Book Review | The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

What begins as the story of a lost boy turns into a story of a brave man yearning to understand what happened that night, in the years since, and to his very person.

While on vacation with their parents, Matthew Homes and his older brother snuck out in the middle of the night. Only Matthew came home safely. Ten years later, Matthew tells us, he has found a way to bring his brother back ... 

Unafraid to look at the shadows of our hearts, Nathan Filer's rare and brilliant debut shows us the strength that is rooted in resilience and love.

MY THOUGHTS

The Shock of the Fall' is the story of a man's journey of guilt, grief and struggle with schizophrenia after he loses his older brother in an accident as a child. 

We follow Matt, who is writing down his story from the time he lost his brother in an incident to his adulthood as he is struggling with mental illness. It has to be my first contemporary book related to mental illness and it was a good introduction to this sub-genre.

This sad yet hopeful book had so many heartbreaking moments, especially as we see Matt's mental deterioration and the impact it had on his and his family's life. As Nathan Filer's debut novel and as a medical health nurse himself he clearly shows that he knows about this subject pretty clearly ( to my novice eyes at least), it was heartbreaking and raw in the writing. 

All the small details the narrator thought about related to his brother as daily life goes on was really throat gripping. Even a small line packs a powerful punch and teared you up.

Few issues I had with this book were with its jumbled narration and my inability to follow the timeline in a few places. We have small sections of different incidents of Matt's life where we go back and forth a lot. These sections were very short and ended quite abruptly only to pick up further after a few pages, it was kind of confusing for me in some places.

Overall, this was a heart touching book which left a mark and was a good start for mental health contemporary genre for me!

Overall Rating - 3.5 Stars!