Ann-Marie MacDonald - Fall on Your Knees: A Novel

Pros: Digs deep into the psyche & deeper into the sins of this melancholic family
Cons: Begins slowly, but grows more interesting [and dark] with each page turned

A Family Tree is something of a treasure map when you allow your mind to wonder from the motley of names into the lives of those individuals charted upon course parchment... there are mysteries, stories secreted beneath a shallow surface, if you might ...

Pros: Incredible story of family secrets.
Cons: None

Fall on Your Knees leaves the reader breathless as it becomes more and more convoluted with every page, and characters delude both themselves, each other and us. What begins as a typical historical novel set on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia leads the...

Pros: A dark, compelling, intriguing read.
Cons: Perhaps too heavy for some readers.

I have an annoying ability to be able to predict the outcome of most of the novels I read by the end of the second chapter, I didn't even come close with this book.

Set in WWI era Nova Scotia, Canada, this richly detailed novel is as...

Pros: amazing storyline, beautifully written
Cons: it ends!

For her first novel, MacDonald really outdid herself. This book is absolutely outstanding. I was blown away by the beauty of the writing. The story was wonderfully written and the words just flew off the page as I was reading so quickly. I could not put...

Pros: It hardened me to news of beheadings and took away my appetite.
Cons: The book is well constructed, useless sadistic garbage

I'm astounded that anyone liked this book. I agree, the author is a skilled writer. But to what end, chronic depression?

This book truly polluted my mind. I wish I could just forget I ever read it. It does suck you in, but to where? Not a redeeming interaction in sight, just pure, horrific, never ending mental torture and brain damaging imagery.

I should have burned it when the deformed cat suffocated, but no, I had to keep going until the sadistic torture scene where Francis torments the Lily, her younger sister, who is really her niece, with horrifying family secrets and then comforts her by offering her a breast to nurse on.

Who needs this? Why anyone would recommend this depressing mentally abusive book is beyond me. It makes me wonder if Oprah has a sadistic side herself. This book should never have been written, let alone endorsed by Oprah. That's my first and last Oprah book club offering!

I may never be able to look the person in the eye who conveniently forgot they ever owned the book after leaving it by "accident". I've had bloody mouthed cats drop less gory gifts around the house.