ARC Review: Where It All Lands by Jennie Wexler

Title: Where It All Lands

Author: Jennie Wexler

Publisher: Wednesday Books
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Hardcover, 352 Pages
Publication Date: July 6th, 2021

Summary: Stevie Rosenstein has never made a true friend. Never fallen in love. Moved from city to city by her father’s unrelenting job, it’s too hard to care for someone. Trust in anything. The pain of leaving always hurts too much. But she’ll soon learn to trust, to love. Twice. Drew and Shane have been best friends through everything. The painful death of Shane's dad. The bitter separation of Drew's parents. Through sleepaway camps and family heartache, basketball games and immeasurable loss, they've always been there for each other. When Stevie meets Drew and Shane, life should go on as normal. But a simple coin toss alters the course of their year in profound and unexpected ways.

I received an ARC of WHERE IT ALL LANDS in exchange for an honest review, and I'm really glad that I did because I ended up really enjoying this story! This was actually one of our most anticipated 2021 debuts of the year, and I'm excited to report back that it didn't disappoint. So without further ado, let's get into my review:

As the summary explains, Drew and Shane are best friends that meet Stevie, the new girl at school, and she has them both smitten. But since both of them want to ask her out, and neither of them want to turn it into a competition where they resent one another, they decide to flip a coin -- heads, Drew gets to ask out Stevie, and tails, Shane gets to. From that moment forward, the story is broken into two timelines -- one being what would happen if the coin landed on heads, and one if the coin landed on tails. And without spoiling anything for you, all I'll say is that you'd be surprised what events would and wouldn't stay the same, depending on which course fate chooses to take.

To start, I really loved the premise of this book. Being able to see how every little choice can have a butterfly effect into something else -- and also the ways that some parts of fate will work out regardless of what you do -- was really fascinating. I liked the fact that you got to see most of the heads timeline first, and most of the tails second, instead of weaving them together the entire times, which is where things could really get confusing. Instead, you got to see how Drew would use his chance, and how Shane would, and the bonuses and consequences of both actions. And it's safe to say that some of them really surprised me! I absolutely loved that type of premise in the story, and I thought it was so creative and fresh, which made it such a delight to read.

I also really enjoyed Shane's character, definitely the most. He was sweet and kind and funny, and the way that he was there for Stevie in both timelines -- even in totally different ways sometimes -- had me cheering him on. Of the two of them, I definitely am Team Sean over Team Drew (although he was a pretty great guy as well, just not my favorite). Shane's humor, wit, and kind heart had me smitten from the very beginning, and I found myself smiling every time he was on the page.

One thing that I wasn't super keen on was the fact that once we switched from heads to tails, a few of the same moments ended up being re-explained. While I know that they happened in different ways based on the choices there made differently, there were still some moments that I found myself skimming a little bit because I already knew some of that information already from the previous timeline together. In some of those instances, a recap wasn't really that necessary and felt a bit repetitive, although I guess some of that is bound to happen when both timelines are explaining the exact same chunk of time, so some stuff is going to repeat. But having it skimmed over may have made it feel less repetitive in that way! (But of course, that's just my own opinion on the matter).

(MAJOR spoilers in this paragraph, so skip to the next one to avoid them!) I have so many different things that I want to say about that ending! The first is that Shane dying absolutely gutted my heart and I was really expecting it to happen in the second timeline, too -- which I'm incredibly glad that it didn't. I really loved the way that no matter which timeline you look at, Shane and Stevie were destined to be together, even in different ways. But the Heads timeline...damn, that one really gutted me in the end, especially the part with Stevie's dream. But above all, what I love is the fact that the book then flashes back to the scene with the penny, but it d doesn't tell you which side it actually lands on: so you never really know if Shane lives or dies, and what ends up happening. While that would normally be the type of suspense that sends me into an angry tailspin swearing off a book forever, being able to really see how both timelines played out still made me feel like I had that sense of closure (good or bad, depending on which path), no matter what side the coin would've landed on in the first place. Which just truly made it such brilliant, brilliant writing. I'll hopefully be analyzing this book in one of my future MFA courses, that's for sure! Because from a craft perspective, that was wonderful.

Overall, I really loved WHERE IT ALL LANDS and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fresh, enthralling new read. Jennie Wexler takes a super interesting premise and twists it into a captivating story that will keep you reading until the very end, to find out just what happens when two best friends flip a coin, and the different fates that each side can offer them. I'll definitely be reading more of Jennie's books in the future, and I'm really glad that she's going to be our #YADebutChat author this month, so we can talk to her more about the book!