Falling Into the Sun

by Charrie Hazard

When Kate Nardek discovers her neighbor’s suicide, she feels only horror and despair. She doesn’t know the tragedy will spawn new hope for both her troubled son and her long-forgotten dreams.

Falling into the Sun explores spiritual truths of Hindu, Native American and Judeo-Christian traditions as it unfolds the spiritual journey of a mother intent on helping her increasingly volatile, bipolar son. This life-affirming and powerfully uplifting story not only celebrates the strength and courage of the human spirit but also testifies to love’s never-ending ability to triumph.

This honest, heart-felt novel not only chronicles a mother’s journey to save her son, it reveals the remarkable ability of the human spirit to forgive, heal and love.
―Wendy Walker, author of Four Wives;
editor, Chicken Soup for the Soul—Power Moms

Gold Recipient of the Mom's Choice Awards!
Falling Into The Sun is a gold recipient of the prestigious Mom's Choice Award. The Mom's Choice Awards honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members Dr. Twila C. Liggett, ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of PBS's Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, and New York Times best-selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books.

Genres: Fiction

358 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2009

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Falling into the Sun was different from most books I read. It was highly religious, and mostly Christian, but it lacked the "my way is the right way" orientation of Christian fiction. Even though it talked about religion much more than many books labeled Christian fiction, the altar call, the overt or subtle urging by the author for the reader to adopt (or maintain) a certain faith wasn't there. This is the story of how seeing a neighbor's suicide scares a mother into getting her son the help he needs to deal with his mental illness. The main character, Kate, is an Episcopalian and talks with her priest are an integral part of the book. He approaches things from a Christian perspective, though at times he refers to, or affirms Kate's reference to God as "Her", but this isn't a book about feminist spirituality either; rather, Kate is a searcher, she is trying to find God and meaning in the sorrow and pain in her life, and unlike what is often seen in Christian fiction, this book offers no easy answers; hope, but no "find Jesus and your life will improve".

The afterlife, particularly as it relates to the suicide victim, also figures into the story. At various points in the book we hear Michael, the suicide victim, speak to us using italic print. While there are a couple of different ways his fate could be interpreted, I think reincarnation is the most obvious.

When people are physically ill we don't hesitate to send them to doctors. As a general rule, we are pleased to leave the doctor's office with a prescription for our child--it means the doctor knows what's wrong, and has a way to help, if not fix the problem. Mental illness is completely different. Seeking help is seen as a sign of weakness; of being unable to cope. Do we consider cancer victims "unable to cope"? What about those with broken bones, or gallstones? When doctors offer psychotropic medications, we ask "Can they do without it?" Kate has all those feelings in this book, but finally realizes that her son needs help. If you are a parent struggling with whether to seek mental health help for a child, I'd recommend this book.

All in all, it was a good read. If eclectic spirituality in others bothers you, it might not be the book for you, but if you can enjoy reading about beliefs different than yours, or if your spirituality is on the non-conformist side, I think you'll enjoy this book.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read a book, I set it aside before writing my review. Reading a book or watching a film for that matter muddles my brain. Sure, I'll have an initial gut response but I need time to fully absorb the experience of reading or watching. Sometimes a story that I didn't connect with sneaks up on me and after due reflection I come to like or even love it. Falling into the Sun by Charrie Hazard is one of these books.

Christian fiction (and perhaps other religious fiction as well) and horror share a border. On that border are books like Rosemary's Baby (Ira Levin), The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty), The Amityville Horror (Jay Anson) and The Sentinel (Jeffrey Konvitz). While Falling into the Sun isn't a horror novel and isn't completely a Christian novel either, it experiments with both genres.

Kate Nardek teaches horror at the local community college. She has come home from a class and discovers her neighbor has just committed suicide in his garage. The shock of seeing his death haunts her and brings into question her own uneasy family life. She realizes that if things don't change her son might end up following a similar tragic path or doing something worse if he can't keep his violence in check.

In the process of recovering from seeing the suicide Kate turns to religion along with counseling. The way in which the neighbor haunts uses many of the horror conventions but the book is otherwise a novel about mental health and spirituality.

When I first read the book I got too distracted by the competing themes: the horror of suicide, the son's mental illness and long discussions on the nature of good and evil. My preliminary notes were rather negative because I was too focused on the weakness of the book to not see its strengths.

I didn't see how everything comes together until about a week after finishing the book when I came across an attempted suicide. Things turned out better for this person in that he was alive and able to be rescued but it was just as traumatic. It was then that I clicked with Falling into the Sun. I too have been haunted by the attempted suicide and since my children were also involved, they have too. I have had to answer their questions and help them deal with their uneasy feelings.

So while I still see the flaws in the book and think the transitions between themes could have been more even, I have gone from thinking of the book as "just okay" to recommending it my friends. If you have had any sort of traumatic experience in your life, read Falling into the Sun.

[Mishel Forte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a lot of Christian fiction in my life. Not for any particular reason, I just haven't really picked one up. When I first read the blurb for FALLING INTO THE SUN, I knew it would be an emotional read and hopefully a powerfully written one. And while I admit there was more reference to religion than I would prefer, I still felt a really strong connection to the book.

FALLING INTO THE SUN starts out with our main character, Kate Nardek, walking into the suicide of her neighbor Michael. And while she was never close to her neighbors, his death shatters the foundation that Kate has stood on all her life. Her son, Josh, is a troubled teenager. Violent and filled with rage, Kate struggles to find the help she and her family needs. She looks to her godmother Jean, her priest and even her sister for guidance and support.

Even though reading this took me a lot longer than I was hoping for, I was completely absorbed with the story. This is definitely a book to savor. Each character is so fleshed out and entirely real. Josh can be a very sweet kid. He's smart, interesting, and can be wonderful to be around. But he's basically scary; his mood swings are so abrupt and violent that I felt completely sympathetic for Kate and her family. He's abusive to Kate, his two younger sisters, and his father. But don't think the novel is full of explosive action-oriented moments. The part that keeps you on edge is the emotion, plain and simple. I felt Kate's frustration and fear. I felt her hopelessness. Hazard definitely has a gift with writing.

I wasn't turned off by the religion. It wasn't preachy in any way. Hazard never once made me think I had to be more religious to be happy. I wasn't uncomfortable while reading the novel either. It's easy to understand that in times of stress and heartache many people turn toward God or religion in general. So I wasn't surprised at all to see that Kate did this as well. I was surprised at the way Hazard approached spirtuality in general. Jean, Kate's godmother, is a very spirtual person. Instead of limiting herself to one religion, she embraces all. And I believe that was Hazard's attitude as well as she wrote FALLING INTO THE SUN. I found it refreshing and a wonderful thing to experience since I'm not very religious myself.

I really enjoyed this and I highly recommend it to anyone that is willing to give it a try!

[Sherrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Falling into the Sun" by Charrie Hazard
(from the back cover)



After stumbling upon his suicide, Kate Nardek sees her dead neighbor everywhere--hanging from the ceiling fan, in her rear view mirror--dark holes where his eyes should be. Three days after Micheal's suicide, Kate envisions her own thirteen-year-old son, Josh, hanging from a garage rafter. She realizes the kind of despair that led Michael to kill himself fuels Josh's increasingly violent blowups. She seeks psychological help for her son, a decision that dramatically changes the course of both their lives. In her quest to vanquish Josh's demons, Kate must face down her own, forcing her to rethink her beliefs about mental illness, good and evil, death and, finally, her own self-worth.

MY THOUGHTS:
This book grabs you from the first page and holds onto to you until the end. As Kate is teaching a class at college, she is about to run head long into the rest of her life. Kate is on her way home, her neighbor has run out into the street screaming and crying for help. Michael has locked himself in the garage, boarded up all the windows and hangs himself. Kate calls 911 and is told to touch anything. But a neighbor trying to help tries to get in the garage. Kate happens to look into the window and sees Michael.
This one action takes Kate through a hell on earth and with her life. Her son, Josh has been diagnosed as a Bi-Polar disorder, Josh has violent behavior towards his parents and sisters. Like outbursts of anger. As these events get worse, Mitch and Kate decide on counseling for Josh and their selves. Which leads Kate to find out some things about herself. Does Kate find out about herself, does Josh get any better? You'll have to read the book to find out.

[Viviane Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Nardek's life is both tender and searing to the mind and spirit of any sensitive reader - just like reality! Severely traumatized by seeing her neighbor, Michael, immediately after his suicide, Kate is tormented by visualizing him in almost every aspect of her life. Her awareness of his presence undergoes several phases, the first being overwhelmed by the presence of evil's dark power within and without one's person. While Kate doesn't seem to be getting over this horrific event quickly enough to satisfy her husband and family, she is also tormented by her son, Josh's increasingly violent outbursts which at the moment are confined to destroying physical objects but are bordering on threatening physical violence. It's enough to make a person crazy, and Kate wonders whether she's really losing it and whether her family will fall apart in the process.

But the poignant beauty of this book, alongside its acutely mental and spiritual challenges, is enjoying the earthy but transcendent process Kate and her family experience. Kate's journey is guided by a wise and delightful godmother and dear friend, Jean; a rather unorthodox priest, Father Nick; an "old soul" psychologist, Dr. Galen; and a psychiatrist. Kate faces her own inner darkness, her son's unspeakable and frightening diagnosis and her own father's true illness belied by his obvious alcoholism.

"Free-falling into the hands of the God/Goddess" is a wonderful process Kate learns to live in day by day, one that is not a pie-in-the-sky new age-ish type of spirituality but instead one that embraces every facet of kind and cruel daily living. What would it be like to embrace every single event with a realistic awareness that each moment is a gift? Kate's process is contagious to the reader, forcing each one to ask similar questions and embrace limitless possibilities.

This is Charrie Hazard's first foray into a memoir-type fiction. Falling into the Sun: A Novel is a very auspicious beginning for this very talented, sensitive writer, one to watch closely in the future!

So very well done, Ms. Hazard! This story will etch itself in every reader's mind and soul for years to come, a reminder that life and death are so much more than human understanding conveys!

[Angel Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Falling Into the Sun by Charrie Hazard was captivating. It was pretty heavy on Christianity, but there was actually a relatively good balance of religion and spirituality of several genres.

The book is told from 2 perspectives: Michael, a man who is so lost and depressed he commits suicide (all but the first 2 Michael sections are told from a spirits perspective as he processes his life) and Kate, a professor and Michael's neighbor, who slams into Michael's suicide and it messes her up.

Kate, wife and mother of 3, has a hard time coping with the scene of her neighbors death. She keeps seeing the shadow of Michael lurking in her life and her dreams, but in his loss, Kate comes.tothe realization that he oldest son is on the same path.

Josh is a troubled teen. His violent rages and verbal outbursts are starting to cause actual harm to his parents and 2 very young sisters. Kate becomes completely determined to wade through this mire to save herself, her marriage, her family, and her son. She has plenty of help from her chosen godmother Jean, a spiritually wise and beyond adoring old woman (my favorite character).

The chapters are short, and the book was under 400 pages, so I pretty much flew through it once I got going. Some parts are really sad. Trigger warnings definitely would include: suicide, death of a parent, alcoholism, violence, abuse, death of an animal... I think I got them all, but I may have missed one or two.

Also, if you read the author's name quickly, it looks like Charizard. Always a bonus.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Nardek hears the screams and rushes to catch a glimpse of her neighbor’s suicide. In horror she turns away from the hanging corpse but that image stays with her. Everywhere she looks, she sees the man. Then, the images begin to change. Now, she sees her troubled teenage son Josh.

In an attempt to understand why her life is falling apart, Kate goes to counseling. An elevated concern is her son’s belligerent, violent, and abusive behavior. However, Kate also realizes that the suicide was a trigger to reassess everything in her life including her career and her relationship with husband.

I found myself deeply involved in Falling into the Sun. The book follows Kate through a number of phases as she comes to grips with this trauma and realizes that she has been in denial about a good many things in her life. Her emotions are raw and her reactions are realistic. She is very much like a real person trying to do the best she can in a difficult situation.

[morninglightmama · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book... it was heavy on religious stuff that alternated between alienating me from the story and then pulling me back in. I think that has more to say about my own personal questions and feelings than the book itself, though. The writing was choppy at times, and I found a couple little holes in the narrative, but the story itself was intriguing and harrowing, with lots of hurt, as well as a fair share of redemption and healing. I think it's difficult for me to quantify how I feel about this book... while there were parts that really did not appeal to me personally, I still feel as if I have taken something away from this reading of great value to me.

[Confuzzled Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mother of three, Kate, comes home to find her neighbor has committed suicide. The suicide effects her so much that she goes to see a therapist. Along with dealing with the suicide, she realizes her teenage son's rage is out of control. She looks for help spiritually and mentally.

I was a little surprised at the language in a book that called itself christian fiction. I usually don't see the F-word and other curses used so freely in religious fiction, but I can see how it made the characters feel realistic.
I enjoyed the book and found the conversation that she has with her friends and pastor thought provoking.

[Confuzzled Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mother of three, Kate, comes home to find her neighbor has commited suicide. The suicide effects her so much that she goes to see a therapist. Along with dealing with the suicide, she realizes her teenage son's rage is out of control. She looks for help spiritually and mentally.

I was a little surprised at the language in a book that called itself christian fiction. I usually don't see the F-word and other curses used so freely in religious fiction, but I can see how it made the characters feel realistic.
I enjoyed the book and found the conversation that she has with her friends and pastor thought provoking.

[Charrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously I thought it was WONDERFUl!