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 18-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary: “Brett”
Brett searches for his jacket as he prepares to leave for a movie date with Becca. He starts emptying out his closet, and in the process, he unearths “a box of memories [he] [forgot] [he] even had” (246). The box, which contains old football memorabilia and photos of Brett and his dad, triggers Brett’s favorite memories with his dad. Brett’s mom joins him, and they look over the photos together. Brett admits that a “tiny, small part of [him]” (248) misses his dad, and his mother confesses that she doesn’t want to divorce Brett’s father. Brett realizes how much his mother loves his father and how hard the last few weeks have been for her. He promises to give the counseling sessions a real try, and he is even willing to let his dad return to the house if it makes his mom happy. Brett arrives at Becca’s house to find that she forgot about the movie date after a busy day of helping her mom with a new recipe. Brett decides to forgo the movie and instead helps Becca and her mom with the new recipe, and Becca’s mom brags that she “[has] an eye for bringing together unnatural pairings” (252).
Chapter 19 Summary: “Becca”
After school, Jenny and Becca stop by Becca’s mom’s bakery. Along the way, they discuss their plans to leave Crestmont after graduation. At the bakery, Becca’s mom is overwhelmed with customers, and Becca and Jenny jump into action to help with the rush. A family of four enters—a husband, wife, and two children— and Becca is reminded that her family might not look like theirs, but that’s okay. She decides that she “[isn’t] scared anymore” (260), and she leaves and goes to her father’s house to see him. Becca tells her father that she is in love with someone, and she has come to forgive him because she “can’t carry around this sadness because it’s stopping [her] from being the person [she] want[s] to be” (263). She tells him that she isn’t interested in repairing their relationship: She just wants to let him go. Becca feels free and unburdened, and she leaves her father and goes to Brett’s house. Becca is surprised to find Brett watching a movie with his parents, but he assures her that everything is okay. Later, when they are alone, Brett tells Becca he got a passing grade on his essay and that his dad is moving back in. Becca and Brett confess their love for one another, and Becca tells Brett that he “make[s] her feel safe” and “hopeful,” and he has shown her “the upside” (269) of falling in love. Brett and Becca return to Brett’s bedroom, and they make love for the first time.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Brett”
After their time together, Becca asks Brett if he has any cotton candy ice cream. He declares that he “[has] something even better” (271), and he shows her his copy of an old Goosebumps book from his childhood. Brett explains that he wants to read to Becca, just like she read to him on the night he found out that his father was having an affair. Becca is unimpressed by his book choice, but Brett “love[s] the thought of sharing something that [is] important to [him] with her” (274), and Becca finally agrees. However, Brett is so excited to have Becca there that he struggles to read aloud and is overwhelmed by his love for her. He reminds her that he wants to have a real relationship with her—“No more pretending” to be dating, and “no more faking” (275) their love for one another. Becca agrees, and they kiss each other again.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Becca”
Becca sits under the oak tree next to the football field, just like she did at the beginning of Chapter 1. Brett is back on the football team, and Becca’s mom, Cassie, and Brett’s parents will be attending. Brett interrupts his practice to join Becca under the oak tree, and he asks Becca to read to him because she “go[es] somewhere else when [she] read[s],” and Brett “want[s] to go there with [her]” (278). Becca obliges, and Brett holds her as she reads to him.
Chapters 18-21 Analysis
In Chapter 19, Becca faces her greatest fear when she decides to talk to her father after five years of silence. Although Becca has been watching her father’s house and daydreaming about confronting him, she has been too afraid to act on this impulse until now. Becca says seeing her father face-to-face after all these years is like meeting a “familiar stranger.” She realizes that the father she loved and remembered has completely changed in the last five years, and the man she meets in the doorway might as well be a stranger. After years of harboring feelings of rejection and pain, Becca is ready to let her father go. Unlike Brett, Becca’s mom, Cassie, and Jenny, Becca’s father has shown no interest in maintaining a relationship with Becca for the past five years. Becca finally realizes that she never deserved this kind of treatment and is worthy of love despite her father’s negligence.
When Becca and Brett come together at the end of Chapter 19, Becca is elated by Brett’s declaration of love. She feels a depth of intensity that even her beloved romance novels can’t capture, and when she tries to describe her feelings, she finds herself at a loss for words. For a moment, Becca hesitates to reciprocate because she has not allowed her heart to have control for most of her life. After all, Becca has always been inhibited by the pain she felt from her dad abandoning her, and Light describes Becca as someone who has taken her own heart prisoner, locking it up to keep it safe. However, the Becca the reader sees at the end of Chapter 19 has changed. She has freed herself from the pain of her father’s rejection and is unburdened and ready to give her heart to Brett. She takes back some of the power she thought she lost when her father walked out on her and her mother, and by choosing to love Brett and bare her soul, Becca finally begins to heal and feel hopeful.
In the early stages of Becca and Brett’s fake-dating relationship, Becca hesitates to bring Brett around her mother. After all, Becca fears her mother will interrogate Brett or embarrass her. However, Becca also kept Brett and her mom apart because she feared getting her mother’s hopes up. Becca’s mom wants nothing more than for Becca to be happy, and Becca doesn’t want to let her mom down. However, by the novel's end, Becca isn’t nervous about bringing Brett around her mom. Becca starts to spend more time with Brett’s parents, and bit by bit, their worlds begin to overlap. Becca and Brett are both lonely at the beginning of the novel, and by the end of Chapter 21, their family and friend groups have grown into one another. Brett and Becca have also grown and expanded their interests: Brett has introduced Becca to the world of football, and Becca has taught Brett the beauty of books and reading. They have grown into well-rounded, stable young adults, and their future is brighter than ever.
