47 pages • 1 hour read
Alex LightThe Upside of Falling
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “Becca”
The morning after the hotel’s grand opening fiasco, Becca wakes up in her bedroom, still wearing her dress from the night before. She remembers riding home with Jenny but little else. At breakfast, Jenny sits at Becca’s kitchen table and explains that she wanted to check in on Becca, who seemed “really not okay” (194) the night before. Jenny confesses that she wasn’t a good friend to Becca in the past, and now she’s trying to make up for it. Becca’s phone rings, and Brett asks to meet with her. Jenny leaves, and Becca takes Brett up to the roof to talk. Brett seems distressed and tells Becca that he has come to break up with her. He explains that he only got into the fake relationship with Becca because he wanted to make his dad happy, and now Brett “[doesn’t] want [their] story to start because of [Brett’s dad]” (199). Becca is heartbroken and scolds herself for lowering her defenses for Brett. She remembers when her father and Jenny left her, but this time, Becca is the one who walks away from Brett. Becca spends the next week avoiding Brett at school, and she directs all of her anger toward her beloved romance novels. Becca’s mom and Cassie try (unsuccessfully) to get her to snap out of her melancholy mood, but Becca fills a bag with her books and dumps them into a river. Jenny appears and tries to stop Becca. She tells Becca that she regrets abandoning her years ago in search of popularity. Becca finally accepts Jenny’s apology, and Jenny joins in on destroying the books. Jenny encourages Becca to talk to Brett because he’s been “moping around school” and “could use a friend” (213).
Chapter 16 Summary: “Brett”
Brett’s father convinces Brett and his mother to go to family counseling. However, during the session, Brett is unwilling to listen to anything his father says, and Brett’s mother can’t stop crying. The therapist asks Brett how he feels, and Brett admits that he has no desire to forgive his father. Brett says that the only reason he came to family counseling was that his mother wanted to give it a try. Brett believes his family’s problems will be fixed if his father leaves him and his mother alone. Brett’s mother has been a mess since his father moved out, and she spends most of her time “staring at the TV screen” or “lying in bed crying” (219). Brett’s mom apologizes for hiding the affair from him, but she didn’t want to ruin Brett’s opinion of his father. Despite what her husband did, she still loves him and wants him to come home. Brett feels deeply alone at school, especially since he pushed Becca away, and his grade in English takes a dive because he is “so busy caring for [his] mom” and “getting barely three hours of sleep a night” (222). Brett is in danger of being kicked off of the football team because of his grades, and he realizes that he has to get a tutor if he wants to improve his grades. Jeff asks if Brett is doing okay, but Brett doesn’t want to talk to anyone except Becca.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Becca”
Becca decides she is tired of hiding from Brett, but when she finally plucks up the courage to talk to him, Brett isn’t at school. She asks Jeff if he knows where Brett is, and Jeff explains that Brett’s grade dropped in English because of his terrible Romeo and Juliet essay, and now he’s off the football team until he gets his grade up. Jeff drives Becca to Brett’s house, and she confronts Brett about his failing English grade. She decides to help Brett rewrite his essay, and as they work on it together, Brett explains that he didn’t write the essay correctly the first time because he was “up all night” taking care of his mom, and he “didn’t have time to write it” (232). They order pizza and continue to work on the essay, and bit by bit, Becca and Brett start to relax, reconnect, and open up to one another. Brett admits that it was a mistake to push Becca away, and he opens up about his current living arrangement with his mom and dad. To thank Becca for all of her help, Brett takes her to the local bookstore and buys her new books. They start to talk about their breakup, and Brett promises that “nothing [he] [feels] toward [Becca] [is] tainted or confusing,” and Becca is “the only clear part of [his] life right now” (242). They share a kiss, not for show, but just for them.
Chapters 15-17 Analysis
After the dramatic scene at the hotel’s grand opening, Brett is at odds with his father and his mother. Brett believes that he is helping his mother by talking about locking his dad out of the house and never letting him back into their lives, but Brett’s mother seems more distressed by this idea than anything. Despite everything she has gone through with her husband, Mrs. Wells is still in love with him, and as she explains to Brett, love doesn’t come to an abrupt halt after nearly 20 years just because someone made a mistake. Brett cannot understand why his mother is willing to forgive her husband, and his anger toward his father is leaching into his relationship with his mother, inadvertently causing her even more pain.
Heartbreak can manifest in many different ways. For Becca, books have always been a form of escapism, so her dramatic decision to throw her beloved book collection into the river is shocking and speaks to the depth of her pain. For years, Becca has secretly longed for love, and she uses books to explore her romantic fantasies without the risk of heartache. When Brett comes along, however, Becca takes a chance on him and winds up with a broken heart. Becca and Brett’s breakup is confusing and painful because Brett promises not to break Becca’s heart in Chapter 13 but immediately breaks his promise in Chapter 15. Becca’s breakdown and rash behavior in Chapter 15 isn’t just about Brett: She thinks back to the day her father walked out on his family and when Jenny abandoned their friendship in pursuit of popularity at school. Becca is dealing with a lifetime of grief, and by throwing out her books, she believes that she is purging herself of her fairytale daydreams and embracing the cold reality of the world.
When Becca and Brett come back together at the end of Chapter 17, their reunion is charged with regret and passion. Brett is a mess: He is eaten up with anger, exhaustion, loneliness, and despair, and he has missed having Becca as a friend and confidante. Becca might be nursing a broken heart, but she is still determined to help a friend in need. Throughout the novel's first half, Brett asks Becca to partake in his hobbies by attending football games, going to the arcade with him, and accompanying him to Lovers’ Lake. By Chapter 17, Brett realizes that he has been selfish in their friendship and fake relationship, and he takes Becca to the bookstore as a gesture of thanks. Brett knows that Becca’s books mean everything to her, and symbolically, they represent her faith in love. By helping Becca rebuild her book collection, Brett is also helping to restore her belief in love.
