We All Fall Down is a novel by Robert Cormier. It is relatively lighter than his other novels, but given Cormier's famous penchant for Downer Endings, that's like saying "less painful than dying of cancer". This novel is anything but a fun young adult read.
Four drunken teens invade and trash a house while the family is away. This savage act takes a turn for the (even) worse when one of the family's daughters, Karen, unexpectedly returns early. While trying to escape, Karen is pushed down a flight of stairs, leaving her in a coma, and the vandals flee. As the family is shaken by the tragedy, a murderous vigilante who witnessed the trashing begins hunting the perpetrators, and Karen's older sister Jane unwittingly begins a relationship with one of the vandals, Buddy.
Tropes for this story include:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Played for Drama. Buddy was sloshed to the nines when he was vandalizing Jane's home. Even so, he knows it's not an excuse when Jane confronts him about it.
- The Alcoholic: Buddy, both before and (especially) after his relationship with Jane.
- Bittersweet Ending: More bitter than sweet, but lighter than most of Cormier's books. Karen recovers from her coma, and is steadily rebuilding her life and motor functions. Jane breaks up with Buddy when learning he was one of the gang members that invaded her house, calling him out for being a spineless Dirty Coward. As a result, Buddy takes up drinking again and is in worse shape than he was at the beginning of the book. While Jane forgives him, she's not getting back together with him, for obvious reasons. Harry Flowers is still walking free, and the fate of the other gang members remains ambiguous. Oh, and the Avenger commits suicide when Jane tells him he's not a child but a delusional old man.
- Blatant Lies: Over the course of the story, Buddy resorts to all kinds of ridiculous deceptions to hide his drinking habit, especially from Jane, but the most obvious lie happens in their final meeting, when Buddy pretends his life and his schoolwork are going well. Jane isn't fooled for a second.
- Bully Hunter: The Avenger's first kill was his school's bully.
- The Corruptor: Harry, who delights in leading Buddy and his other goons into increasingly destructive (and drunken) "Funtime" mischief that they would never have gotten into on their own, and is too sociopathic to care about the consequences.
- Driven to Suicide: The Avenger, after the truth of his acts is revealed to him.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Mickey Stallings, the local handyman who is described as resembling Mickey Rooney, but is creepy enough that the locals refer to him as Mickey Looney. Downplayed in that no one actually calls him that to his face.
- Excrement Statement: It is briefly mentioned that, along with their other acts, the trashers pissed on the walls and defecated on the floors of the house.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Jane spells this out to Buddy when learning he participated in the trashing of her house. She knows he had a rough life and is sympathetic about his father being absent, but that was not an excuse to piss on her walls and hurt her sister.
- Guile Hero: The Avenger appears to be this at first, as his part of the narrative is from the perspective of an 11-year old boy who has already committed two separate murders without being caught, and as he stalks the older teenage trashers, his calculating nature is showcased. He's actually Mickey Stallings, a seriously disturbed middle-aged man who committed the Avenger's murders 30 years ago, yet still imagines that he's 11 years old.
- Guile Heroine: In the climax, the Avenger kidnaps Jane and accuses her of being involved in Karen's accident because she was dating Buddy. Jane is horrified and starts to Stress Vomit, especially when the Avenger brings out the knife. Then she calms down and tells Mickey that it's not true, and he's not a child Avenger but a delusional old man. This causes the Avenger to have a Villainous Breakdown and slit his wrists, while Jane survives.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Buddy was one of the four trashers, but when he befriends Jane and comes to genuinely like her, he is inspired to at least try to stop drinking and take more responsibility for his life. Then the Avenger kidnaps Jane and tells her that Buddy was involved, which torpedoes their relationship and his redemption.
- He Knows Too Much: The Avenger kills his grandfather when the latter is about to realize his grandson was involved in Vaughn Masterson's death.
- Home-Early Surprise: Karen Jerome made the mistake of arriving home early and is attacked by the gang of boys vandalizing her family's house.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Harry learns that Buddy is dating Jane, he urges Buddy to break it off, as he believes that she will inevitably find out that they trashed her house. This would be the one time Buddy should have taken Harry's advice, but unfortunately, Buddy just doesn't listen.
- Karma Houdini:
- Deconstructed. While Harry Flowers is let off the hook for trashing the house and injuring Karen, everyone knows what he did. His reputation is shot, even as he maintains a cool persona and tries to appear like he doesn't care.
- Played straight with the other two boys who trashed the house along with Harry and Buddy. Their fates remain unknown.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: How the Avenger murdered his grandfather - by seizing the opportunity when the latter was leaning over the rail of a high balcony. Because the Avenger was the only witness, he was able to convince everyone that his grandfather's lethal fall was an accident.
- Misplaced Retribution: The Avenger's last act. In the end, he knows who trashed the Jerome house AND that they're facing almost no consequences for it, so the stage is set for whatever vigilante antics he wants to visit upon them. Instead... he decides to abduct and try to kill Jane Jerome, despite that her only "crime" was dating one of the trashers without realizing it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Avenger bitterly regrets killing his beloved grandfather after Jane reminds him who he really is, especially when she points out how ashamed his mother would be. It is this specifically which drives him to suicide.
- Parting-Words Regret: Touched on. Jane feels especially bad that her last exchange with Karen before the latter ended up in a coma was an argument.
- Pet the Dog:
- Early on, Jane sticks up for Mickey when her girlfriends make fun of his oddness.
- Subverted when Harry is busted for the vandalism, but is able to rig things so that only he takes the fall, while Buddy and the other vandals are never suspected. While this is certainly a kindness on Harry's part, he only gets a slap on the wrist for all that damage, and we're left with the sense that being able to keep manipulating Buddy is worth more to him than seeing Buddy get nailed by the law, too.
- Subverted again with Harry. After Jane breaks up with Buddy, Harry calls her to apologize on Buddy's behalf, explaining that Buddy himself had no part in what happened to Karen. Then he promptly flirts with her, which understandably weirds Jane out and causes her to hang up on him.
- Psychopathic Manchild: The Avenger turns out to be this when it's revealed he committed his first murder 30 years ago and is now a psychotic middle aged man who's perfectly willing to kill Jane and never mentally grew past his 11 year old self on the day of his first murder.
- Staircase Tumble: Karen is pushed down the cellar stairs, leaving her in a coma.
- Stress Vomit: Jane starts to do this when the Avenger abducts her, tells her the truth about Buddy, and starts threatening her with a knife.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Buddy's life was on a downward course from the start, but meeting Harry made things much, much worse for him.
- Vigilante Man: How the Avenger sees himself.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Right after the trashing, Buddy is disturbed enough about what happened to Karen to call out the other three vandals on it. Unfortunately, as he himself was a drunken follower of all Harry's "Funtime" antics up to this point, Buddy is in no position to make it stick.
- What You Are in the Dark: Jane, after her traumatic experience with the Avenger, confronts Buddy for his failure on this. He could have confessed that he was one of the idiots that trashed her house and injured her sister, but he didn't because he was a Dirty Coward. What's more, he lied to her about who he was and what he did, since if he had a conscience he could have testified against Harry and turned in the other gang members.
