And Then She Fell
Ratings7
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings7
Average rating4.4
A mind-bending, gripping novel about Native life, motherhood and mental health that follows a young Mohawk woman who discovers that the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequences On the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be: She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve is nothing but supportive; and they’ve recently moved into a new home in a wealthy neighborhood in Toronto. But Alice could not feel like more of an imposter. She isn’t connecting with Dawn, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her own mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from their white, watchful neighbors. Even when she does have a minute to herself, her perpetual self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story. At first, Alice is convinced her discomfort is of her own making. She has gotten everything she always dreamed of, after all. But then strange things start happening. She finds herself losing bits of time, hearing voices she can’t explain, and speaking with things that should not be talking back to her, all while her neighbors’ passive-aggressive behavior begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn’s survival. . . . She just has to finish it before it’s too late. Told in Alice’s raw and darkly funny voice, And Then She Fell is an urgent and unflinching look at inherited trauma, womanhood, denial, and false allyship, which speeds to an unpredictable—and surreal—climax.
Reviews with the most likes.
A evocative tale reflecting on reality vs unreality- culture and mental health, the internal and external worlds. A Native American woman deals with life after leaving her community to live with a white husband who doesn't understand her perspective or her struggle whilst she battles postpartum depression and the loss of her mother. Magical realism meets magic meets reality, honestly I adored this.
This is a strong, bold, scary look at mental illness, isolation, indigenous culture, and the struggles of motherhood. Objectively, it is a very well written book.
Subjectively, this was not the book for me.
I just finished And then she fell by Alicia Elliott and here are my thoughts.
Alice portrays the image she wants the world to see. Devoted mother, loving wife living in a nice neighborhood in Toronto. Her husband Steve is supportive but the loss of her mother has sent her spiraling. It doens't help that she can't connect with her own daughter and just feels like an imposter. An indigenous woman living a white lady's life.
Everywhere she turns, she feels self doubt seeping in and when she starts hearing voices and seeing things that aren't there, she feels she needs to write the stories of her people like her life depends on it.
It was an interesting way to narrate a book. The author took the characters state of mind and built a narrative that got more and more jumbled as the book went on. It was clever and slightly annoying at the same time. The one thing that didn't sit so well with me is the fact that Alice seemed to see racism everywhere. Anything anyone said or did, to her, had racial undertones. My husband's family is from cape mudge and I have part indigenous children and I don't know why, but it rubbed me up the wrong way. I know her mental health was on a serious decline but it didn't sit well with me. I know everyone's experiences are valid but it felt forced to me.
I also wasn't a huge fan of the tone to the book. Alice was blowing up her own life a lot and only her POV made it hard to connect with other people in any tangible way. Having said that, this book did hit home for me about how fragile our mental health truly is and the author did a stellar job of highlighting it in a serious and well researched manner. It was a little dark and on occasion humorous but all in all the pace was decent and I did find the end to be the best part of the whole book.
The book dug deep into Alice's psyche and the adaptations a person has to make in order to feel accepted. It was a clever construction and did have me thinking hard after I was done. I feel like this book made me hate it and love it. That doesn't usually happen to me.
3.75 stars
Thank you @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for my gifted copy
