Just Another Bookish Blog

The Shock of the Fall, by Nathan Filer

Hi all!
Today, I also finished The Shock of the Fall, by Nathan Filer. 
I'm not going to lie, this book made me cry. 
And its going to be very hard to describe. 

This book is about a boy, Matt, who lost his brother when he was nine. The story is about him dealing with his loss, growing up, and his mental illness. 

This book was difficult yet amazing to read. I say difficult because due to Matt's mental illness, it his hard to follow his thought process, as he tends to jump from the present, to a memory, to his imagination. He also uses a lot of analogies, which often left me wondering weather what was written had actually happened or not. 

The descriptions in this book are beautifully written, and certain repeating themes are very interesting to read about. One thing that I really loved about it is that each chapter is written as if a person had really come, sat down a behind a computer, and started writing a kind of diary. 

"PLEASE STOP READING OVER MY SHOULDER. She keeps reading over my shoulder. It is hard enough to concentrate in this place without people reading over your shoulder. I had to put that in big letters to drive the message home. It worked, but now I feel bad about it" 

"I already told you that" He says this many times throughout the book, when things get repetitive. It's as if he is reminding himself, or us, that he had already said something, to elaborate on it. 

Another interesting point about the physical book itself is that there are two different fonts. When the main character moves into his own apartment, he is given a typewriter. Then, the font changes, as Matt is writing on his new typewriter. There are also drawings, letters, and small messages throughout the book, making it seem more like a compilation of printed pages, typed pages, and sketches. Really cool format. And the cover is pretty. 

Now about the story itself. Its a definite tear-jerker, especially towards the end. All of sparse bits of information given at the beginning at the story all come together at the end to create one coherent  series of events. Quite a few times, I had that feeling where you want to hug a character for them to feel better. 
And then you get to the part where the chapter's title says exactly whats going on.

Oh

And then all of the random outbursts of information, imagination, and overall strangeness end up making total sense. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone! 

This book completed my "A book that made you cry" goal
5/5 stars on goodreads

Yay c: