Falling Through Clouds

by Anna Chilvers

Kat, a 22 year-old student, returning home to Devon for the summer holidays meets Gavin on the train. They spend the summer in Cornwall but he has something on his mind. He is plagued with nightmares after having been held hostage in Iraq and she soon finds she is out of her depth, but in too deep to get out unscathed. When he disappears, Kat and her friend follow a trail of clues from the South West to the North West of England trying to find him. Why has he stolen a a package belonging to a Mr Knight? Who is the woman he has moved in with and is he losing his grip on reality?

Falling Through Clouds interweaves mystery, romance and myth, while revealing a dark secret at its heart.

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Chloe Reads Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 2/2.5 star book. Although it dealt with PTSD which I appreciate and think is very important, I did find it very very hard to read. The "storytelling" chapters started off interesting and got so confusing I skim read them.... and I know the whole point is that Gavin's head isn't "right", but I found it incredibly difficult to stay focused and enjoy the book. The first 6 chapters had a lot of promise for me, and I think it slowly trailed off into weirdness.

[Mark Dudley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Anna Chilvers in reverse order and I have enjoyed all three noivels in so many different ways.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't get on with this. I reacted to it in much the same way as I did to 'The Secret Speech': the characters served the narrative rather than the narrative the characters. It's made me realise that what I most enjoy about fiction is a writer's interest in and capacity to present character.

Not that I don't like a good story. And this was a good story, though I found it became less credible when Bernard, whom Gavin imagined he had killed, turned out to be alive and masquerading as Bernard's non-existent brother and, in the final pages of the novel, the Green Knight. I was turning the pages quite quickly by then, so I may have missed something, but I thought Bernard was going to axe Gavin in a re-enactment of the Green Knight story, and was disappointed that he didn't: I think that would have properly shown just how imprisonment and torture had perverted the mind of an otherwise apparently sane man.

I also found the pseudo-Arthurian story that Gavin tells in episodes throughout the novel uninteresting.

Generally, I felt myself in the presence of a writer who writes in a strong, clear style - I liked that - but didn't feel the 1st and 3rd person narrative voices added anything in particular. One or the other would have been fine for me on this occasion.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book weaves mythology and mystery in with first and third person narratives, plus flashbacks and a cross-country romance. That is a lot for one book and certain twists felt exhausting rather than interesting.

This is a well-written book and super impressive for a first novel but I didn't love it and it felt like hard work at times. That said, Chilvers writes in a fresh and non-formulaic way so I will look out for more of her books.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kat meets Gavin on the train and they spend a few blissful weeks together. But Gavin is plagued by his recent past and his troubles make him disappear. Kat finds herself on his trail. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and found I wanted to get to the end to find out more about the mystery of Gavin and GK.