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margaretmechinus's review against another edition
4.0
The first chapter had me hooked, and by pg 100, I kept reading on into the night. A divorce, a dog, a daughter and a mothers dignity. Very well told.
tensy's review against another edition
4.0
Moriarty is a local Kansas writer and I like that she sets her novels in the area where I live. She certainly understands the pulse of campus life and her protagonist, Veronica, deals not only with the pressures of college, but those of her disintegrating family. At one point in the novel she explains, "I was still screwing up. I couldn't stop. It was like I was in free fall." We have all had those moments when a series of events go so badly that the rug is literally pulled out from under our feet and we fall flat on our asses. This happens to several characters in this novel and the plot centers on how they face those crisis. Moriarty does a fine job of focusing on the lives of these women and their inter-relationships. In the novel, we discover that it is when the world looks bleakest and when important things have been lost that we are offered an opportunity to reevaluate our lives and discover alternative paths. This story speaks on a variety of levels about women's lives and the choices we make. I thought to give this to my daughter to read, but the passages describing Veronica's battle with Organic Chemistry were still too raw in my own daughter's experiences in her pre-med classes to find this novel entertaining! Everything she writes about the pressures and competition in that class are uncomfortably accurate.
brylkayyy's review against another edition
4.0
It's been quite some time since I could find a character that I could relate to.
serenastrike's review
3.0
The fact that it was set in Lawrence caught my attention, but I felt like the story was never really resolved. Has its moments, but ultimately disappointing.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
3.0
3 STARS
"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." (From Amazon)
A coming of age story of a college student. Another well-written novel by a great author.
"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." (From Amazon)
A coming of age story of a college student. Another well-written novel by a great author.
mmapother11's review against another edition
3.0
I love this author but this one of her best books. It is a very slow starter. Took me quite a bit to get into it. The overall theses and plot lines are touching.
sonia_reppe's review
1.0
Disappointed in this one. Theme is things falling apart: Veronica's parents marriage and her college classes are out of control. Then she makes some bad choices and those get out of control. For me the premises and situations of this book were so unimaginative. Like if the author was in a hurry and said to herself, "Okay, how can I give my character Veronica a really shitty day? Like this: She'll get in a car wreck and she'll throw a party that gets out of control. And I'll have her cheat on her boyfriend so that relationship falls apart." About the characters, the parents were written okay, but Veronica's friend and boyfriend were just there to say to Veronica the exact thing that she needed to help her move along in the story. So cliche. I could talk about all the other cliches, like when the mom moves into a cheap apartment that smells like curry, and the wholesome, charming, highschool homecoming queen who is different now—she is goth. It was so predictable: the cute guy in the dorm whom she hooks up with, and everything else.
lisa_mc's review
3.0
Veronica Von Holten is a pre-med student at the University of Kansas and is struggling through an already tough semester when she gets the news that her parents are divorcing. The stress leads her to a couple of bad decisions over a long weekend, which are only the beginning of an upheaval that will change her life: Her plans, her goals, her relationship with each of her parents.
When her mother shows up at her dorm room, homeless, elderly dog in tow, Veronica is pushed nearly to the breaking point. Her sister lives in California, so for the first time it’s up to Veronica to deal responsibly with other people’s problems.
Moriarty creates multifaceted, realistic characters, presenting them sympathetically without glossing over their flaws. Neither parent is blameless in the split; each is wounded and at times selfish, but decent enough to not make things worse than they have to be.
The plot of “While I’m Falling” is less ripped-from-the-headlines than the ones in Moriarty’s previous novels — not that a timely plot is bad — but in this book a closer focus on the characters allows a deeper look into their fears and hopes without the distraction of a larger issue. There’s a little of that near the end, but the book is about family: what the people in it owe each other, and what they should be able to offer each other freely.
Moriarty’s dialogue rings true and her exploration of emotions, particularly Veronica’s, strikes the right tone for empathy.
Without dropping into melodrama, “While I’m Falling” puts faces on a family breakdown, allowing us to observe as everyone gets up, dusts off, and starts to figure out where to go next.
When her mother shows up at her dorm room, homeless, elderly dog in tow, Veronica is pushed nearly to the breaking point. Her sister lives in California, so for the first time it’s up to Veronica to deal responsibly with other people’s problems.
Moriarty creates multifaceted, realistic characters, presenting them sympathetically without glossing over their flaws. Neither parent is blameless in the split; each is wounded and at times selfish, but decent enough to not make things worse than they have to be.
The plot of “While I’m Falling” is less ripped-from-the-headlines than the ones in Moriarty’s previous novels — not that a timely plot is bad — but in this book a closer focus on the characters allows a deeper look into their fears and hopes without the distraction of a larger issue. There’s a little of that near the end, but the book is about family: what the people in it owe each other, and what they should be able to offer each other freely.
Moriarty’s dialogue rings true and her exploration of emotions, particularly Veronica’s, strikes the right tone for empathy.
Without dropping into melodrama, “While I’m Falling” puts faces on a family breakdown, allowing us to observe as everyone gets up, dusts off, and starts to figure out where to go next.
amberfinnegan's review
3.0
It seems a lot of people didnt like this book, but I did. Read it all this evening, and although it was not the best book ever, I did catch myself laughing out loud a couple of times, and yes it successfully pulled on my heart strings.
A nice quick mother/daughter read.
A nice quick mother/daughter read.
lazygal's review
2.0
Veronica's father finds Roofer Guy in the marital bed, and decides to divorce her mother. As a result, Mom starts on one of those downward slides where everything just snowballs into A Bad Life. Veronica, in college as a pre-med, is heading in the same direction. Not doing her job as an RA well, not getting Organic Chemistry, just Not Doing in general.
The problem is that I just didn't feel sorry for her. I know what depression can be like, and yet there was a part of me that wanted to say "Grab hold of yourself - snap out of this!". It just felt that Veronica didn't want her life to be better, that she just didn't care. Since she wasn't sympathetically drawn as a character, I just didn't care. Which is a pity, because my first thoughts were that this book might make a nice progression up from Sarah Dessen's oeuvre for my students.
The problem is that I just didn't feel sorry for her. I know what depression can be like, and yet there was a part of me that wanted to say "Grab hold of yourself - snap out of this!". It just felt that Veronica didn't want her life to be better, that she just didn't care. Since she wasn't sympathetically drawn as a character, I just didn't care. Which is a pity, because my first thoughts were that this book might make a nice progression up from Sarah Dessen's oeuvre for my students.