Since We Fell: A Novel

This book kept me wondering what was going to happen next. Twists and turns and a good story. Sometimes it got to be a little wordy and dwell on things I found not important but all in all a good read.

To all of you authors out there, please stop trying to write Gone Girl and introduce 25 plot twists in your stories. It is getting old.
I really enjoyed getting to know Rachel's character, watching her search for clues to her father, losing it in Haiti. The second half of this book was an unbelievable chaos with no connection whatsover to the first half. Maybe the real twist is that I am the one who got conned for reading this book?

Astonishing book. I could not put it down and was shocked when I realized there were no more pages to follow. Best suspense I have felt in a very long time. Some could find fault with implausibilities in the plot but not me. Read it now.

When I started reading this book, I didn’t know what to expect for a plot line, but before too many pages were done, I could not put the book down. A very good read, but I have enjoyed other books by this author more.

Love Dennis Lehane, and I enjoyed this new approach to storytelling. Rachael Child's is a complex heroine, and her quest to find her true self is almost a Hitchcockian journey. Not my favorite Leg and oeuvre, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Absolute loved this new book. I was riveted to this awesome convoluted but riveting plot. Each new turn of this drama was a fascinating surprise that pulled me into the unfolding options the author put forth. Enjoy another Dennis Lehane blockbuster.

Reminded me of a first time effort by someone who has no idea how to make a story flow!! About midway, I could not wait to be done with this mess, I even went back and made sure the author was Dennis Lehane???? No more just buying this author without a sample first!

I was a bit confused, in the beginning. Well really in a lot
of the book. So I remembered I was reading a Dennis Lehane book. So I started over paid more attention and
love it. So I am wondering if we will see more Brian and Rachel?

I had trouble wanting to keep picking this book up and actually finish it, which has never happened to me with one of Lehane's books. The first part seemed completely disjointed from the rest of the book and by the end I wasn't invested enough in any of the characters to actually care what happened to them. I thought the plot twists were far fetched and started to seem convenient toward the end. Definitely my least favorite read of his!

Lehane's books are always great - filled with flawed but totally recognizable characters. You can count on a "good" ending. He remains one of three authors that I pre-order immediately. I came to his books only a couple of years ago and have read them all. He has crept from third to second favorite author.

A most disappointing read from a writer who's done much better in the past. Lehane uses a quick and too easy hook at the front to grab you and then stretches you out through what reads like chapters hijacked by Nicholas Sparks as it deals with a woman's emotions and psychological upheavals (And how come his first female character has to be an emotional wreck? Of course only to turn into Super Woman later. You want to read strong and believably damaged women in thrillers? Then read Ruth Rendell.) Paper thin characters with extraordinarily long and repetitive sequences of dialogue that go where we already know they're going three lines into the scene are boring. And when the actual "thriller" plot comes alive it's a big stretch to believe it. And a tired plot unfolds ZZZZZZ: no spoilers here, though. Yes, it speeds up in the final third but, all in all, it reads like a sleepwalk by a writer who, here at least, is counting on his fans' interest to do most of the heavy lifting.

This novel made me really sad. Why? Because if this had been written by a new author, it never would have been published.

The first half was good, the introduction to Rachel was interesting and mostly well done, but it fails from the middle to the end when the author tries to be Hitchcock. There are many implausibilities, holes, and inconsistencies, it was really frustrating to continue reading it. But I kept hoping things would get better. They didn't. Rachel's character is not consistent with her origins, she doesn't speak like the daughter of an English professor who grew up in a college town. She doesn't behave consistently with such a person, and she doesn't behave the way a woman would either.

The car accident defies physics, (two flips?) The aftermath is not believable - she's not hurt and the car can still be driven? There's no description of the dust from the airbag - most people think the car is on fire with all the dust that comes out when they deploy. She swerved to miss a goat or a sheep? (Repeated twice?) In upstate Maine? More likely to be a deer or a moose.

The interactions with her husband - from the scene on the boat to the scene at the cabin - make no sense. Why would he want her to think what he made her think on the boat? How far in advance was that all set up? But more importantly - why? What was the point of all of that? The cabin meeting and what leads her there also makes no sense. The timing of the bad guys catching up with them - also improbable. The ending was predictable and made me think of a romance novel. I was so disappointed, it was such a let down. I felt ripped off and sad that I could have read a really good book instead of this over-hyped one.

There are so many parts of this book that should have been longer or should have been cut. It really amazes me that the author and editors thought this story was fit to be published. I am sure that one day, after some distance, the author will look back at this book and see all of its flaws and be disappointed it was published in such an unpolished and incomplete condition.

There were a few pretty sentences but more often than not, you trip over them and they didn't always move the story forward.

Perhaps I'm being unfair to this book, it's not in my usual genre. I usually read literary fiction. Maybe the writing in this book is the new standard. I hope not.

Immediately after I finished this disappointing book, I started reading Eva Luna by Allende, and wow - what a difference. I re-read her sentences because they were so beautiful and allowed me to quickly see the world of the jungle where her story begins. Every sentence flowed beautifully like a dance. I could feel myself falling in love with the story and the telling.

What a sharp contrast to Lehane. When there are so many really extraordinary books in this world, why would anyone read this one? My recommendation - don't. Read Allende instead.

Dennis Lehane is always able to construct really complex characters. This novel is the same. The story line can get a bit convoluted but in the end you understand the journey the characters make. Definitely a good read and up there with his other novels.

Not a very good effort here. I generally enjoy his work, but this one suffered. His lead character, Rachel, was not believable. She suffers panic attacks and vomits when she takes the subway, yet she is able to manage a bank job without a hitch. Don't bother with this one

Without a doubt the worst book Lehane has ever written. 60 % of the book involved character development for a character who isnt even likable, and then the next 40 % of the book was implausible. Not one likable character and a story not worth telling and certainly not worth reading. Having loved most of Lehane's books, and counting A Given Day as one of my favorite books of all time, this was a major disappointment, if not a disaster. Thinking this would be a great beach read, I was conned, like several of the characters in this horrendous book. The only saving grace is I got this as a Kindle Daily Deal and only wasted $4.99 instead of $14.99. If this book were free, I still wouldnt recommend it. Read any other book of his besides this.

This is not your typical thriller, it reaches beyond that.

SYNOPSIS
Rachel Childs was raised by her always difficult, somewhat histrionic single mother, Elizabeth. Her mother, a well-known author and college professor also carries a big secret, she has never revealed the name of Rachel's father. Not to anyone. Not even to Rachel. Elizabeth's purposeful, deliberate withholding this vital piece of created an unstable, dysfunctional family dynamic which left Rachel feeling unsettled. After Elizabeth's unexpected, untimely death, Rachel sets out to find her father equipped with only a brief memory and a first name.

After beginning her difficult search and surviving NYC on 9-11, Rachel begins a career in journalism. Her career as a news reporter eventually leads her to cover a traumatic story which changes the course of her life. That's all in the first 1/3 of the book (it's a very complicated plot). The combined distress of her childhood uncertainty, her 9-11 experience and after effects of the terrifying story she covered, cause her significant emotional distress which kills her self-confidence for several years and leaves her barely to cope with life. Just when she thinks her life is beginning to get back on track, she is faced with a new problem which will require her to dig deep within herself to try to recapture her former strength.

WHAT I LOVED
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book considering the Dennis Lehane books I have read in the past; Shutter Island (so creepy), Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River (both very dark and gritty). 'Since We Fell' left me pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of the book. It stands on its own.

The plot was not very predictable. When Rachel was first faced with the initial signs of the books central conflict, I really didn't even begin to imagine the story taking the shape it took. So many surprises and plot twists.

In the epilogue, the book clearly says that at some point Rachel will shoot her husband:

"On a Tuesday in May, in her thirty-fifth year, Rachel shot her husband dead."

I was 100% expecting the shooting, but it didn't unfold the way I expected. That epilogue hooked me literally starting with page one and kept me wondering what on earth was going to lead up to that event.

WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE:
The first 100 or so pages could have been condensed into about 20. Although they did give background explaining who Rachel was, where she came from and why she reacted certain ways to certain situations; there was a lot of backstory which was not relevant to the plot. Quite a bit of it could have been easily edited out to streamline the story line. When I was at page 100, I still really had no idea what the book was about or where the story was headed.

Kate Atkinson recommended this on her website and I read it because of her recommendation... I found the story relatively gripping but the writing style out of the ordinary and the central characters unempathetic .. disappointed full stop .... :(

This was not Lehane’s best work. That distinction still belongs to Shutter Island. But it was decent. Really two books in one. A personal study and Rachel for the first half and a thriller for the second.

To have written such a good story with MYSTIC RIVER, this was a bomb. I could not finish it, but I tried. Do not waste your money on this book. It has no story and rambles from beginning to midway. I caught myself daydreaming while trying to get involved with his characters. Our book club read it and only one person finished it. Sorry, I think he could do much better.

Wow, what a disappointment from this usually-great author. Like reading two completely different books about two completely different characters. It was so weird! At some point, it just flipped from what seemed to be chick-lit into a who-dunnit that really was hard to follow. I felt like Mr. Lehane lost his mojo, thought "well, screw it," and just let his fingers do the typing so that he'd get something to his editor by deadline. In this age of technology and non-existent attention spans, I'm always dying for a good read and was therefore doubly disappointed by this. Some may have enjoyed it - I thought it was garbage and the author should really take note: Some of us are paying attention. You can do better than this.

Since We Fell is roller coaster thrill ride filled with twists and turns to keep readers guessing the entire way. Although he crosses over the line of plausibility at times, Dennis LeHayne manages to adequately probe the depths of the human condition and explore the nature of identity. This is certainly an entertaining read for anyone in search of a literary approach to the mystery/thriller genre.

Dennis, Dennis , Dennis. Where have you gone? You moved to .CA and went all Hollywood on me.
First half of the book was classic Dennis Lehane. The second half was ridiculous. Very disappointed. I was reading you long before everyone else caught on.
Naturally from Boston.