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Astrid Falls: A Legend of Vancouver
Vancouver is falling down—crumbling into sand. To save it, Astrid O'Brien boards a bus to a parallel dimension, there to confront the demons of the city, and to answer the Are we who we're told we are, or who we decide to be?
398 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 12, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 22, 2024
I was granted complimentary access to Astrid Falls by Andrew Cownden as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
I had a great time reading Astrid Falls! I lost count of the number of lines that made me grin or laugh in the first chapter. Cownden has a way of capturing all the mundane details of existence in a way that is so relatable and entertaining. Astrid feels like every clever shy girl stuck in a young adult's menial job, and that was me once. I also happen to have grown up in the Vancouver area, so the setting felt so nostalgic. (I don't need to do my research about the setting, but thanks dear author for encouraging everyone to do so!)
Sincerely, I could have read an entire novel's worth of Astrid's average day-to-day, but the adventure begins swiftly, and our awkward, anxious heroine has to find the strength to save Vancouver, and humanity in general, all on her own. When the city turns to nothing but sand, it all comes down to our unlikely hero and the band of fellow misfits she finds along the way.
Oh, pay close attention to the footnotes. They'll lead you astray, but it's much more fun that way!
I had a great time reading Astrid Falls! I lost count of the number of lines that made me grin or laugh in the first chapter. Cownden has a way of capturing all the mundane details of existence in a way that is so relatable and entertaining. Astrid feels like every clever shy girl stuck in a young adult's menial job, and that was me once. I also happen to have grown up in the Vancouver area, so the setting felt so nostalgic. (I don't need to do my research about the setting, but thanks dear author for encouraging everyone to do so!)
Sincerely, I could have read an entire novel's worth of Astrid's average day-to-day, but the adventure begins swiftly, and our awkward, anxious heroine has to find the strength to save Vancouver, and humanity in general, all on her own. When the city turns to nothing but sand, it all comes down to our unlikely hero and the band of fellow misfits she finds along the way.
Oh, pay close attention to the footnotes. They'll lead you astray, but it's much more fun that way!
October 14, 2024
This was a fun read, with a bit of depth I wasn't expecting. Cownden had me giggling with the prologue, and from that point on I was officially hooked on this odd, fun adventure. Astrid is a unique character, someone you might consider odd in real life, but who you might like to call a friend all the same. I can't say when picking a setting for a magical, astral adventure, I'd have chosen Vancouver, but it somehow works, and in the end that's all that matters. The imagery had me feeling like I was actually there, despite having never visited in the physical or astral worlds. I absolutely adored the footnotes, they felt odd in a story that the author eagerly assures us is absolutely not true, but I don't think the story would've been quite the same or as enjoyable without them. If you're looking for a magical story that is part existential, part magical, and is likely to elicit some giggles if not outright laughs as you read, then I highly recommend grabbing this!
October 19, 2024
Astrid Falls begins with a challenge from the author:
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The events of this book did not happen and its characters do not exist. However, the place in which they did not happen and do not exist is the City of Vancouver, which the author insists is a very real place full of very real people. Now, any work of fiction set in a real place must, by necessity, displace some of the real to make a space for the unreal. Consequently, the Vancouver of this story, although quite close to the real thing, is by no means authentic. The author, therefore, advises you, the reader, not to trust a single word between the covers of this book (especially not the footnotes*).
-----------------------
The asterisk leads to a footnote, which adds that especially one should not trust anything in parentheses.
This sly introduction captures a good deal of the tone of Astrid Falls. This is a serious novel masquerading as a light-hearted fantasy. While chronicling the efforts and misadventures of the hapless Astrid O’Brien, who might or might not be the Chosen One destined to save the universe from annihilation, Astrid Falls confronts issues like racism, community, environmental destruction and the meaningless alienation of modern life.
Twenty-something Astrid is an unlikely heroine: awkwardly tall, so pale-skinned that the sun fries her to a crisp in minutes, afflicted with anxieties that lead her to avoid people to the greatest extent possible. She works as the only clerk in an umbrella shop (a fine occupation during Vancouver’s rainy season), has been going to college (but didn’t have the energy to register for the current semester), lives with her father (but barely talks to him) and can’t even remember what her mother does for a living. Addicted to social media but fighting that compulsion, she’s largely isolated from humanity.
And yet, it appears, it is her job to save humanity. To her credit, she takes this bizarre and obviously doomed quest seriously. Indeed, it finally gives her a mission in life. Struggling against apparently insuperable odds, she acquires a following of individuals as broken and lonely as she is. As the city literally crumbles into piles of sand, she and her hapless entourage struggle against insidious evil as well as their own prejudices.
The book overflows with startling and original ideas. It swings widely from irony through slapstick to horror. We’re not allowed to forget that the fate of the universe hangs by a thread, even when Astrid and her band of reluctant heroes and heroines seem trapped in absurdity. Meanwhile, almost every page features the not-to-be-trusted footnotes.
The story is a bit dizzying. I couldn’t quite decide how much of this was deliberate, how much a symptom of the author’s effervescent imagination. The book has the distinctive hallmarks of a first novel: occasional rough edges and breathless sincerity.
Overall, I hugely enjoyed Astrid Falls. It also left me with issues to ponder, as I think the author intended.
I do wish I were familiar with Vancouver, though. In the introduction, Andrew Cownden challenges the reader to research the truth behind the footnotes. However, no amount of research can substitute for personal experience. As multi-layered and challenging as I found the book, I suspect I’d have appreciated it even more if I, like Astrid, called the city home.
-----------------------
The events of this book did not happen and its characters do not exist. However, the place in which they did not happen and do not exist is the City of Vancouver, which the author insists is a very real place full of very real people. Now, any work of fiction set in a real place must, by necessity, displace some of the real to make a space for the unreal. Consequently, the Vancouver of this story, although quite close to the real thing, is by no means authentic. The author, therefore, advises you, the reader, not to trust a single word between the covers of this book (especially not the footnotes*).
-----------------------
The asterisk leads to a footnote, which adds that especially one should not trust anything in parentheses.
This sly introduction captures a good deal of the tone of Astrid Falls. This is a serious novel masquerading as a light-hearted fantasy. While chronicling the efforts and misadventures of the hapless Astrid O’Brien, who might or might not be the Chosen One destined to save the universe from annihilation, Astrid Falls confronts issues like racism, community, environmental destruction and the meaningless alienation of modern life.
Twenty-something Astrid is an unlikely heroine: awkwardly tall, so pale-skinned that the sun fries her to a crisp in minutes, afflicted with anxieties that lead her to avoid people to the greatest extent possible. She works as the only clerk in an umbrella shop (a fine occupation during Vancouver’s rainy season), has been going to college (but didn’t have the energy to register for the current semester), lives with her father (but barely talks to him) and can’t even remember what her mother does for a living. Addicted to social media but fighting that compulsion, she’s largely isolated from humanity.
And yet, it appears, it is her job to save humanity. To her credit, she takes this bizarre and obviously doomed quest seriously. Indeed, it finally gives her a mission in life. Struggling against apparently insuperable odds, she acquires a following of individuals as broken and lonely as she is. As the city literally crumbles into piles of sand, she and her hapless entourage struggle against insidious evil as well as their own prejudices.
The book overflows with startling and original ideas. It swings widely from irony through slapstick to horror. We’re not allowed to forget that the fate of the universe hangs by a thread, even when Astrid and her band of reluctant heroes and heroines seem trapped in absurdity. Meanwhile, almost every page features the not-to-be-trusted footnotes.
The story is a bit dizzying. I couldn’t quite decide how much of this was deliberate, how much a symptom of the author’s effervescent imagination. The book has the distinctive hallmarks of a first novel: occasional rough edges and breathless sincerity.
Overall, I hugely enjoyed Astrid Falls. It also left me with issues to ponder, as I think the author intended.
I do wish I were familiar with Vancouver, though. In the introduction, Andrew Cownden challenges the reader to research the truth behind the footnotes. However, no amount of research can substitute for personal experience. As multi-layered and challenging as I found the book, I suspect I’d have appreciated it even more if I, like Astrid, called the city home.
October 31, 2024
Vancouver where Astrid O'Brien lives is falling down. Astrid sets out to find a way to fix it. She takes a bus to another dimension. Astrid meets a lot of different people on her journey through the other dimension.
Astrid Falls is unlike anything I have read before. It reminded me of other books or movies that I have read or seen but I can’t quite put my finger on which one.
I liked Astrid as she seemed to be a very honest person. She didn’t want to do anything that may hurt someone else or put them in danger. The search for a way to fix her crumbling world led her down different paths as she tried to figure out who she was.
Astrid Falls is the kind of book that will stay with you long after you have read the last page. It will keep you hanging on wanting to know what is happening until the very end. It will keep you on your toes as it pulls you deep into its world trying to figure out what is going on.
Grab a copy of Astrid Falls today!
Astrid Falls is unlike anything I have read before. It reminded me of other books or movies that I have read or seen but I can’t quite put my finger on which one.
I liked Astrid as she seemed to be a very honest person. She didn’t want to do anything that may hurt someone else or put them in danger. The search for a way to fix her crumbling world led her down different paths as she tried to figure out who she was.
Astrid Falls is the kind of book that will stay with you long after you have read the last page. It will keep you hanging on wanting to know what is happening until the very end. It will keep you on your toes as it pulls you deep into its world trying to figure out what is going on.
Grab a copy of Astrid Falls today!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews