Falling into Place

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Authors: Zhang,Amy

BOOK: Falling into Place
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Advance Reader's e-proof

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HarperCollins Publishers

This is an advance reader's e-proof made from digital files of the uncorrected proofs. Readers are reminded that changes may be made prior to publication, including to the type, design, layout, or content, that are not reflected in this e-proof, and that this e-pub may not reflect the final edition. Any material to be quoted or excerpted in a review should be checked against the final published edition. Dates, prices, and manufacturing details are subject to change or cancellation without notice.

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Contents

Cover

Disclaimer

Title

Laws of Motion

Chapter One: Laws of Motion

Chapter Two: How to Save a Corpse

Chapter Three: The News

Chapter Four: Stay Alive

Chapter Five: Five Months Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Six: If She's Determined

Chapter Seven: Pop Quiz

Chapter Eight: Not Yet

Chapter Nine: Voicemail

Chapter Ten: Popularity: An Analysis

Chapter Eleven: The Junior Class

Chapter Twelve: Three Weeks Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Thirteen: Midnight

Chapter Fourteen: Fifty-Eight Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Fifteen: One Day After Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Sixteen: Empty Seat

Chapter Seventeen: Before

Chapter Eighteen: Ziplock Bags

Chapter Nineteen: The Brown Couch, New Year's Day

Chapter Twenty: Fifty-Five Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Twenty-One: Fifty Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Twenty-Two: Nevers and Forevers

Chapter Twenty-Three: Plans, New Years' Day

Chapter Twenty-Four: Seven Days Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Twenty-Five: Driving Habits

Chapter Twenty-Six: Forty-Nine Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Twenty-Three Missed Calls Later

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The On-Again Off Again

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Scavenger

Chapter Thirty: After the Surgery

Chapter Thirty-One: The Art of Being Alive

Chapter Thirty-Two: Six Days Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Thirty-Three: Worlds Fall Apart

Chapter Thirty-Four: Forty-Four Minutes before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Thirty-Five: Five Days Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Thirty-Six: “Meridian Teen Injured in Car Crash”

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Four Days Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Forty-One Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Thoughts on the Road

Chapter Forty: This is What Liz Emerson's Car Did

Chapter Forty-One: Gravity

Chapter Forty-Two: Thirty-Eight Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashe d her Car

Chapter Forty-Three: Glances

Chapter Forty-Four: Thirty-Five Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Forty-Five: Falling

Chapter Forty-Six: The Ruining of Liam Oliver

Chapter Forty-Seven: The Effects

Chapter Forty-Eight: Thirty-Three Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Forty-Nine: Twenty-Nine Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Fifty: What Liz Didn't Know

Chapter Fifty-One: Three Days Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Fifty-Two: Hopes and Fears

Chapter Fifty-Three: Tact, Or Lack Thereof

Chapter Fifty-Four: Twenty-Four Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Fifty-Five: What Liz Also Didn't Know

Chapter Fifty-Six: The First Visitor

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Last Day of Liz Emerson's Childhood

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Hickeys and Black Eyes

Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Second Visitor

Chapter Sixty: Two Days Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Sixty-One: World of Idiots

Chapter Sixty-Two: The Third Visitor

Chapter Sixty-Three: The Maternity Ward

Chapter Sixty-Four: Fourteen Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Sixty-Five: All These Impossible Things

Chapter Sixty-Six: Thirteen Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Abortion Clinic

Chapter Sixty-Eight: One Day Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Fourth Visitor

Chapter Seventy: One Step Forward

Chapter Seventy-One: The Night Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Seventy-Two: The Day Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Seventy-Three: Seven Minutes Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Seventy-Four: The Fifth Visitor

Chapter Seventy-Five: The Worst Part

Chapter Seventy-Six: And Then Things Fall Apart

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Two Minutes Before Liz Emerson Crashed Her Car

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Voices

Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Crash

Chapter Eighty: Silence

Chapter Eighty-One: Before Everything Fades

Chapter Eighty-Two: The Waiting Room Again

Epilogue

About the Author

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

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February 2014

Dear Readers,

I read Amy Zhang's novel
Falling Into Place
in one sitting, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. This is an extraordinary novel. The writing is literary and gorgeous and powerful; the voice surprising and original.

Liz Emerson has given up. She no longer thinks she belongs in the world—she's convinced herself that she just isn't good enough. And the evidence is compelling—Liz is sarcastic and mean and vengeful. She's a bully. But she wasn't always like that. She used to be the girl who reached for the sky. She used to be the girl everyone wanted to be friends with. She used to be full of promise and light.

Falling Into Place
is a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat read. It's also a book to return to again and again, and to think about and talk about with friends and parents and teachers and librarians and co-workers. Certainly, we've been talking about it a lot here. What happened to Liz Emerson? Why did it happen? How could any of us have stopped it from happening? Is life more than cause and effect?

Debut author Amy Zhang is a high school student in Wisconsin. She writes about high school and being a teen with clear eyes and a full heart. But I think she's also a very old soul with something to say to every one of us.

I hope you will fall in love with this book and share it with another reader in your life.

Best,

Susan Katz

President and Publisher

HarperCollins
Children's Books

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THESE ARE UNCORRECTED ADVANCE PROOFS.

Please check any quotations or attributions against the bound copy of this book. We urge this for the sake of editorial accuracy as well as for your legal protection and ours.

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Laws of Motion

First Law

A body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion with a constant velocity, unless acted upon by a force.

Second Law

Force is equal to the change in momentum (mV) per change in time. for a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration (F = ma)

Third Law

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

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CHAPTER ONE
Laws of Motion

O
n the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton's Laws of Motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

As she lies on the grass with the shattered window tangled in her hair, her blood all around her, she looks up and sees the sky again. She begins to cry, because it's so blue, the sky. So, so blue. It fills her with an odd sadness, because she had forgotten. She had forgotten how very blue it was, and now it is too late.

Inhaling is becoming an exceedingly difficult task. The rush of cars grows farther and farther away, the world blurs at the edges, and Liz is gripped by an inexplicable urge to get to her feet and chase the cars, redefine the world. In this moment, she realizes what death really means. It means that she will never catch them.

Wait
, she thinks.
Not yet
.

She still doesn't understand them, Newton's Three Laws of Motion. Inertia and force and mass and gravity and equal and opposite reactions still do not quite fit together in her head, but she is ready to let go. She is ready for it all to end.

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