While I'm Falling
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15
Ratings1
Average rating3
"While I'm Falling deftly captures the moment a child realizes that growing up means being responsible for your parents' mistakes--and preventing yourself from making the same ones. Laura Moriarty keeps getting better and better." --Jodi Picoult, author of Handle with Care In While I'm Falling, Laura Moriarty presents a compelling depiction of how one young woman's life changes when her family breaks up for good. Ever since her parents announced that they're getting divorced, Veronica has been falling. Hard. A junior in college, she has fallen in love. She has fallen behind in her difficult coursework. She hates her job as counselor at the dorm, and she longs for the home that no longer exists. When an attempt to escape the pressure, combined with bad luck, lands her in a terrifying situation, a shaken Veronica calls her mother for help--only to find her former foundation too preoccupied to offer any assistance at all. But Veronica only gets to feel hurt for so long. Her mother shows up at the dorm with a surprising request--and with the elderly family dog in tow. Boyfriend complications ensue, along with her father's sudden interest in dating. Veronica soon finds herself with a new set of problems, and new questions about love and independence. Darkly humorous, beautifully written, and filled with crystalline observations about how families fall apart, While I'm Falling takes a deep look at the relationship between a daughter and a mother when one is trying to grow up and the other is trying to stay afloat.
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I like Laura Moriarty. I really do. She's really, really nice and her first novel, [b:The Center of Everything 229201 The Center of Everything Laura Moriarty http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308959653s/229201.jpg 1721240], was quite good. I had a lot of hopes for her. I scooped her second novel up right away. Huge disappointment. And when the third, While I'm Falling came out, I was slow to buy it and even slower to get around reading it. Word came out that a fourth novel was on its way, so I thought I better get to it.Anotherhugedisappointment.Did I mention I really like Laura Moriarty? ‘Cause I do. It's just that The Center of Everything was good; and The Rest of Her Life (TRoHL) and While I'm Falling (WIF) were not.Now, this review is about WIF, but it easily applies to TRoHL. And since I didn't write a review for the earlier book, this counts as a review for both. The problem with both books is that there isn't much of a story. There's potential for a story, but it just never develops into anything that should be longer than thirty pages. Another problem with both novels is that they're filled with unlikable characters. I don't mean characters that are bad human beings, because those can be fun; rather, characters that are incessantly whiny in an annoying way and bring nothing of quality to the world of literature. Imagine a book about Bella Swan having a bad week: That's the premise of WIF. WTF?Despite having been so disappointed two times in a row, I am still a fan of Moriarty's. I think she definitely has potential and I can't help but blame some outside force for the decline. I will be reading The Chaperone when it is released in June. Something tells me this will be the one that brings her out of her slump.I still believe in you, Laura.
