Catch Her When She Falls is the debut from Allison Buccola and is a story about secrets, lies and murder in a group of teenagers in a small town. The plot focuses on Micah, a young woman who returns to her hometown a decade after her best friend Emily was murdered by Micah's boyfriend Alex, who is in prison for the crime.
This is a slow burn read and it was the decades old murder and complicated relationships which began in childhood that pulled me in. I enjoyed the eerie feel and how the author had me constantly questioning the identity of the culprit. Buccola uses three timelines to tell the story and admittedly, that's a lot of balls in the air but it worked for me as long as I had long chunks of time to read and could go with the flow. But if I only read for short spurts, I found the format disorientating as I tried to get back into the story that often jumped between three time frames without giving the reader any warning.
The story centres on the unlikeable, yet interestingly unpredictable main character, Micah. She's pretty sketchy, makes some erratic and ridiculous decisions, but this unpredictability of her character adds to the unbalanced tone of story. You just don't know what she'll do next or if you can believe her take on things. There's a large secondary cast to keep track of which gives readers a gaggle of possible perpetrators and left me feeling like I suspected everyone at some point! The energy finally ramps up in the last quarter as things fall into place, but while the ending was unexpected, after that great build-up it felt a bit lackluster and had a slight After School Special feel.
Overall, this is an impressive debut with a good sinister feel. I enjoyed how the author was able to make me question whodunnit over and over and I look forward to reading more from Allison Buccola in the future.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for my advanced copy of this title provided in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Author: Allison Buccola
Genre: Suspense
Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
First Published: February 1, 2022
Opening Line: Ten years ago, my boyfriend killed my best friend.
Book Description from GoodReads: In this thoroughly propulsive (Kimberly McCreight) debut thriller, a young woman questions everything she thought she knew about the shocking murder that changed her life when she was in high school.
Ten years ago, my boyfriend killed my best friend.
When Micah Wilkes was a senior in high school, her boyfriend was convicted of murdering her best friend, Emily. A decade later, Micah has finally moved on from the unforgivable betrayal and loss. Now the owner of a bustling coffee shop in her small hometown in Pennsylvania, she's happily coupled up with another old high school friend, the two having bonded over their shared sorrow.
But when reminders of her past begin appearing at her work and home, Micah begins to doubt what she knows about Emily's death. Questions raised on a true crime blog and in an online web sleuthing forum force her to reexamine her memories of that fateful night. She told the truth to the investigators on the case, but was there another explanation for Emily's murder? A stranger in the woods. An obsessive former classmate. Or the internet's favorite suspect: Joshua, Emily's outcast younger brother who hasn't been seen since his sister's death.
As Micah delves deeper into the case, she feels her grip on reality loosening, her behavior growing more and more secretive and unhinged. As she races to piece together the truth about that night ten years ago, Micah grapples with how things could have gone so wrong and wonders whether she, too, might be next to disappear.
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