Catch Me When I Fall
by Nicci French
Nicci French, or should I say, Sean French and Nicci Gerard, the husband and wife team
who write together under the name of Nicci French, have put together a novel that has a
terrifying scope. That scope is about the destruction of the self of those who are in
this world with Bipolar Disorder. I know several people who are Bipolar and was eagerly
wanting to read this book because of my knowledge and dealings with these people. However,
I came away from this book more distressed and upset than I was before I started to read
it. I had never read anything by this author duo, and therefore had no preconceptions
concerning this book. That being said, Nicci French, et al, is/are good writer(s), and
the actual style of the book may be the problem that I am having trouble reading, not
the writers.
Holly Krauss is a seriously defective person, who until the time of the beginning of
this book was sort of able to keep herself and her life together. She gets her self into
various mishaps and always manages to rescue the total package before it crumbles, but
this time and this place, she starts losing that ability. She is successful and has a
business with her girlfriend, who she also goes out playing with after hours while her
husband stays at home keeping the fires warm, almost. Holly gets into mess after mess
and cannot seem to stop. She doesn't know how to get herself extracted from these situations,
so she gets further in and involved until she has a person stalking her and wanting to
kill her. However, she can't figure out why, or even if the stalking is really real or
just her imagination working overtime on her. And neither can her friends.
The story is confusing in many places and I found it hard to get into the character's
mind, maybe because of the Bipolar mental disease and maybe because of my inability to keep
it flowing in my own mind. But that inability left me not wanting to finish the book,
unfortunately. I did sweat through it to the end, but I am not an avid fan of this style
of writing. So, I am going to leave it at that, as far as a review of the story goes.
The writing was good, in most places, but I think that having a duo write this book may
have been one of the problems I faced in the reading because, in some ways, the split
of the character carried through to the print and cohesion factors in the actual book.
If you can get into the actual storyline and just read it as though you were reading
something else and enjoy it for what it is, then it is a good book that you can take up
some time with. However, if you are actually looking for a thorough story about Holly
Krauss, Catch Me When I Fall may leave you feeling like you are freefalling and
not able to catch yourself. |
The Book |
Warner Books |
January 2006 |
Hardcopy |
0-446-57848-7 |
Psychological Suspense |
More
at Amazon.com |
Excerpt |
NOTE: Explicit, behavior, but nothing really offensive to an adult mind. |
The Reviewer |
Claudia VanLydegraf |
Reviewed 2006 |
NOTE: |
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