A place of pressure and contradictions, St Ebury is an exclusive boarding school for the children of Canada's elite, where boys must act as men whi...
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Apr 23, 2009
Caitlin
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I got an advanced review copy of this from goodreads.com. It's ostensibly a boarding school story. Rich, popular & privileged Julius is dating Fall (short for Fallon) the prettiest girl in the boarding school. Noel, a misfit with violent tendencies, becomes his roommate & is thrilled to be accepted into the inner circle & more & more obsessed with Fall. When Fall disappears, the true nature of these relationships and people are revealed.
On a deeper level this book is an exploration o More...
On a deeper level this book is an exploration o More...
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Feb 02, 2009
Mel
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I got an ARC of Fall at the ALA midwinter meeting. I originally picked it up because the back likens McAdam to Michael Ondaatje, who is, you know, my absolute favorite. But, like several remarks on the back cover, I disagree. Their writing styles are very disparate, and while McAdam's writing is good, it's not poetic the way most of Ondaatje's work is.
Furthermore, the back suggests that Julius, one of the character's whose pov we hear quite frequently, "cares only for fleeti More...
Furthermore, the back suggests that Julius, one of the character's whose pov we hear quite frequently, "cares only for fleeti More...
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Jun 26, 2010
Monique
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Hmm, really wanted to love this book but alas it was a little too patchy and inconclusive to me..Fall (not Fall with the long A like synonym of autumn but Fall with a short A as in Fallon, a girls name) is the story of two roommates and their time in a prep school for boys. If this was the entire story, thier relationship, their "boys will be boys" antics and how they grow emotionally and psychologically I would love love love this book however when the element of a girlfriend who goes
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Sep 25, 2009
Laura Lulu
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Aug 10, 2009
Theresa
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Aug 30, 2010
Natalie
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When I first picked up this book I thought I was going to hate it! It's written in a very sparse style, no speech marks and no clear sign of who is saying what, it's all he/she said, which initially was rather irritating and confusing! Once I had learned to follow closely who was narrating/speaking, it got better though and I stuck with it.
The style and atmosphere of the book reminded me somewhat of The Cather in the Rye by JD Salinger, (although with a little more substance than that o More...
The style and atmosphere of the book reminded me somewhat of The Cather in the Rye by JD Salinger, (although with a little more substance than that o More...
May 13, 2009
Newengland
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Maybe I liked it because I like the genre -- prep school books (no, I never went). There are a lot of well-written stretches and McAdam truly understands boys and dorm life, from the grab-ass pranks to the subterranean desires and confusions.
I thought it was going to be straight-up sensitive drama à la Richard Yates A Good School, but it developed (devolved?) instead into a crime drama. The protagonist, Julian, is a charismatic athlete with a gorgeous girlfriend named Fall. Ente More...
I thought it was going to be straight-up sensitive drama à la Richard Yates A Good School, but it developed (devolved?) instead into a crime drama. The protagonist, Julian, is a charismatic athlete with a gorgeous girlfriend named Fall. Ente More...
Apr 26, 2009
Gilly
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The book is told in the alternating voices of two boys in their senior year at an elite private high school. Julius is athletic, likeable, and dating the prettiest girl in school. Noel is an intelligent and occasionally explosive outsider. You can imagine this devolving into stereotyped characterizations, but their voices are absolutely individual. They say and do things that, while never in conflict with their personalities, are not narrowly designed to reveal “character.” They change (and fail
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Aug 07, 2011
Fall by Colin McAdam has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize this year (2009) and is the fourth of five nominees I have read. While I would not choose it as my favourite of the four (my choice would be The Disappeared by Kim Echlin), it certainly deserves to be shortlisted. The setting is Ashbury College, a primarily boys' private school in Rockcliffe Park in Ottawa (disguised by the author as St. Ebury in Sutton). The setting has particular interest for me since our house is a stone's throw
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May 02, 2009
Coco
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Jan 26, 2012
Taiyiana
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You when I saw this book, I thought what a nice cover maybe I should give it a go. I thought that it was gonna be interesting because I like reading stories set in boarding schools (e.i. Prep, Harry Potter etc.) I got into this book, like really into where I was like making audible noises when reading it in public places and then I got to the climax and I'm embarassed to admit that I never finished this book completely. <spoiler>When they got to the lake I was like, "well, this is the
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Jul 19, 2010
Mike
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Eh. That's all I can say..."eh." The back of the book makes the story seem so promising. But I was left wanting a little more. I found the style of writing a little annoying, especially Julius's character and his A.D.D. stream of conscious. Sometimes you're just reading to read and not really paying attention because his thoughts don't link together. I know that was the point, but I found it frustrating.
I also thought that the majority of the book was spent setting up wh More...
I also thought that the majority of the book was spent setting up wh More...
May 22, 2009
Jocelyn
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I won this book in one of Goodreads' giveaways, and I was pretty ecstatic to get started reading it. I was sidetracked by other books while trying to finish this one but, luckily, it was a very easy book to pick back up.
Fall revolves around three strange, sad characters at a private school. Thrown in with regular teenage problems is money and obsession, yet somehow it's still the antithesis of Gossip Girl. McAdam avoids the cliches which most authors can't seem to get away from, and More...
Fall revolves around three strange, sad characters at a private school. Thrown in with regular teenage problems is money and obsession, yet somehow it's still the antithesis of Gossip Girl. McAdam avoids the cliches which most authors can't seem to get away from, and More...
Oct 28, 2011
Leyla Y
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Strange as it seems, this book is not about the season of Autumn. The book is titled after one of the characters names. Fall, short for Fallon. Fall is the name of the girl that is mostly talked about in this book. Two roommates at a prep school share their stories about how their senior years are going. Julius is an athletic guy that happens to be dating the prettiest girl in school. As for Noel, he is the stereotypical intelligent one. Stereotypical as in, he’s an outsider. Both characte
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May 06, 2011
Joanne
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Noel & Julius (the campus star) share a room at St. Ebury, an exclusive boarding school in Canada. Noel has a malformed eye that twitches and comes across as the serious loner. Julius is the athlete and has a beautiful girlfriend, Fall (Fallon).
Julius starts becoming more obsessed with Julius, Fall and their whole relationship. Julius and Noel become friends, with Julius sharing things about his relationship with Fall as they are lying in their bunks at night.
We are given the story t More...
Julius starts becoming more obsessed with Julius, Fall and their whole relationship. Julius and Noel become friends, with Julius sharing things about his relationship with Fall as they are lying in their bunks at night.
We are given the story t More...
May 19, 2009
Rachel
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Fall is about two boarding-school roommates, one creepy and one popular and with a girlfriend. Can you imagine where this is headed? Yes, it turns out the creepy one, Noel, has a thing for Julius's girlfriend, who mysteriously "disappears" 2/3rds of the way through the book.
Anyway, it's not the plot that makes this book, it's the prose. McAdam pulls the Faulkner-like "from more than one first-person narrative" thing, but it's not as much of a guessing game as As More...
Anyway, it's not the plot that makes this book, it's the prose. McAdam pulls the Faulkner-like "from more than one first-person narrative" thing, but it's not as much of a guessing game as As More...
Aug 10, 2011
Debbie
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Didn't really care for this book. I feel the author sacrificed the flow of the story ( of two roomates in a private school in Ottawa, both in love with the same girl) for a quirky literary style.One of the boys tells his chapter in a stream of conscience that reminded me of a beatnik in a smoky basement poetry reading. It was annoying and broke the flow of the book. Although I assume he meant this to show how one track minded (sex) boys that age are, it got old really fast and I think he sold t
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May 22, 2009
Kathy
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I was lucky enough to win an advance copy of this book from goodreads and have finished it! This book had many pros/cons to me. I enjoyed McAdam's writing style (it almost reads like poetry at times) and character development. After initially feeling confused by the book and characters, I became immersed in the story and couldn't put it down. That said, the book focuses mainly on high school boarding students - particularly on two teenaged boys - and the story can become crude and even a lit
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Apr 26, 2009
Corinna
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I just finished reading Fall. I enjoyed it, hated it but couldn't seem to put it down. I felt as if I was really in the minds of these boys. Because of the way the book was wrote, I was privy to not only what the characters said to one another, but also what they were thinking. The book was about prominent children, many of them kids of ambassadors, and their life at boarding school. Centered around two room mates, one the good looking jock, the other mysterious and looking for recognition.
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Apr 21, 2009
Tara
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Jackie won this book through a GoodReads giveaway, and I'm going to start it as soon as I finish up with the Hearts of Horses.
***Edit- Finished. Definitely an interesting read. I'm impressed overall. Despite a rocky start in the beginning that left the narrative a little confusing, I managed to get into it by the third chapter or so. I did see a few editing problems, but as this is a promo unedited copy, I expect that'll be cleaned up in the finished product.
The story's More...
***Edit- Finished. Definitely an interesting read. I'm impressed overall. Despite a rocky start in the beginning that left the narrative a little confusing, I managed to get into it by the third chapter or so. I did see a few editing problems, but as this is a promo unedited copy, I expect that'll be cleaned up in the finished product.
The story's More...
Nov 19, 2011
Steven
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"Fall," another of the novels nominated for this 2009 Giller Prize, is a penetrating story, tracing the deeply disturbing triangle that somehow entangles three senior students in an elite private school (that is based very much on Ashbury College which the author attended.) Julius is the privileged son of the US Ambassador to Canada, Wink is the guarded, sometimes bullied room-mate who gradually insinuates himself more and more fully into a close relationship with Julius, and F
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Aug 13, 2010
Jeanne
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Jan 29, 2010
Sarah
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First off, a disclaimer. I love the book cover, the author's name, the book title, and the awesome photograph. On the back jacket, a quote from the Aryn Kyle (author of The God of Animals) praises the book. So, um, I was a little biased before I even started reading.[return][return]The adult novel mainly alternates between the voices of two teenage upperclassmen at an elite boarding school. Both are sons of ambassadors/diplomats and used to a privileged life. Julius is handsome, friendly, athlet
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Mar 05, 2010
Jennifer
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Jun 25, 2009
Jen
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I'm a huge fan of his first novel, Some Great Thing, for many reasons--stylistic fearlessness, the visceral pulse of the narrative, the two main characters who are inverse images of each other. Fall (for which I've been waiting for six years) doesn't disappoint. Like Some Great Thing, it's extraordinary in how it adheres to yet also subverts what we think of as storytelling. And the main character, Noel, vibrates off the page with a strangely rootless rage (I'm impressed with how McAdam resists
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Apr 27, 2009
Tay
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I got an advanced copy! I'll edit this review when it gets here and I finish it!
Okay. I am about half way through the book now. I really like it. Some parts are a little strange. Not in a bad way, just like, why the hell would he do that, kinda way. It is amazingly well written. The people are so well defined. It gets a little confusing though. And that could be just the copy I have. If you get one, it could be a lot different. The people he writes about, his style, it's. Blunt. Hone More...
Okay. I am about half way through the book now. I really like it. Some parts are a little strange. Not in a bad way, just like, why the hell would he do that, kinda way. It is amazingly well written. The people are so well defined. It gets a little confusing though. And that could be just the copy I have. If you get one, it could be a lot different. The people he writes about, his style, it's. Blunt. Hone More...
Jun 15, 2009
Stacy
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I received an advanced copy through goodreads.com. I had high hopes for the book because I have liked other novels set in prep schools. For some reason, I had a hard time getting into this book. I did like how he wrote it in three different and distinct voices. There is a mystery involved that leaves you wondering at the end - not necessarily about who did it but whether one person did or not. And if he did not, you have no idea who did.
Apr 28, 2009
Manda
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This is a review based on an advance galley.
While I thought the writing itself was good and the differing narrative voices worked very well, there was something unsettling and ultimately unsatisfying in the title character not ever being given her own voice. There was also the matter of resolution as to what precisely happened to her - Noel is adamant that she was alive the last time he saw her, but it's hard to distinguish if this is truth or a self delusion, much like his delusion More...
While I thought the writing itself was good and the differing narrative voices worked very well, there was something unsettling and ultimately unsatisfying in the title character not ever being given her own voice. There was also the matter of resolution as to what precisely happened to her - Noel is adamant that she was alive the last time he saw her, but it's hard to distinguish if this is truth or a self delusion, much like his delusion More...
Aug 09, 2011
A story of two roommates both given equal time to be narrator. I found the voice of Julius to be as annoying as the protagonist of Cather in the Rye -- perhaps this was intentional but still annoying. Whereas the more introspective Noel was a pleasure to read. The climax in which Noel reveals his love for Fall, Julius's girl, was far too overdone and lack subtlety. However, the quality of writing was superior enough to override these objections and make it a pleasure to read. Now if the conclu
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Jan 01, 2010
Karen
rated it: 
I can honestly say that after reading 101 pages, I couldn't read anymore. It was written in short sentences, a poor mimic to a Karen Hesse novel called "Out of the Dust" Poetry, free-verse perhaps, but so boring and all it talked about was nothing. A lot of poorly developed characters and a lot of "F*^%*&$&^ A" being said. It was never going to get better!
Oh well... I would rather give it no stars to be truthful!
Oh well... I would rather give it no stars to be truthful!
