“How delicately our lives hang in the balance, ready to be snatched from us at any moment.”
I Let You Fall by Sara Downing is a thrilling story of love, loss, and kindness. Eve Chapman is an ordinary art teacher with an ordinary life. She is perfectly content – until a tragic accident leaves her in a coma – a fact Eve is not aware of until she sees her own body lying on the hospital bed. She is in shock; her parents and boyfriend Nathan are weeping over her physical body lying prone, connected to tubes and machines keeping her alive, while she herself is somehow existing as a shadowy spirit no one is able to see or hear. No one except for another coma patient: a lawyer named Luca who seems to be quite knowledgeable about what is happening to them. Luca teaches Eve about this odd limbo they’re stuck in and shows her a gift they now have: an almost-divine mission to offer unseen comfort to the strangers that find themselves in the hospital. As they help others and learn about their own half-existence, Eve and Luca grow closer as they try to do all the good they can before they have to return to the waking world.
“It was all going to be so perfect. At least, it should have been.”
Downing introduces a unique premise through her latest novel. I Let You Fall is written in multiple POVs, as well as a dual dialogue from Eve sharing both of her realities: her comatose thoughts and her spiritual journey. The discussions Eve has with the other characters are well-written, almost lifelike in the conversationality. At times, Downing’s writing comes off as too casual, and Eve’s character may teeter from emphatic towards over-emotional, but this writing serves to make Eve seem like a real person. This quality is not only present in Eve – all of Downing’s characters are beautifully fleshed out, with their own unique thoughts and hopes. There are narrative jumps between Eve’s present and past which are sometimes difficult to distinguish, and a separate storyline that is only merged with our main couple near the end of the book. These different aspects could have perhaps been better merged, or at least seeded with more foreshadowing to ensure the reader is able to keep up with and make the connections the author is trying to portray. Finally, the actual narrative, while one-of-a-kind upon an initial glance, seems to take a bit of a predictable turn in regards to certain scenarios, such as Eve’s love life or the truth about who she is during her coma. Nevertheless, I Let You Fall is a solid story with gripping characters, a pleasant story, and a beautiful message about the mystical workings of fate.
“Truly, nothing had ever felt more compelling to Eve than this urge. This urge to help.”
Thank you to TCK Publishing for providing me with a copy for review. (https://www.tckpublishing.com/)
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