielen offenen Fragen eine unglaubliche Spannung. Obwohl das Buch auch mit tollen Charakteren punkten kann, hatte ich, wie ihr oben lesen könnt, auch einige kleine Kritikpunkte. Dafür gibt es ein Füchschen Abzug, weshalb ich Eden Academy 4 von 5 Füchschen gebe.

Steysha

Have you ever had a problem with making a decision? A small one, like what to wear today? Or a big one, like which college to choose? Have you ever thought that it would be a lot easier if someone else was making those decisions for you? 

Well then, this book should be in your to-read list!

The MC lives in the society where all decisions are made by an app. It literally knows everything about you and, therefore, what is better for you. It says what you should drink, which way to go, what you should eat – this app has a full control over your life. 
People are obsessed with their phones, feeling completely helpless without them. Though, the story takes place in the future, our society is very much alike. We don’t have Lux, but we depend on our iPhones. Let me show you one example:


  «He held the camera out for me to see. It was a woman, obviously homeless, her sunken eyes looking straight at the camera. I don’t want your money, her cardboard sign read. Just look at me, so I know I exist. The words and her expression were arresting on their own, but they weren’t what made the photograph so compelling. It was the people in the foreground, the passersby, eyes glued to their phones as they hurried to wherever they were going at lunch hour, completely oblivious to the woman with the sign.»

Sounds familiar, isn’t it?


There are also people, who are labeled as ill, because they hear the Doubt – which is something between an intuition and a God’s blessing. Scientists say that it makes you do stupid and risky things, it leads to no good, and it’s basically an illness. All children have it, this voice in their heads, but they must ignore it and, eventually, it’ll disappear. But there are some people who still hear it and who refuse to use Lux.

Rory is just a normal girl, she lives with her father and stepmother, her mother died when she was born. She dreams about going to Theden – a college for special kids with either a huge brain or a huge bank account. Lucky for Rory, she’s very smart, so Theden accepts her application. She simultaneously finds out, that her mother also was in Theden, but something made her leave it. She also starts to hear the Doubt, but tries not to show it. There is no place for the Doubt in a privileged boarding school. But when it helps her to find out the truth about her academy, she thinks about changing her opinion.

Coming to college, Rory quickly finds friends, or rather they find her. Meet Hershey, one of those typical queen bees with rich family, who ends up being not so typical as it seemed. She and Rory were classmates before, but Hershey never paid much attention to girls like Rory. Now she suddenly claims to be her BFF. That’s suspicious, isn’t it?

Then she meets North (what a name, huh?), supposedly a hot guy with tattoos and some secrets. Honestly, this romance was the only thing with which I wasn’t satisfied in this book. I mean, they were a sweet couple, but I didn’t feel the chemistry between them. 

Theden is a dream of a hi-tech society, having the latest Gnosis gadgets, and walls that project light (seriously, I’m not kidding), with special classes with some sort of simulation cabins for each student. However, there is clearly something going wrong. Soon Rory starts to unravel a tangle of mysteries about her family, about Theden Academy, about Gnosis and Lux and most important, about their society and their right to fall. Will she and her friends succeed in their fight for freedom to fall? You shall find out!


  «I formed them free and free they must remain. I saw the quote from Paradise Lost differently now. With Lux, people were simply choosing not to choose. We had to remind them that they still could.»


This is a very believable story with a scientific explanation to everything, and that’s what I liked the most. I don’t know how Lauren Miller did it, science isn’t my strong side, but I understood what she wrote about. I also just loved the psychological part of this novel, which shows how easily we can be manipulated. 
Rory was a lovable character: she’s very smart and kind, and a perfect example of what can happen if your heart and brain collaborate with each other. 
This book teaches us that every decision, good or bad, makes us who we are. People, who are free to fall. It’s not always easy, but it’s what makes us human, a person. Without it, we are just a bunch of zombies who do what they are said to do. 
So, think with your heart and don’t be afraid to doubt :)

Jacklyn O’Brien 

This was a fast past, YA read, that I found myself unable to put down. I enjoyed that it was a realistic not too distant future. While it turned more unbelievable as the story progressed, it didn't take away from my enjoyment. The ending did leave me wanting more, but didn't stop me from liking the book as a whole.

Chantale

I could not stop reading this. I love this book and I know I will be reading it again. I will be looking for more books by this author .

I highly recommend

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

 Bruna Acioly Leão

This book was very interesting.
A compelling story that sticks with you and makes you question the way we let technology run our lives sometimes. 
There were some parts that I felt were too easily resolved, and the romance was pretty boring (it takes a lot to make me not care about a romance)- but overall it was a very enjoyable read,

Free to Fall

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