Review: The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado

Could you plan the Fall Formal with your (hot) nemesis? Whit Rivera is about to find out.

Frenemies Whit and Zay have been at odds for years (ever since he broke up with her in, like, the most embarrassing way imaginable), so when they’re forced to organize the fall formal together, it’s a literal disaster. Sparks fly as Whitney—type-A, passionate, a perfectionist, and a certified sweater-weather fanatic—butts heads with Zay, a dry, relaxed skater boy who takes everything in stride. But not all of those sparks are bad. . . .

Has their feud been a big misunderstanding all along?

Blisteringly funny and profoundly well-observed, The Fall of Whit Rivera is a snug and cozy autumn romcom that also tackles weightier topics like PCOS, chronic illness, sexuality, fatphobia, Latine identity, and class. Funny, honest, insightful, romantic, and poignant, it is classic Crystal Maldonado—and it will have her legion of fans absolutely swooning. 

• Title: The Fall of Whit Rivera
• Author:  Crystal Maldonado
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication Date: October 10, 2023
• Genre: Contemporary, Romance 
• Targeted Age Range: YA
• Content Warnings: fatphobia, body shaming, ableism, racism, grief, abandonment, chronic illness, diet culture, bias within the medical community
• Rating: ★★★★.5

Crystal Maldonado firmly solidified herself as one of my auto-read authors after her fantastic debut, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega (my review), and sophomore novel, No Filter and Other Lies (my review) — I don’t need to know the summary of the book, if Maldonado’s writing it, I’m reading it, and once again, she knocked it out of the park with The Fall of Whit Rivera. 

The Fall of Whit Rivera follows high school senior Whitney Rivera on her quest to have the perfect fall season. The summer was a rough one filled with doctors appointments and isolating herself from her friends because she was ashamed to talk about how her PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) diagnosis has affected her. She knows that the way to make her senior year as perfect as possible will be to be the head of the Fall Fest committee at her school — the very event where her Abuelo and Abuela met when they were teenagers. The one thing that she didn’t plan on was having to work with her middle school ex-boyfriend, and she really didn’t plan for the complicated feelings that would come along with that.

Something that I think Maldonado excels in is writing realistic characters, and that has continued with her latest work. Whit was a fantastic protagonist; she was so easy to root for and I loved that Maldonado wrote so much complexity into her character. As in real life, Whit was multifaceted — she could be gentle, and loving, and other times she could be quick tempered, impulsive, and single-minded. Additionally, I think it was really great read about a character with PCOS , and for it to be a very central part of the story — women’s health in general is rarely discussed in…well, anything, but PCOS is discussed even less, and I think it’s so important, especially in YA literature, to have these topics at the forefront of a story and not seen as something that you have to hide. 

Maldonado did a wonderful job of making sure that Whit’s PCOS was a major plot point, and important to Whit’s characterization, without it being the only thing defining her. I loved that she was a Gilmore Girls and PSL girlie, that she liked “basic” things and was so honest in her love of them because they made her happy. That she had a spreadsheet for everything (same), that she felt most comfortable with taking charge of a situation and finding solutions to any problems that came her way. Similarly to how I saw parts of myself in Maldonado’s first protagonist, Charlie Vega, I found parts of myself in Whit Rivera as well.

We know that I love a good family dynamic, and I thought that the relationship between Whit, her sister Lily, and Abuela was so sweet and lovely. It was so cute how they all loved the same boyband (it was giving major One Direction vibes and I’m not mad about it), and how they would bake together, and how the love between the three of them was so clear. I really loved all the scenes with the three of them, especially some of the scenes towards the end during the preparations for Fall Fest.

Maldonado’s strong character writing also shone through in the books supporting characters — Whit’s friends Sophie and Marisol were fully fleshed out characters who had interests, personalities, and lives outside of their friendship with Whit, and I loved hearing about their lives as well. They had some very sweet moments, the scene where her friends are saying “LET. ME. LOVE. YOU!!!” made me laugh and is definitely something that my friends and I say to each other. Whit and Zay’s romance was so sweet — I loved seeing them rebuild their friendship because it was so clear that they genuinely cared about one another, and it was nice to see them connecting with each other’s friends as well. Without giving it away, there’s a scene about half way through the book where Zay really shows up for Whit and it really was so heartwarming. 

This is the perfect book to read in the fall; you know that TikTok that Taylor Swift made where she’s reading her old Tumblr post about why fall is great? That’s literally what this book felt like. The Fall of Whit Rivera feels like a love letter to the autumnal season and everything it entails, it felt like a wonderfully autumn shaped hug! You should absolutely check this book out if you’re looking for a cozy fall read with lots of heart.

Links for The Fall of Whit Rivera: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop