Falling Out of Time

by O.R. Melling

Genres: Fantasy

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Born in Ireland, raised and educated in Toronto, Canada along with my seven sisters and two brothers, now living back in Ireland again. I have a beautiful daughter, Findabhair, doing her M.A. in Marine Biology and a beautiful cat, Emma, who would love to eat the fish Finn (great name for a marine biologist, eh?) wants to protect. My favourite author of all time is CS Lewis. I've read everything he ever wrote including non-fiction and adult fiction, but the Chronicles of Narnia are the best of all.

Reviews

[a r e l i c · Rating 3 out of 5]

109 stars for the writing, imagery and style. -106 for subject matter and that unfortunate ending.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story wise, it is a decent story about the layers and intersections of reality, dreams and fiction. The construction of the novel is mostly based on romantic notions and centred around magic, healing and passion. However, the simplicity of the plot is kind of lost in the writing, which is overly lyrical and at times intangibly metaphorically emphasized. I do appreciate the beauty of its language; in fact, that is one main reason I continue to read the book. The imbalance between language and plot (language: 8, plot: 2, total score: 10) is slightly disappointing. The story itself is more or less overwhelmed in the extensive imagery and figurative language used. The characters are one-dimensional with little development...at times it feels like an emotional rant, though beautifully written.

Other points:
-little information about the character's past
-the "legend" thread of the story is very vague and unestablished, with no specific details attached and doesn't make sense in the story as a whole
-no explanation for these intersections of dreams, reality and fiction...though it can be argued that it is more of a state of mind
-I don't know...the whole story is overly suspended; there are rarely boney parts in this novel that sort of "hit you" or "hold you down"

Anyway. Altogether, it's an okay and tolerable read. The beauty of the language eventually becomes a literary candy for people who are hungry for it.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to find and I think the only adult books that Melling has written (she is one of my favourite authors.) It is a love story of how love can go terribly wrong but in the end there can still be redemption. I read this book when I was much younger but it is still one of my favourite books and one of those books that I read at the perfect time, in the perfect place so that it spoke to my soul.

[Cristine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not like her other books at all and not what I expected. Not for young children or young teens. I'd be scared to share this book with most of the people I know. Yes, I'm glad I read it, but be warned there is explicit language and sexual references.

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up off a bargain table on a whim and immediately loved it. The intersection between the 'author' and her story and the larger legend woven drew me.

[Devon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this too young. I'll have to re read it someday. (snuck it off my mother's bookshelf)