Another Way to Fall

by Amanda Brooke

[Leah]

When I was offered the chance to review Amanda Brooke’s second novel Another Way To Fall, it was a no-brainer. I’d already spotted the novel on Amazon and I adored the cover (Just LOOK at it! It’s beautiful) and I thought it sounded like an amazing novel. The synopsis sounded like something Jodi Picoult might write, and I was incredibly intrigued about the dual-storyline involving Emma. I actually started the book a week or so ago, but put it down – not for any reason, it wasn’t a bad start to the novel or anything, I just knew that for a story this heavy I had to be in the right frame of mind, and so I put it down. Until a Friday afternoon, where I picked it back up and dived straight back in, finishing it in a matter of hours.

Another Way To Fall is probably the most emotional novel I will read this year. I generally don’t cry when I read books (I may get teary-eyed, but the only books I can remember making me cry are Harry Potter 5, 6 and 7, as well as My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult). Loads of people seem to cry at the drop of a hat, and while I’m generally quite emotional it takes a lot for a book to make me cry. But I will tell you right here, right now, Another Way To Fall made me cry. I spent the last 15 pages with tears streaming down my face. I’m not spoiling A THING when I tell you it’s because Emma’s losing her battle (It’s there in the synopsis) and I just felt like the author had such knowledge of that battle, such knowledge of what comes at the end of a cancer fight (and the beginning, and the middle, pretty much all of it to be fair) and to see Emma, Emma who wanted to live, who had everything to live for, slowly fading away, it killed me. Amanda actually does have that knowledge of a cancer fight, having seen it first hand with her son and the writing was just so powerful and consuming.

The novel isn’t just about that, though. It isn’t about Emma saying goodbye, because on the flip side, Emma is writing a novel all about her life if, when she had walked into the doctor’s office that day, he had told her she had gotten the all-clear. She’s able to use her writing as therapy, to jot down all the things she might have done, all the things she might have accomplished. Yep, it was bittersweet to read at times, but it was also so hopeful. You really root for Emma – both versions of her, the real and the fictional. I loved how her family never wanted to give up on her, how she didn’t want to give up on herself. I loved the love story with Ben, beautiful Ben, the perfect foil for Emma. I just kept flipping the pages, to see what fantastic adventures the fictional Emma would be going on and to see how it helped the real Emma fight on and show that cancer doesn’t win.

Another Way To Fall just blew me away completely. It brought sharply to focus that cancer doesn’t always get beaten, and it showed that it doesn’t just afect the suffered, it affects the family massively, too. It reminded me, I must admit, of Lisa Lynch, the most wonderful person I’ve ever met online who sadly died earlier this year, who fought cancer so bravely and Emma sort of reminded me of Lisa, and what Lisa’s fight must have been like. And even though the novel made me immeasurably sad, and even though I’ll remember it as a sad book, I will never forget reading it, I’ll never forget Emma’s battle and never forget Emma as a character because she shone so brightly. This was such a fabulous book, Amanda Brooke is such a terrific writer and I’m definitely going to go and pick up her debut novel quick sharp. She’s written a book that will stay with me forever, and I adored it. I look forward to reading more from her because she is really, really talented and knows how to pull at the heartstrings.