What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fall: A Novel
IAN is a film buff trying to figure things out. Like what to do with the rest of his life. Or, in the meantime, what to do about the football player he can't stop fantasizing about.
CASEY is a football star who has it all. Or does he? Bored with his girlfriend and—for the first time—approaching a life beyond football, he’s restless for something more.
HAILE is a burned out classical music prodigy who dreams of becoming a successful singer-songwriter. Escaping her controlling mother was one thing—but becoming her new self is harder than she ever imagined.
Thrown together during their senior year at an isolated New England university, Ian, Haile and Casey forge an unlikely triangle that—like all fateful relationships—alters the course of their lives. Sexy, fast-paced and layered with intimate insight about life’s most formative years, The Fall is a stunning coming-of-age story about identity, contemporary friendships, first love and the unraveling of secrets that aren't meant to live on.
Fall semester. Senior year.
Life. Starts. Now.
CASEY is a football star who has it all. Or does he? Bored with his girlfriend and—for the first time—approaching a life beyond football, he’s restless for something more.
HAILE is a burned out classical music prodigy who dreams of becoming a successful singer-songwriter. Escaping her controlling mother was one thing—but becoming her new self is harder than she ever imagined.
Thrown together during their senior year at an isolated New England university, Ian, Haile and Casey forge an unlikely triangle that—like all fateful relationships—alters the course of their lives. Sexy, fast-paced and layered with intimate insight about life’s most formative years, The Fall is a stunning coming-of-age story about identity, contemporary friendships, first love and the unraveling of secrets that aren't meant to live on.
Fall semester. Senior year.
Life. Starts. Now.
348 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2010
66 people are currently reading
485 people want to read
About the author
Ryan Quinn
25 books155 followersRyan Quinn is the best-selling author of the novels The Good Traitor, End of Secrets, and The Fall.
A native of Alaska, Quinn was an NCAA DI Champion while on the University of Utah Ski team. He worked in book publishing for five years in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles where he writes and trains for marathons.
A native of Alaska, Quinn was an NCAA DI Champion while on the University of Utah Ski team. He worked in book publishing for five years in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles where he writes and trains for marathons.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
July 16, 2012
Maybe I am just getting old, but I found all three lead characters--seniors in college--to be insufferable! Here is what I'd like to say to them:
Haile (pronounced HAL-Lee, but her real name is Haven Libby *groan*) is running away from a perfectionist mother by ditching her studies at Juliard and enrolling in the rural Florence University: GET OVER YOURSELF!
Ian is a gay (but closeted--in 2012!) former high school football star that has now taken up tennis. He has also taken up being petulant: GET OVER YOURSELF!
Casey is the Florence football star that starts to come around to the fact that not all women are objects, and that there's more to life than football: GET OVER YOURSELF!
Were we awful people when we were in college? Maybe I'm just having selective amnesia, but I would like to think that by senior year, we mostly had our shit together.
Haile (pronounced HAL-Lee, but her real name is Haven Libby *groan*) is running away from a perfectionist mother by ditching her studies at Juliard and enrolling in the rural Florence University: GET OVER YOURSELF!
Ian is a gay (but closeted--in 2012!) former high school football star that has now taken up tennis. He has also taken up being petulant: GET OVER YOURSELF!
Casey is the Florence football star that starts to come around to the fact that not all women are objects, and that there's more to life than football: GET OVER YOURSELF!
Were we awful people when we were in college? Maybe I'm just having selective amnesia, but I would like to think that by senior year, we mostly had our shit together.
June 19, 2025
I loved how the author had a different way of starting each of the characters point-of-view chapters. Ian’s character is a film buff, so each of his chapters started off like a movie script. Casey’s chapters started with social media updates of what was going on in his life. Hailee’s were the only chapters that started off normally. This was fun and helped to showcase each of their personalities.
Some of Casey’s chapters were hard to read. There was one scene where he led a hazing activity for the new members of the football team. There was also one of Casey’s friends I didn’t like. His nickname was Pile Driver, and the guy was both stupid and a jerk. The way he talked about women was disgusting. Casey seemed like a decent guy for the most part. I couldn’t understand why he considered him a friend.
I felt so bad for Ian. Coming out is always hard, but when most of the people you’re coming out to have bad reactions, that’s got to make it harder to continue telling people. You never know how someone is going to react to that news until you tell them.
Haile’s backstory on how she ended up going to Florence University was interesting to unravel. I don’t know what was going on with her when it came to the things she forced on to Ian. It’s like she couldn’t accept the fact that her crush was gay and wasn’t interested in her. I love how she handled the situation with his Art History professor though.
Warning for gay slurs, hazing, and a male being sexual assault by a female
Some of Casey’s chapters were hard to read. There was one scene where he led a hazing activity for the new members of the football team. There was also one of Casey’s friends I didn’t like. His nickname was Pile Driver, and the guy was both stupid and a jerk. The way he talked about women was disgusting. Casey seemed like a decent guy for the most part. I couldn’t understand why he considered him a friend.
I felt so bad for Ian. Coming out is always hard, but when most of the people you’re coming out to have bad reactions, that’s got to make it harder to continue telling people. You never know how someone is going to react to that news until you tell them.
Haile’s backstory on how she ended up going to Florence University was interesting to unravel. I don’t know what was going on with her when it came to the things she forced on to Ian. It’s like she couldn’t accept the fact that her crush was gay and wasn’t interested in her. I love how she handled the situation with his Art History professor though.
Warning for gay slurs, hazing, and a male being sexual assault by a female
August 26, 2017
It was free. I'm glad of that. I feel like Mr. Quinn attempted to write a more literate, less salacious version of Bret Easton Ellis' "The Rules of Attraction." But if you're going to set such low standards, you aren't going to achieve very much, and he doesn't. I only kept reading the stupid thing because of my masochistic tendency to finish everything, and my genuine curiosity to find out if he could sustain the level of tedium he generates in the first few chapters. Sadly, he does. It's rather a waste, since Mr. Quinn isn't a bad stylist. In fact, he describes experiences like playing music and sports rather well. However, he doesn't create characters, he has ideas for characters, and their weirdly affectless inner lives (his heroine, Haile, is equally excited stripping naked and proposing a threesome as she is ordering coffee, which is to say, not very) and undifferentiated narrative voices (the football running back, the violin prodigy, and the tortured gay tennis player all think and talk like NPR hosts) make them about as fascinating as the animatronic mannequins in basic-cable teen soap operas. Which I think Mr. Quinn watches fairly often. The token black female characters is, of course, sassy, oversexed, and addresses people as "girl." At least Bret Easton Ellis would have given her a coke habit or an uncle who's a famous rapper.
June 13, 2012
The Fall is well written book that fails. It is good failure; the plot is well paced and keeps the reader interested. Quinn even shows some talent for writing the sort of incandescent scenes that stick out in the reader's mind a long while after the book is finished. But ultimately I'm left dwelling more on the book's flaws than on its successes.
I think much of whats wrong with the book can be traced to the author's reliance on contrived plot points to form the characters and move the action forward. An example of this is the ridiculous talent and accomplishment of the three main characters: Casey, Ian, and Haile . Casey is a high Division 1 football starter with enough talent to entertain some thoughts of joining the NFL. Ian not only has enough talent and skill to be a Division 1 quarterback, but, was a good enough tennis player to offhandedly finagle that into a Division 1 scholarship when he decided he wasn't interested in football. Haile is one of the country's top young violinists. All prove to be more than competent visual artists. All are in the same art history class, and two were childhood best friends.
Now there's no need for a novel to be realistic, but it does need to be believable on its own terms. Even if one excuses the contrived nature of their coming together, the extraordinary level of accomplishment needs to be explained or at least understood by the reader. Here their extraordinary vocations only present themselves in superficial details. Casey and Ian's athletic pursuits happen mostly outside the novel, and Quinn doesn't seem to show much interest in their physical reality as much as the status they convey upon the characters. Haile's musical world has more detail to it, but, again, most of the action occurs out of the novel, and we don't really get to experience through Haile what its like to play the violin at a level most of us could only dream of. Quinn is either too timid to try or not interested, and neither quality is particularly edifying in a writer.
Conveying convincing scenes in the rarified air that these characters inhabit requires more color and texture than the author has provided. Contrast the superficial feeling of the music and football worlds in this book with that world of comic book writing in the 30s in The Amazing Adventures Cavalier and Clay. In that book, the cycles of creativity, success, and failure associated with the comic book industry organically drove the plot forward, and the world felt like it really had existed. Here football and music mostly serve as gods from a machine to plop external shocks in the characters emotional lives. They may as well have all been working at a convenience store.
And maybe they should have, the emotions of the characters seem to be what Quinn is interested in here, and what he is best at writing about. The characters would have felt more poignant and believable in a setting the author was more familiar with, and the plot may have developed more organically to better connect the compelling emotional scenes this book gives us. As it is the novel is more drab and unsatisfying than it ought to be.
I think much of whats wrong with the book can be traced to the author's reliance on contrived plot points to form the characters and move the action forward. An example of this is the ridiculous talent and accomplishment of the three main characters: Casey, Ian, and Haile . Casey is a high Division 1 football starter with enough talent to entertain some thoughts of joining the NFL. Ian not only has enough talent and skill to be a Division 1 quarterback, but, was a good enough tennis player to offhandedly finagle that into a Division 1 scholarship when he decided he wasn't interested in football. Haile is one of the country's top young violinists. All prove to be more than competent visual artists. All are in the same art history class, and two were childhood best friends.
Now there's no need for a novel to be realistic, but it does need to be believable on its own terms. Even if one excuses the contrived nature of their coming together, the extraordinary level of accomplishment needs to be explained or at least understood by the reader. Here their extraordinary vocations only present themselves in superficial details. Casey and Ian's athletic pursuits happen mostly outside the novel, and Quinn doesn't seem to show much interest in their physical reality as much as the status they convey upon the characters. Haile's musical world has more detail to it, but, again, most of the action occurs out of the novel, and we don't really get to experience through Haile what its like to play the violin at a level most of us could only dream of. Quinn is either too timid to try or not interested, and neither quality is particularly edifying in a writer.
Conveying convincing scenes in the rarified air that these characters inhabit requires more color and texture than the author has provided. Contrast the superficial feeling of the music and football worlds in this book with that world of comic book writing in the 30s in The Amazing Adventures Cavalier and Clay. In that book, the cycles of creativity, success, and failure associated with the comic book industry organically drove the plot forward, and the world felt like it really had existed. Here football and music mostly serve as gods from a machine to plop external shocks in the characters emotional lives. They may as well have all been working at a convenience store.
And maybe they should have, the emotions of the characters seem to be what Quinn is interested in here, and what he is best at writing about. The characters would have felt more poignant and believable in a setting the author was more familiar with, and the plot may have developed more organically to better connect the compelling emotional scenes this book gives us. As it is the novel is more drab and unsatisfying than it ought to be.
March 19, 2012
The Fall: A Novel is a breath-taking book in several areas. Ryan Quinn is good with his words. I liked the part he described Haile's observation of a broken-hearted Jamie when Jamie realized that the relationship he was in, was as good as over. This was not the only part. I liked how the stories interlinked. The surprise with Casey's coins. The way Haile just walked away from Ian. It was memorising, the way Quinn did it.
The stories shared in this book felt so real. These are problems that any young adults may be facing, out there, today, as we speak. I admire the way Quinn captured the mood and moments in words. Haile and Ian are avoiding confrontation. She, with her mother. He, with his parents. Casey is avoiding confrontation too - his lack of commitment to his girlfriend, Krista. And throw in Haile with the past she does not want to face and Ian with his secret life, the book was entertaining and engaging.
Although confusing at first, I did like the way Quinn tried to start the stories for each of the characters, when it came to their turn. Haile, with the subtitle. Ian, with the idea of a video capturing the moment he was in, before his stories began. And Casey, with the poking, tagging, status updates and so on, presumably Facebook activities. However, at times, their stories were short and I was lost as to focus on whose stories I was reading on.
That said, I was a little bitter about not being able to give this a 5-star. I wanted to, so badly because I was enjoying the book. However, it felt like the book focused more on Haile, the fag hag. Sorry, but she was. She was so in love with Ian that she did not want to accept his homosexuality at first. And bitterly disappointed to know that she could not have Ian. Here is what I felt wrong with the book. The description stated Ian first. Haile was described last. Ian was said to be in love with a football star, which Casey was described as one. Typical gay boy falling for his best friend stuff, it seemed. However, the story focused more on Haile and her issues. There was little to describe Ian's confrontation with his parents. Casey was thrown in, not for Ian, but for Haile.
So, Ian ended up as the secondary character in a novel which was sold as a gay themed. Haile got the scheme. Haile got her confrontation issue with her mother. Haile faced up to her past. And Haile got the boy. Who did Ian get? A guy whom Ian could not commit to, initially, and a guy who could not commit sincerely to Ian, eventually.
The funny thing was also about how Ian got a problem down there after posing naked for Haile. I mean, tired body after hours of posing, and he got a 'north pole'. It should have been a scene between Ian and Casey. Are we selling to the wrong crowd here? I felt that Haile got an ending. Ian got a brush-off. It was not really about Casey. So, I ended up reading a gay-themed book on a girl who got her way. Like wow... Really?
Still, I look forward to Ryan Quinn's future work, if it is involving gay theme again. He writes beautifully.
The stories shared in this book felt so real. These are problems that any young adults may be facing, out there, today, as we speak. I admire the way Quinn captured the mood and moments in words. Haile and Ian are avoiding confrontation. She, with her mother. He, with his parents. Casey is avoiding confrontation too - his lack of commitment to his girlfriend, Krista. And throw in Haile with the past she does not want to face and Ian with his secret life, the book was entertaining and engaging.
Although confusing at first, I did like the way Quinn tried to start the stories for each of the characters, when it came to their turn. Haile, with the subtitle. Ian, with the idea of a video capturing the moment he was in, before his stories began. And Casey, with the poking, tagging, status updates and so on, presumably Facebook activities. However, at times, their stories were short and I was lost as to focus on whose stories I was reading on.
That said, I was a little bitter about not being able to give this a 5-star. I wanted to, so badly because I was enjoying the book. However, it felt like the book focused more on Haile, the fag hag. Sorry, but she was. She was so in love with Ian that she did not want to accept his homosexuality at first. And bitterly disappointed to know that she could not have Ian. Here is what I felt wrong with the book. The description stated Ian first. Haile was described last. Ian was said to be in love with a football star, which Casey was described as one. Typical gay boy falling for his best friend stuff, it seemed. However, the story focused more on Haile and her issues. There was little to describe Ian's confrontation with his parents. Casey was thrown in, not for Ian, but for Haile.
So, Ian ended up as the secondary character in a novel which was sold as a gay themed. Haile got the scheme. Haile got her confrontation issue with her mother. Haile faced up to her past. And Haile got the boy. Who did Ian get? A guy whom Ian could not commit to, initially, and a guy who could not commit sincerely to Ian, eventually.
The funny thing was also about how Ian got a problem down there after posing naked for Haile. I mean, tired body after hours of posing, and he got a 'north pole'. It should have been a scene between Ian and Casey. Are we selling to the wrong crowd here? I felt that Haile got an ending. Ian got a brush-off. It was not really about Casey. So, I ended up reading a gay-themed book on a girl who got her way. Like wow... Really?
Still, I look forward to Ryan Quinn's future work, if it is involving gay theme again. He writes beautifully.
May 7, 2012
I don't know where to begin with this book so... I'll begin by saying that I won this book through a Goodreads first-reads giveaway. I'm so happy I did. The author was nice enough to even sign the book. I thought that was so awesome because the only time I had a signed book was when I picked up a book at my favorite used bookstore, and it was signed to someone named "Pat" by the author. I felt like it was fate... I digress.
The author, Ryan Quinn, has found a way to transport me into every scene, in every chapter, on every page of this book. The book is about three college seniors realizing that it's time to start making adult decisions and become the people they want to be. I really enjoyed taking the journey with them in their respective stories. Haile wants to break free of her controlling mother and find out what she really wants from life regarding her music by exploring her ability to make her own decisions. Ian is a film buff who is struggling with being comfortable with who he is and who he thinks others expect him to be. Casey is a football jock who seems like the average frat guy but was surprisingly my favortite charachter in the book.
The book is told from the three charachters point of view. I really enjoyed how their chapters were presented in way that had to do with their personalities. It was a clever way of changing the scene. I also enjoyed passages from this book that instantly stuck with me. My favorite is "We can never be how others imagine us". Overall, I really enjoyed taking this journey with these three students. I would love to read more from this author in the future.
The author, Ryan Quinn, has found a way to transport me into every scene, in every chapter, on every page of this book. The book is about three college seniors realizing that it's time to start making adult decisions and become the people they want to be. I really enjoyed taking the journey with them in their respective stories. Haile wants to break free of her controlling mother and find out what she really wants from life regarding her music by exploring her ability to make her own decisions. Ian is a film buff who is struggling with being comfortable with who he is and who he thinks others expect him to be. Casey is a football jock who seems like the average frat guy but was surprisingly my favortite charachter in the book.
The book is told from the three charachters point of view. I really enjoyed how their chapters were presented in way that had to do with their personalities. It was a clever way of changing the scene. I also enjoyed passages from this book that instantly stuck with me. My favorite is "We can never be how others imagine us". Overall, I really enjoyed taking this journey with these three students. I would love to read more from this author in the future.
May 8, 2012
Review sampled from Paper Frontiers
Before I start the review I'd like to thank the author and Goodreads for hosting the giveaway.
The Fall is an emotional story packed with page-turning drama and characters depicted so realistically it seems like three autobiographies interwoven into one book. The gay theme of the story isn't so intense that straight readers will be turned away, but if you're homophobic then, obviously, don't read it.
The good news of The Fall is that the book is beautifully written. Quinn truly has a talent that can't be overlooked, and deserves more recognition.
The bad news is that The Fall lacks in a few areas. It seemed as if Casey's side wasn't nearly as developed as Haile's or Ian's, and thus he felt more like a convenient "filling"whenever points in the plot needed to be connected. Then there was the sexual content. You get so wrapped up in the author's lyrical flow of storytelling, and then all of the sudden you're taken aback by the explicit details. Next was the plot. The author had tried to fit too many problems and sprung them on sporadically, that at a certain point you're not sure which ones have been solved yet and which ones deserve the main focus.
May 6, 2012
I decided to read this because I enjoy coming-of-age stories, it had good reviews at Amazon, and the Kindle edition was inexpensive.
The book is well-written, but I always had the feeling I was reading a first novel. At times it tried too hard to be literary. I admire the attempts to write with authority about college athletics, art, and classical music, but I kept wondering how much the author really understood about any of these topics. The idea that a major university could start its football season and then, smack in the middle of the season hire a head coach from another major university and have him relocate across the country within a matter of weeks, or that a prodigy of the caliber of Haile spent so little time practicing and seemed to be able to play violin and piano and write music with such ease, or that an art professor's book would have such obvious and easily verifiable false information -- all these things detracted from the believability of the story.
There are three main characters, and while the Quinn does a good job fleshing each of them out, it was hard to care about as much as I would if this had been primarily Haile's story, or Ian's, or Casey's.
The book is well-written, but I always had the feeling I was reading a first novel. At times it tried too hard to be literary. I admire the attempts to write with authority about college athletics, art, and classical music, but I kept wondering how much the author really understood about any of these topics. The idea that a major university could start its football season and then, smack in the middle of the season hire a head coach from another major university and have him relocate across the country within a matter of weeks, or that a prodigy of the caliber of Haile spent so little time practicing and seemed to be able to play violin and piano and write music with such ease, or that an art professor's book would have such obvious and easily verifiable false information -- all these things detracted from the believability of the story.
There are three main characters, and while the Quinn does a good job fleshing each of them out, it was hard to care about as much as I would if this had been primarily Haile's story, or Ian's, or Casey's.
August 16, 2017
Just an average coming-of-age story. The characters were easy to relate to so it made the story more real. Their lives and the scenarios they were involved in were normal situations for teenagers. I appreciated that there was a gay character in this book struggling with the coming out process because not many authors have the guts to do that. I was originally drawn to this book because of the art aspect. It focuses a lot on music as well as visual art, which I loved. However, I kept feeling like there was something missing, and that feeling didn't go away by the end, even though I did like the ending. Also, there was a little bit too much "cock" talk for me.
November 4, 2018
I like how each of the three narrators is introduced in a different way, and by the end of the book I liked all three of those characters. Haile does have some issues with consent that are never addressed, which I don’t love.
July 22, 2022
Strong Twists & Turns
Good summer read. Really enjoyed how the author wove the characters together. He gives the reader time to get to know each of them, while also allowing an intricate story to be unveiled.
Good summer read. Really enjoyed how the author wove the characters together. He gives the reader time to get to know each of them, while also allowing an intricate story to be unveiled.
June 4, 2018
Slow reading at times
A Story about college students who are making choices that are sexual oriented. Too much sexual description and bad language
A Story about college students who are making choices that are sexual oriented. Too much sexual description and bad language
December 21, 2021
Fabulous read. About a music major, football player and tennis player at Florence University discovering who they really are.
January 10, 2015
The book alternates between different points of view of the three main characters. This keeps it moving at a very nice pace and although it may sound awkward, it isn’t and it’s very readable. If you only read a few pages at a time, this format provides perfect breaks.
The plot was unpredictable, yet engaging at first. Towards the middle it became more obvious as to the outcome, yet still provided some twists. Some of these twists were subtle, of which one was fairly major and I missed it and had to go back. Well worth the effort.
The author did an excellent job with descriptions of things and places, sometimes you felt like you were there. He wasn’t entirely consistent with taking the reader to the place the characters were, but he did a better job than many. The dialog represented a more masculine format (two of the main characters are male) by which I mean that the dialog was sparse and not effusive. One of the lessor characters, a dad, had the most taciturn conversations of all.
I loved the ending. Major and minor characters had neatly tied up storylines. Yet there is room for a sequel.
This book is a billed as an “unlikely” love story. I can see that. My only disappointment is that the sexy times were not very sexy. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not an “adult romance novel”, but it does need more spice in that department. It’s a story about college students, and their hookups are rather boring to my eyes. The M/M relationships are sterile and non-descriptive. The M/F relationships are better, but need spice.
I think this book is okay for everyone that understands that people have relationships and non-descriptive sex. Violence is kept to the football field. Probably less sex, innuendo, violence and adult language than the average prime time TV show.
I’m torn on my rating. It’s a solid four plus. It’s almost a five, but not quite because of the lack of “sexy” sexy times. I think I’ll give it a five because I really liked it.
This is the first book by this author. He has a second one out which I will definitely read. I think it’s a book that is well worth reading.
The plot was unpredictable, yet engaging at first. Towards the middle it became more obvious as to the outcome, yet still provided some twists. Some of these twists were subtle, of which one was fairly major and I missed it and had to go back. Well worth the effort.
The author did an excellent job with descriptions of things and places, sometimes you felt like you were there. He wasn’t entirely consistent with taking the reader to the place the characters were, but he did a better job than many. The dialog represented a more masculine format (two of the main characters are male) by which I mean that the dialog was sparse and not effusive. One of the lessor characters, a dad, had the most taciturn conversations of all.
I loved the ending. Major and minor characters had neatly tied up storylines. Yet there is room for a sequel.
This book is a billed as an “unlikely” love story. I can see that. My only disappointment is that the sexy times were not very sexy. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not an “adult romance novel”, but it does need more spice in that department. It’s a story about college students, and their hookups are rather boring to my eyes. The M/M relationships are sterile and non-descriptive. The M/F relationships are better, but need spice.
I think this book is okay for everyone that understands that people have relationships and non-descriptive sex. Violence is kept to the football field. Probably less sex, innuendo, violence and adult language than the average prime time TV show.
I’m torn on my rating. It’s a solid four plus. It’s almost a five, but not quite because of the lack of “sexy” sexy times. I think I’ll give it a five because I really liked it.
This is the first book by this author. He has a second one out which I will definitely read. I think it’s a book that is well worth reading.
September 13, 2013
I liked this book more than I should have. The writing is good, not great, and the storyline left me hanging and wanting more, but I can not deny I kept turning the pages, sacrificing sleep, and in some cases even work, in order to find out what happened next. The "college experience" these characters had is certainly much different than my own, but I found myself WANTING to have had some of those experiences.
I am very stingy with my highlights in a book, often not amassing more than 10 per book, but I just counted and this one has 19, so maybe my earlier remark about the writing not being great should be amended. I like the way the author captured the excitement and nervous energy of going (back) to school and the setting descriptions made me feel the crispness in the air, the turning leaves, the sweaters and football games. I liked the awkward flirtations and the idea that spontaneous ideas don't always turn out the way you planned. That's life. That's education. That's the truth. The author describes it as "A series of opportunities and missed opportunities. Exams and grades and blue books and blue balls and majors and minors and liberal arts and liberal minds.".
I thought the character development was exceptional, and I could empathize with each of them as they traveled their own unknown paths. There was even a sprinkling of education concerning wine and art appreciation, football, music and loss.
In a story about exploration and discovery, my favorite line of the book came a little after half way through, when my favorite character Jaime tells his friend Haile "Safe is nice, unless it lasts forever. It's not a way to live a life."
I have a sneaky suspicion I will be reading this book again and again, when the leaves start to turn, and the coolness descends each autumn, I'll find my favorite sweater, brew a cuppa and sit down with these characters in The Fall.
PS - I would LOVE a follow up novel that takes place about 10 years after this one ends.
I am very stingy with my highlights in a book, often not amassing more than 10 per book, but I just counted and this one has 19, so maybe my earlier remark about the writing not being great should be amended. I like the way the author captured the excitement and nervous energy of going (back) to school and the setting descriptions made me feel the crispness in the air, the turning leaves, the sweaters and football games. I liked the awkward flirtations and the idea that spontaneous ideas don't always turn out the way you planned. That's life. That's education. That's the truth. The author describes it as "A series of opportunities and missed opportunities. Exams and grades and blue books and blue balls and majors and minors and liberal arts and liberal minds.".
I thought the character development was exceptional, and I could empathize with each of them as they traveled their own unknown paths. There was even a sprinkling of education concerning wine and art appreciation, football, music and loss.
In a story about exploration and discovery, my favorite line of the book came a little after half way through, when my favorite character Jaime tells his friend Haile "Safe is nice, unless it lasts forever. It's not a way to live a life."
I have a sneaky suspicion I will be reading this book again and again, when the leaves start to turn, and the coolness descends each autumn, I'll find my favorite sweater, brew a cuppa and sit down with these characters in The Fall.
PS - I would LOVE a follow up novel that takes place about 10 years after this one ends.
June 17, 2012
I was fortunate enough to read "The Fall" by Ryan Quinn because of the Goodreads giveaways. In addition to winning the novel, I received a signed copy by the author. I would like to thank Goodreads and Ryan Quinn for posting this as a giveaway.
College. The best years of our lives. However this is not always the case. Haile, Casey and Ian all attend Florence University located in the Pennsylvania countryside on their journey into young adulthood. Haile is an accomplished musician who left Julliard, and her overbearing mother, in order to branch out on her own and follow her own dreams. As a football player, Casey needs to step up and be the leader that his coaches know he can be. Ian has dreams that go beyond Florence, friends and family as well as a secret that threatens to break up his already fragile family life. Welcome to college guys!
Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked getting to know each character and see how they grow through their respective journeys. My favorite character was Casey because of the football background. I am a huge football fan and it was refreshing to read a novel that had football information in it without it being a full fledged sports book. Casey also stood out as a character because he was not confusing like Halie or whinny like Ian Another favorite aspect of the novel for me was the lectures in the classes. I found them to be interesting and thought provoking. I did like the book but some portions confused me and complicated the plot for no reason. Each character gave their perspective of events, so the books had three different first person POV sections. For me it became confusing, because they recapped some events that just occurred in a previous section, and I think that it could have been written in third person omniscient.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy gay fiction, young adult romances and coming of age stories.
College. The best years of our lives. However this is not always the case. Haile, Casey and Ian all attend Florence University located in the Pennsylvania countryside on their journey into young adulthood. Haile is an accomplished musician who left Julliard, and her overbearing mother, in order to branch out on her own and follow her own dreams. As a football player, Casey needs to step up and be the leader that his coaches know he can be. Ian has dreams that go beyond Florence, friends and family as well as a secret that threatens to break up his already fragile family life. Welcome to college guys!
Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked getting to know each character and see how they grow through their respective journeys. My favorite character was Casey because of the football background. I am a huge football fan and it was refreshing to read a novel that had football information in it without it being a full fledged sports book. Casey also stood out as a character because he was not confusing like Halie or whinny like Ian Another favorite aspect of the novel for me was the lectures in the classes. I found them to be interesting and thought provoking. I did like the book but some portions confused me and complicated the plot for no reason. Each character gave their perspective of events, so the books had three different first person POV sections. For me it became confusing, because they recapped some events that just occurred in a previous section, and I think that it could have been written in third person omniscient.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy gay fiction, young adult romances and coming of age stories.
May 14, 2013
Haile is a world-famous violinist who has given up her violin to try to find a different musical path for her life--one she chooses, not one her mother chooses. Casey is a football player who could do a hell of a lot better than the empty-headed girl he's dating. He's been best friends since childhood with Ian, the son of a famous football coach, who has given up football for tennis and moved several thousand miles away from his family. He knows he's gay, but no one else does. At Florence University in (I think) PA, the three come together for a little romance and self-discovery.
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did, though I'm finding it hard to put my finger on why. The setting is well done, the characters are well-constructed, and their situations are believable. I guess I felt that the book promised more than it delivered--maybe because it focused so much on each person's individual story rather than their interrelationships, and then sort of got hijacked by a side story that really had nothing to do with the main plot. I felt it got a bit bogged down in the middle (I almost stopped reading), then got rushed in the end. Things that needed more build up just kind of happened, so there wasn't the emotional impact there could have been. Maybe this would have worked better as three companion books?
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did, though I'm finding it hard to put my finger on why. The setting is well done, the characters are well-constructed, and their situations are believable. I guess I felt that the book promised more than it delivered--maybe because it focused so much on each person's individual story rather than their interrelationships, and then sort of got hijacked by a side story that really had nothing to do with the main plot. I felt it got a bit bogged down in the middle (I almost stopped reading), then got rushed in the end. Things that needed more build up just kind of happened, so there wasn't the emotional impact there could have been. Maybe this would have worked better as three companion books?
May 29, 2013
My rating lines up with the consensus on Goodreads. Better than three stars but not up to four.
I like how the title evokes multiple appropriate meanings for the story told here: The fall being football season; the fall also having biblical and artistic referents; the fall can refer to a letting go or yielding that can't be prevented; and the fall could be a plunge or dive, occasionally experienced, into the depths of who we are.
The writing was pretty solid, a very good effort, but I felt the author was holding out some, not pouring himself fully into his writing, and instead falling back on to safer, more comfortable ground.
Interestingly, his sexually explicit writing felt the most real and honest, an outpouring of true thoughts and emotions. But at other times, his writing is stilted, eliptical, and unengaging. At these times, Quinn stops showing us what is happening and tells us instead in a summary-type form.
Bring on more, Ryan Quinn, and use your talent for honest description. Don't worry as much about making the story happen. Let it happen to you as you're writing it. Good advice for all us mostly.
I like how the title evokes multiple appropriate meanings for the story told here: The fall being football season; the fall also having biblical and artistic referents; the fall can refer to a letting go or yielding that can't be prevented; and the fall could be a plunge or dive, occasionally experienced, into the depths of who we are.
The writing was pretty solid, a very good effort, but I felt the author was holding out some, not pouring himself fully into his writing, and instead falling back on to safer, more comfortable ground.
Interestingly, his sexually explicit writing felt the most real and honest, an outpouring of true thoughts and emotions. But at other times, his writing is stilted, eliptical, and unengaging. At these times, Quinn stops showing us what is happening and tells us instead in a summary-type form.
Bring on more, Ryan Quinn, and use your talent for honest description. Don't worry as much about making the story happen. Let it happen to you as you're writing it. Good advice for all us mostly.
May 14, 2012
First of all I would like to thank the author for hosting a Giveaway on Goodreads and for sending me the advanced ereader copy.
The Fall by Ryan Quinn is story of three friends at University in Florence.
Haile wants to break free of her controlling mother and find out what she really wants from life and ability to make her own decisions.
Ian is a film buff who is struggling with being comfortable with who he is and who he thinks others expect him to be, his father is a leading football coach. Ian not only has dropped football, and moved away but has also taken up tennis.
Casey is a football jock who seems like the average guy with a girlfriend and who is studying medicine as a backup.
I would have liked for the characters to have had more of a connection. I didn't feel they interacted in a close enough way to justify their friendship and eventual relationship(Casey and Haile) .
Overall it's and easy read and probably you can give it a shot if you like the description.
The Fall by Ryan Quinn is story of three friends at University in Florence.
Haile wants to break free of her controlling mother and find out what she really wants from life and ability to make her own decisions.
Ian is a film buff who is struggling with being comfortable with who he is and who he thinks others expect him to be, his father is a leading football coach. Ian not only has dropped football, and moved away but has also taken up tennis.
Casey is a football jock who seems like the average guy with a girlfriend and who is studying medicine as a backup.
I would have liked for the characters to have had more of a connection. I didn't feel they interacted in a close enough way to justify their friendship and eventual relationship(Casey and Haile) .
Overall it's and easy read and probably you can give it a shot if you like the description.
May 17, 2012
It's not as well carefully written or as philosophical, for lack of a better word, as The Art of Fielding, which it resembles in many respects, but it does include more female characters and perspectives, and is perhaps more plausible in some ways. The use of the music terms, screenplay segments, and Facebook postings to open the chapters is a bit confusing and mechanical at the beginning but works better as the book progresses. The first-person narration generally works and is appropriate to the content, but there are a few passages in which it seems a bit awkward because there's not clear sense of context or audience. For the first 50 pages or so, I was expecting to give it a two-star rating, but it began to work much better after that point. It certainly has some first-novel traits, but it's entertaining and has its insightful moments, particularly when the characters break out of stereotypes. Despite my slow start with it, once I got hooked, I read the whole thing in one go, and it's 300 pages or so.
November 25, 2021
There are no words to describe just how amazing The Fall is. I was lucky enough to win a free copy of the novel via Goodreads and plan to recommend it to everyone I know.
Each character had a very unique voice and view point. This was enhanced by the was each section began. I could relate to all the major characters. Ian was by far my favorite. I guess that's because I have so much experience obsessing over people I don't know. I found myself so caught up with Ian and wanting the best for all the characters, even the secondary ones. Being a coming of age novel set towards the end of college it had a very unique way at looking at growing up, it showed that even though we are on our own we are not really adults yet. The dialogue was very realistic; a lot of books the dialogue seems stilted, but this one seemed very natural.
Ryan Quinn is a very talented author and I look forward to reading other works by him.
Each character had a very unique voice and view point. This was enhanced by the was each section began. I could relate to all the major characters. Ian was by far my favorite. I guess that's because I have so much experience obsessing over people I don't know. I found myself so caught up with Ian and wanting the best for all the characters, even the secondary ones. Being a coming of age novel set towards the end of college it had a very unique way at looking at growing up, it showed that even though we are on our own we are not really adults yet. The dialogue was very realistic; a lot of books the dialogue seems stilted, but this one seemed very natural.
Ryan Quinn is a very talented author and I look forward to reading other works by him.
April 20, 2013
I found the Fall to be hard to care about at times. Right off the bat, the style was a bit hard to get into, how it didn't always clearly identify who was speaking, but I caught on. It was an interesting idea to try but I feel it failed. The plots, I guess, were of college kids leading interlaced lives, making friends, coming out, finding yourself against your parents' ideals...and those sort of worked. The story of the college professor and his secret lover was interesting until it was made not to be. The situations were a tad implausible for me. All that being said, I did enjoy portions of it, and the characters were interesting, although so much had been left out of them to make me wonder for more, it was odd that the author then sort of tacked on wrapping their suggested futures all up in a bow. Casey's last minute switch? unnecessary and too sudden. Ian's doing what? Where now? Halie's mom said what? Something about this didn't ring true.
May 6, 2012
Overall it was a nice read. The character of Haile was very easy for me to identify with because with the exception of being a famous violinist, she is me. I was happy to see when Ian's father turned around but I would have thought Ian would know it at some point. I really like the three different ways to introduce each characters chapter, it was unique and engaging. I loved being able to see the same situation through many different pairs of eyes, because I know that in my own life I have often wondered how those around me see the same thing I do. The writing was intriguing and kept me wanting to know what would happen next to each person. The side story was something I did not expect at all and I loved being surprised with a little mystery. Overall this first novel by Ryan Quinn was one that I would recommend to any one and I look forward to more of his titles in the future.
June 6, 2012
This book was awarded to me as a Goodreads giveaway. I had a terrible time getting into this book. I had left it by accident before vacation after having got through about 1/3 of the book. I started again at the beginning and got a bit further this time, however I was unable to finish it. There was little if any character development. I need strong character development. I was so confused through much of what I had read. The headings for "chapters"? Facebook postings? Letters to self? I really didn't know what they were. Without much background information, I found it difficult to identify with the characters. I just couldn't finish this book. I won't say I won't ever get back to it, however for now, I just can't understand it. The author graciously signed the copy, which is so much appreciated!
June 11, 2017
I really don't know how to rate this. I have a lot of issues with it, but I don't think it's /that/ bad.
My main problem isn't with the Big Thing that happened, but one of the characters ways of handling it.
I'm not sure. I might bump it up to 3 stars tomorrow, but I just finished it and my general reaction is that I really want to hit one of the characters.
My main problem isn't with the Big Thing that happened, but one of the characters ways of handling it.
I'm not sure. I might bump it up to 3 stars tomorrow, but I just finished it and my general reaction is that I really want to hit one of the characters.
March 14, 2023
I read the book, but it didn't convince me, I found it mediocre and shallow and the story verged on the absurd in its more melodramatic and unbelievable areas - in fact I thought the whole storyline unbelievable - maybe my student days are far to in the past and in another country - though honestly when I was younger I knew enough of the gilded youth of Europe and the USA that it makes no difference - but the milieu of privilege rang false to me - in fact the whole novel was false and superficial - I am really rather annoyed I bothered with the book. There is way to much falseness, deliberately contrived and clichéd falseness, the worst of it involving the 'gay characters' as to make me question what the book is trying to say.
Another book that I am sorry to describe as queer because it is so 'gay' and that ain't a compliment.
Another book that I am sorry to describe as queer because it is so 'gay' and that ain't a compliment.
October 31, 2012
I've just finished this book and I'm not certain how I feel about it. The nods to music, film and Facebook were confusing and seemed out of place. I don't love first-person narratives. It ended too soon for me.
The characters aren't ones I'll take with me everywhere I go. They lacked something that would have made them fully three-dimensional. That said, the story was real, real in a way the books I've read lately haven't been. It was refreshing. It seemed like life, unfiltered by the lens of fiction and romanticism and all that jazz. It was simple, while still saying something. It wasn't perfect because life isn't perfect. And that's what I'll keep with me.
Would I recommend it? Probably to select audiences, not to a total stranger. Was it worth reading? I think yes.
The characters aren't ones I'll take with me everywhere I go. They lacked something that would have made them fully three-dimensional. That said, the story was real, real in a way the books I've read lately haven't been. It was refreshing. It seemed like life, unfiltered by the lens of fiction and romanticism and all that jazz. It was simple, while still saying something. It wasn't perfect because life isn't perfect. And that's what I'll keep with me.
Would I recommend it? Probably to select audiences, not to a total stranger. Was it worth reading? I think yes.
May 27, 2012
I totally fell for The Fall. Such beautiful writing, such engaging characters, and a nice little revenge plot that had me cheering. This view of the college lifestyle is one of the more realistic I have read. My only complaint is the awkwardness of Eva's dialogue. It bordered too closely to ebonics. But, there wasn't a focus on her as a developed character, so I will forgive that as a small mistake and still reward this engrossing novel its full five stars. It just goes to show that "rich people/white people problems" can still suck pretty hard.
July 1, 2012
I won this book through a Goodreads Giveaway and overall I think it was a nice read. The detail on the scenes, and everything throughout the book really, made it very easy to visualize everything that the author was trying to convey. And, the coming of age story of each of the characters made the characters very relatable. However, the one thing that I didn't really care for in the book was the way in which the author used to switch from on character to another and the general way that it was written more like a play or movie than a novel. But, still, it was a well written first novel.
June 19, 2012
A fine piece of writing. It's a little bit smooth on the topics of college wraith (pun intended) but you keep wanting the caracters to grow on you, even the ones you don't like.
I'd come to this book after reading an article from the author about the 'gayness' of his book after it hit the top spot in Amazons gay and lesbian literature lists. I don't think is Gay literature even having a fair amount of homosexuality in it. I rather say is a book about being young and in love and all the confusion it brings to be young and in love.
I'd come to this book after reading an article from the author about the 'gayness' of his book after it hit the top spot in Amazons gay and lesbian literature lists. I don't think is Gay literature even having a fair amount of homosexuality in it. I rather say is a book about being young and in love and all the confusion it brings to be young and in love.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews