Book info

• Title Catch Me When I Fall
• Author Nicci French
• Year 2005
• Genre Thriller

Holly Krauss is a city girl burning the candle at both ends. Despite a comfortable home life, a tough job and friends who admire her, she secretly enjoys taking reckless, dangerous walks on the wild side. But Holly can't keep those worlds separate forever. Soon enough her secret life bleeds into her safe one and everything spirals out of control. She's making mistakes at home and at work, owes money to the wrong people - and now it seems that someone's stalking her. Could it just be paranoia or is she in very real danger? And who can you trust when you can no longer trust yourself?

Thoughts

This is the story of two deaths, or near-deaths, told in two distinct parts by two narrators. It follows the story of Holly, a girl who seemingly has it all but finds her life crumbling around her as she falls ill and subsequently tries to kill herself. The second part of the story follows Holly’s best friend as she tries to pick up the pieces.

It’s an interesting one, this. It’s a difficult story to read, especially the first half, because you know that everything is going wrong and you have an inkling it’s because of illness rather than recklessness, and thus it’s hard to watch Holly spiral out of control as she does. However, all that build up makes the pay off much more worth it, when things turn out to not have been quite as they seemed.

It’s not your traditional crime story, instead a story of love and life, mental illness, and how desperate people will do desperate things. A tragic tale, really, but one that winds its way to a relatively happy ending.

Rating: 3 / 5