Aspen Quick is a terrible person. He, along with many members of his family, has the ability to steal things from people – their memories, their feelings, anything tangible or intangible – with a power they call “reaching.” The first time we see Aspen using this power, he is stealing a girl’s love for his friend, her boyfriend, so that she would have the room/freedom/ability to fall in love with him instead.

See? He’s a terrible person. He’s no serial killer, but he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he does – until he realizes that it’s been done to him, too. Even then, he doesn’t magically transform, which is part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much. But let me back up a little.

The Quicks don’t just have this power for fun. They use it to give offerings to a cliff at the edge of town, a cliff that would otherwise collapse and kill everyone, hence the title Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies. On his grandmother’s orders, Aspen uses his power to reach inside items left at a tree (part of a town ritual), steal things from the leavers of those items, and then give those things (secrets, feelings, whatever) to the cliff. As a result, the townspeople aren’t crushed to death and the Quicks feel like saviors, and therefore many of them feel like they deserve whatever they take. If this sounds a little suspect to you, it should. Aspen isn’t nearly suspicious enough of this ritual, but he soon learns, as do we.

This premise makes the storyline naturally twisty. Because memories can be stolen and because Aspen usually tries to portray himself in a positive light (he fails), we can never entirely rely on his narration. He doesn’t know what’s really going on, even when he’s being honest. There was a lot that happened in this book that I didn’t see coming, but Ribar crafts the plot in such a way that it really does all come together in the end.

Ribar tackles a lot in her story. I think Aspen’s casual awfulness, which he always tries to justify, should really make a lot of teens think hard about what they themselves would do with a power like his. And because most fantasy can be read as metaphor, it should make teens think hard about what they would do with power of the non-magical kind, too. Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies is also about the danger of believing things at face value, of trusting those closest to you simply because what they say aligns with what you want to believe. It’s about how even the master manipulators can be manipulated themselves. It’s about what it takes to change for the better – and whether certain people are strong enough to make that change and stick to it.

I was really impressed with this book. It’s undoubtedly weird, but not in a trying-too-hard way that I think a lot of odder fiction falls prey to. Aspen is a lot like many teens (and adults!) of any gender – taking what you want is so alluring, and if no one will ever find out, and if you’re backed up by a history that says it’s your right to do so, why not? Humans have used this excuse to justify anything and everything.

Teens who dig contemporary supernatural fiction will find a lot to like here. Aspen’s head is fascinating to be in, though I’d never want to meet him in real life. The story is well-plotted, well-paced, with a series of revelations placed at strategic parts of the book for maximum impact. Highly recommended for those looking for something a bit different.