Quirky Cat
Written on Mar 4, 2019
I strongly believe that people are either going to love or hate Find Me Falling. I don’t think there will be much middle ground here (I know it’s ironic that I’m saying it, given the rating I chose, but I will explain my reasons).
Find Me Falling is the tale of Bonnie and Dominic. One is recovering from a traumatic experience that left her with a diminished ability to play her instruments. The other considers himself to be a finder, a person perfectly suited for finding anything needed. Especially at the right time.
Warnings: There is a graphic description of foxes getting killed in this book. This includes the kits, mind you. I felt really uncomfortable and unsettled by the scene. This fact was made worse by the lack of reaction or acknowledgement by the humans in the scene. It happens around the thirty or forty percent mark of the book, so consider yourself warned.
Find Me Falling, as I mentioned above, will either be a novel to be loved or to be hated. I think there’s a good chance that this book will perfectly fit some people, while repelling others. There are times that it is soothing, and times it is jarring. It’s just a matter of the balance between the two.
It’s primarily a stream of consciousness. By that I mean that the author lets the characters speak – or rather think – about everything, and that’s how the perspective is handled. We are reading what the main characters are thinking and seeing. There are few pauses, and it is all very organic in nature. Not everything has to fit together perfectly – our thoughts aren’t always that neat and clean, after all.
I know that some people do not like that storytelling style though, which is one of the reasons why I think feelings on this book could really go either way. I didn’t mind it in the least. I enjoyed the soothing effect this storytelling technique had.
My one complaint was that it also shifted perspectives between Bonnie and Dominic. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, but when combined with stream of consciousness, and having the switches happen mid-chapter, sometimes I honestly didn’t know who was talking (or rather, thinking). It was slightly off-putting. I wouldn’t have minded it nearly so much if each perspective had its own chapter.
At first I adored the tone of this novel. It was eerie and had a lonely sense to it. Almost like everyone here was searching for something. Even the house felt lost.
The whole of the novel takes place on Waste Island, in England (barely). It’s a desolate and eerie place, but it has its own charm in many ways. The location adds to the tone of the novel in unexpected ways.
Over time that tone did change, and it felt like the characters were growing more apathetic in a sense. That’s where they started losing me. If they don’t care about themselves or their environment, how can I be expected to?
This feeling was made worse, for me, with the killing of the foxes incident. I probably could have gotten over it, had it happened and we’d seen the characters be at least somewhat upset by what was done. Or have them react in any way at all. But they didn’t. I had a lot of trouble connecting with them from that point onward.
That’s the reason for my mid rating, despite my earlier declaration. I started out loving the novel, but by the end was done with it. Balancing those two emotions and assessments out left me with an overall opinion of ‘it has potential.’
I am sad that I didn’t like the novel more. I went into it hoping that I would love it, believe it or not. So I can honestly tell you that I fought the disconnect I was feeling every step of the way. I think I enjoyed the writing style enough where I’d want to check out other works by Fiona Vigo Marshall at least, so I consider that a win.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks