Some reviews don’t just compliment a book, they reveal why it matters. That’s the case with Percy Martin’s 5 star Reader’s Favorite review for Upside Down, which focuses not on plot or spectacle, but on something far rarer in fiction: the quiet truth of being human while hurting.

Percy described the Caleb’s transformation as “quietly powerful.” Not explosive. Not glamorous. Real. Vulnerable. Familiar. In Upside Down, healing isn’t a straight line, and strength doesn’t look like victory. It looks like surviving the day. It looks like walking forward even when the world tilts beneath you. He highlighted how the novella frames trauma and disassociation as battles to be navigated, rather than flaws to be ashamed of, and that perspective has struck a chord.

A Story That Stays With You After the Last Page.

Percy writes that “this book is stuck within me… not just a scene or a character, but the whole theme of it.”
That kind of response is about recognition. Readers who have known grief often see themselves in these pages. The struggle is normalized, the messiness is allowed, and the emotional weight is neither minimized nor dramatized for effect. It simply is and that honesty is what makes the story resonate long after the cover closes.

Percy Martin’s full review:
Reader’s Favorite — Upside Down Review