Things That Fall

by Mere Joyce

Separated for years due to a secret squabble among their parents, a group of cousins reunite following the death of an uncle. Their mission is to help close up the family cottage for good, but in doing so, they uncover old family photos that include a woman in a wheelchair.

None know who the woman was, but the older cousins have a vague memory of her presence, and of the loud scream they heard the last time they saw her.

As the teens sort through the family’s past and learn its secrets, each learns truths about themselves.

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2019

About the author

Mere Joyce lives in Atlantic Canada. As both a writer and a librarian, she understands the importance of reading, and the impact the right story can have.

Reviews

[American Mensa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things that Fall, by Mere Joice is a mystery book that follows a secret that has been kept by a family for many years. The story follows the teens of a family, all cousins, following the death of an uncle. The family has been split up for years after a mysterious fight breaks the close-knit family apart, but the death of one of the uncles has brought the cousins together again for the first time in many years. Of course, with one brother member dead, this leaves one of the cousins without a father, and for other circumstances, without a mother as well. We then learn that the family cottage, owned by the now-deceased family member, must be cleaned out and prepared for selling. With the family fight shrouded in mystery and the cousins finally reuniting, they decide to help out in the cleaning of the cottage. What lies inside, however, could be the answer to the family breakup, and many other rocky relationships within the family. This book was a pleasure to read, not too long, not too short. The story arc was very clean and all loose ends were neatly tied up in the conclusion of the book, giving the entire plot a pleasing ending. I don’t feel that there would be much room for a sequel, and I don’t think that this book needs one. All of the character arcs feel complete, and I think that this book ended on a perfect high note. The way that the mystery part of the plot is held over your head for the majority of the read was done very well. Hinting at things just enough that you could not solve the puzzle, but every piece of information came together cleanly at the end. There was only one thing about the plot that I did not like, I feel like there was just a bit too much padding. Useless information that neither drove the story forward or increased my understanding of the setting. Sometimes it just felt like pieces of information that were already implied would be explained head-on, over and over again. However, this was not a big issue as many things were still left to be implied, and it did not happen enough to affect the mystery in any way. Overall, 4 stars for the plot. The next thing is the characters, and I’ll just say it upfront, 5 stars. Everyone from the teen cousins to the little but very meaningful side characters such as the adults have very real and believable problems. Each member of the family has very real flaws and emotions. The dialogue made every person feel real and really let you relate to any character that you felt reflected a little part of yourself. The dialogue and speech patterns not only felt natural but slightly unique to each person as would be the case in real life. Within the main mystery, we get looks into the lives and real-world problems that the cousins have in their own lives, and every single person has their own view. We even get to see a contrast between siblings and how they take in and view their immediate family. Next is the setting, and while there isn’t much to say it did feel, once again like this could be a real event and place, and it did its job in hiding the secrets of the main mystery as it needed to. No complaints on that front. Now, I’ve talked this book up for a while, because it does deserve praise, but it is nowhere near perfect. The chapters are set up so that each one is a first-person view from a different cousin. This is fine and keeps the story dynamic, except sometimes you will find the same event or setting described in almost exactly the same way, with almost no variation in explanation or description. Other problems were minimal and what you can expect to come from even the best of books. An awkward phrase here, a part that you have to read over a couple of times there, nothing too bad. This is of course just my opinion, but overall, I would definitely recommend this book to you, and I see no reason you shouldn’t give it a try.
Review by Owen B, 13, East Central Ohio Mensa (ECOM)

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Family falling out of touch over mysterious events, not seeing cousins for a decade and not knowing why, and events not being shared as family history. The story is very relatable and makes me think of the foggy memories of my own childhood and having a lot of the details lost or remembered wrong.
It’s great to see this book has seven narrative voices but is still easy to distinguish each character as believable as their own person. Touching and makes me nostalgic for those effortless moments of friendship in youth.
Well worth the read!

[Susan Fonseca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cousins can be such special people. Reunited after the death of their uncle and father, the cousins come together to support Forrester who has just lost his Dad and is alone. But as you might suspect, there is a secret in the family that the cousins hope to discover.

Joyce's characters are so real and dealing with so many issues that teens over the world are struggling to overcome successfully. I couldn't put this book down and when I had to, I couldn't wait to curl back up in my lazy boy chair and carry on with their lives. Incredible images and scenes that stir so many memories.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on this one, to be honest. Too many shifting perspectives, and no real standout characters. Slow moving, and quite dark. I'm always looking for stuff that will fit in that elusive intermediate category, it's becoming quite difficult to find things that have that teen appeal, without being too mature for the k-8 environment. This definitely fits into that 'too mature' category.