Book Review: After the Fall by Kirsten Alexander
When Giselle escapes to the north Yorkshire village of Hollydale, she doesn’t give much thought to what she might find there. She’s more concerned with what she’s leaving behind – a toxic marriage, the loss of her beloved sister, Lina, and the cloud of suspicion over the circumstances of Lina’s death.
But in this small community she makes new and fascinating friends, chief among them Margaret, a wealthy elderly local who lives in Chatswood Hall, the mansion perched on a hill above the village, and Tom, the local handyman. Giselle hopes to start life over, but the past cannot be outrun and her husband will not be cut loose, threatening to arrive in Hollydale at any moment.
When a bomb explodes on the one road that leads to her cottage, Giselle realises that her Hollydale life is larger and more complicated than she’d understood.
Released February 2025
My Thoughts:After the Fall is the much awaited new release from Kirsten Alexander. It’s a powerful story about breaking free, but with a quirky twist and a dash of the paranormal in the most delightfully unexpected way.
After the death of her sister from cancer and a subsequent coronial inquest into the circumstances of her death at home, Giselle makes a snap decision to flee her marriage. She flies across the world to a village in the Yorkshire Dales, to a cottage she had booked months ago for a holiday away with her husband. Fleeing to a place that her husband knows about and using funds from a joint account were never going to guarantee her safety.
The novel is slow moving at first as Giselle is lost in a barrage of memories as she processes that she’s actually left. The recounts of cruelty and gas lighting form a tight picture of coercive control that was spilling into physical violence and rape. Her husband continues to stalk her via text. While difficult at times to read, these scenes are necessary to fully appreciate the damage Giselle is suffering.
The village is filled with quirky characters. Everyone knows everything about everyone else but is particularly closed mouthed about certain things. I had a bit of a Twin Peaks meets Fargo vibe with a bit of Northern Exposure thrown in. It was fantastic.
Ultimately, this is a story about breaking free, but it’s also about hope, community, and female friendships. There is an environmental aspect to the story that was woven through with ease. The pacing in the second half of the book was much swifter than the first half, I’d have liked that to be evened out, but otherwise, a cracker of a read. Loved the ending.
Thanks to Ultimo Press for the review copy.
