Ribar applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, and reported the following:From page 69:Visit Lindsay Ribar's website.“I told you, call me Natty,” she said. “And this must be Brandy and Ashton.”The page 69 test actually works surprisingly well here! Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies is a book about family and weird small-town magic and privilege and toxic masculinity and thievery and… well, about a billion other things. But mostly, it’s a book about identity.
“Aspen.” She looked over at me when I spoke—and instantly I could see why Theo was into her. She had these bright blue eyes that reminded me of ... well, of Brandy, actually. “Aspen Quick.”
“That’s a weird name,” she said, nodding, like she approved.
“I know, right?” I said. This was why I’d ditched my real first name, Jeremy, back in third grade. I liked being the guy with the weird name.
Narrator Aspen has grown up in a family with a unique magical ability, and Aspen himself has never questioned either the source of this ability or the amount of power it gives him over others. He’s never questioned it because, well, he’s never had a reason to. Until the events of Rocks Fall, that is. All of that comes later in the book, when Bad Things start adding up to something that Aspen can no longer ignore—but here, on page 69, we get the very first glimpse of who Aspen is.
He’s a guy who isn’t just unafraid of being different from everyone else; he actually values being different. Being his own person. Being kind of a weirdo. And by the end of the story, that part of his personality, that stubborn individualistic streak, might just be the thing that saves him from himself.
Writers Read: Lindsay Ribar.
--Marshal Zeringue
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