People often have entire lists of things they fear, but one of those fears usually stands out, stronger than all the others. For me, that’s fear of germs and infectious diseases. Deciding to read All Fall Down was a way for me to face my worst fear, and although it took me a while to get through it, in the end, I’m very glad I did.

Between 1348 and 1350, the Black Death killed anywhere from one third to half of European population, after wiping out tens of millions of people in Asia. In the small village Ingleforn, Isabelle was living peacefully with her father, stepmother and her siblings when the rumors of plague started trickling in. In a matter of months, England is consumed by this horrible disease and no one seems to know what causes it or how to defend from it. Isabelle’s brother Geoffrey is living in the monastery where he is most exposed and she worries about him daily, but there’s nothing to be done to ensure his safety. It doesn’t take long for the Black Death to find its way to Ingleforn, and as it spreads, death becomes everyday occurrence and all anyone can hope for is to get their last rites in time.

Sally Nicholls did an excellent job in creating the atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, that, combined with ignorance, produced both anger and malice. Gossip is spread faster than the illness, and people are targeted by fortune tellers and salesmen, selling everything from incense to fake bones of saints that are supposed to protect from the disease. Prayer is the answer to everything and those who fall ill must have been cohorting with the devil. In this world, women are outraged when they get permission to hear confessions from the ill, because if women are allowed to do what priests can, the world is surely coming to an end.

How do you keep yourself safe? That’s the next question, the one everyone wants an answer to. Surely there are medicaments and spells, surely someone, somewhere has found a way? The preachers hiss. “By loving God and begging His forgiveness. By turning from the devil and all his works.”

This isn’t a story of a noble young heroine who is fearless and brave in the face of this horrible disease. Isabelle is just as lost, scared and sometimes even selfish as anybody else would be under those circumstances. Sally Nicholls did not try to make a saint out of her, but a normal little girl, a middle child at that, in no way special or outstanding, at times terrified and at times completely numb.

Even though All Fall Down didn’t teach me anything new since we’d covered this period extensively back in high school, I’m still more aware of it now, this darkest time in human history. It’s much easier to understand tragedy through names and faces than through numbers, even if those names and faces are fictional. Millions of girls like Isabelle died and lost their families, but I’ll always think of her and her generous stepmother when someone mentions the Black Death.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, Scholastic UK, for review purposes.

Also posted at The Nocturnal Library