Fall on Your Knees: Book Review
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Fall On Your Knees is a whirlwind book. The plot has so many twists and unexpected events that it can give your brain whiplash. That said, maybe your brain needs a little whiplash. The book is certainly refreshingly unpredictable.
The book centers around one family living in Canada from the early to mid 1900s. The parents, James and Materia Piper, have a complicated relationship at the best of times. Their daughters are the true stars of the story. Beginning with the luminescent Kathleen with the voice of an angel and the glittering quality of a star and also a yearning for something more, MacDonald weaves a story that is equally character- and plot driven. Her characters are so moving and fully fleshed, that when you finish the book, you might mourn the loss of them. Yet MacDonald isn’t too attached to the characters that she doesn’t allow the story to flow in painful and shocking directions.
This book isn’t for the faint of heart as it has controversial and sometimes horrid events in it. It is still, despite that, a powerful and compassionate story of a family torn apart and in the end, somehow patched together again.