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Becky H. (Manassas, VA)
GIRL FALLING by Hayley Scrivenor
Insidious and evil. Dark and depressing. Murder or accident? And yet I HAD to keep reading. The writing was beautifully done, keeping ones desire to know and understand at a high pitch. Three women, one evil, one good, and one …also evil?...also good?….which is it? Who is doing the manipulating and who is being manipulated?
Interspersing the darkness are lovely descriptions of the landscape of Australia. The mechanics of rope climbing become a part of the story. The characters and situations are believable.
There were many times I was ready to put this book down and not pick it up again. But the depth of the
…more writing kept me reading. It is difficult to recommend the book because there is so much of the book that is triggering. I could only recommend it to a limited number of people and I would have to know them and their reading habits well to offer this book to them. There is little light or joyous to be gotten from reading FALLING GIRL. I would not use this book in a book group because of too many triggers and no real resolution.
4 stars for the writing, 2 stars for the darkness of the story (less)Girl Falling held my attention - I did not want to stop reading! The author provided a deeply touching view of relationships. It made me think about how we may share ourselves differently with different people. My only disappointment was in the ending. When I looked back in the story, I felt like I had been misled and manipulated even though I tried to appreciate the revealing of the unexpected. Sometimes when this happens, it just clicks that the underlying hints were always there but that did not happen for me with this book.
Kristen H. (Lowell, MA)
Relationships can be deadly
This book pulls you in right from the beginning with the relationships and growth of some of the characters and the suspenseful plot. The ending was one that some people may figure out way before it is revealed but it took me a bit longer and then it was like a light bulb went off. I voluntarily reviewed an advance readers copy of this book.
Linda J. (Ballwin, MO)
"Girl Falling" is "Reader Depressing"
Seldom have I read a book that I find a waste of time. I usually read at least a fourth of a book, maybe a third, before setting it aside. In this case, I was curious enough to plow through it, wondering how it would end, even though I was tempted to read the last chapter. My chief complaint was out of the three main characters, two were unlikeable. If you add the mother as a main character, it would be three characters. Add to that, the fact that the book was depressing - the setting, the mood, the dialogue. I realize that death is a sobering subject, but that doesn't mean the characters, especially the main
…more ones, should cause eye-rolling. Many of Finn's actions and choices were questionable at best and weird at worst. At some point, I will read Scrivenor's other book, Dirt Creek, for which she won an award. I have no complaint with her writing. This just wasn't the book for me. (less)Was not a book I would recommend... did not like the coincidences of her dentist being Mags' uncle or that the man from the fall kept reappearing. I did not find it "heart wrenching" nor a "police procedural" as mentioned in the reviews. Nor did I think it was much of a thriller. I did like the way it was written between present and before. And I did like the characters. Although the ending was a surprise, I didn't think it was much of a twist.
Susan P. (Boston, MA)
Girl Falling
A young woman in present-day Australia goes rock climbing with her beloved girlfriend and her best friend. She and her best friend have a tight bond because of secrets. The best friend doesn't always act like a good friend to her yet she can't/won't let the relationship go. During the climb , her girlfriend explicably falls to her death, even though all precautions were taken. There is a lot of angst (understandably) and some flashbacks about the best friends' earlier days. The story is good and the ending believable but it seemed like tiresome slogging through all the looking back and secret keeping (most of which was unnecessary).
Leslie R. (Lynchburg, VA)
not for me
Before attempting to write a review of Girl Falling, I scanned several articles online about why people read. I was trying to determine why I reacted so negatively to this book. After all, the writing itself was good, I learned something about climbing with ropes, and I escaped reality. But did I feel rejuvenated? Did I relieve stress? Did I enjoy the pleasure of a satisfying story? I did not. A 20-something girl is unhealthily attached to her best friend when she falls deeply in love with another girl. The girlfriend falls to her death while on a climbing expedition with the two original friends. Who is
…more responsible? The entire book is an exploration of psychological misery and angst. I will try not to remember it. (less)I admit that asked for this book based on the sapphic description. The relationships tiptoed up to the edge of menage a trois, and added a "will they, won't they?" element to the book.
Overall, this complex, sometimes convoluted novel kept me returning to previous pages to see what I'd missed. Multiple times I was sure that I'd identified the culprit, only to find, at the end, that I was wrong...or was I?
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