Book Review: The Edge of Falling

Author: Rebecca Serle

Publication Date: March 18, 2014

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Growing up in privileged, Manhattan social circles, Caggie’s life should be perfect, and it almost was until the day that her younger sister drowned when Caggie was supposed to be watching her. Stricken by grief, Caggie pulls away from her friends and family, only to have everyone misinterpret a crucial moment when she supposedly saves a fellow classmate from suicide. Now she’s famous for something she didn’t do and everyone lauds her as a hero. But inside she still blames herself for the death of her sister and continues to pull away from everything in her life, best friend and perfect boyfriend included. Then Caggie meets Astor, the new boy at school, about whom rumours are swirling and known facts are few. In Astor she finds someone who just might understand her pain, because he has an inner pain of his own. But the more Caggie pulls away from her former life to be with Astor, the more she realises that his pain might be darker, and deeper, than anything she’s ever felt. His pain might be enough to end his life…and Caggie’s as well.

Most works of great literature have a hero at their core, but this story is an exception.

What do you call someone who masquerades as a hero? My grandfather had a word that: phony.

But even stories with the biggest impact, perhaps particularly these, don’t have the power to be rewritten. If if if if…would everything be different? It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done.

Caggie Caulfield’s life is not going anywhere near how she had it planned. Her life came down in shambles when her younger sister drowned while she was supposed to be watching her. Caggie is barely living with all the guilt and grief she has hulled up inside her. Her parents hold resentment towards her and her longtime boyfriend broke up with; Caggie is no longer the same person she once was. Until a few months after her sister’s accident when Caggie supposedly saves the life of one of her classmates. Everyone around her now sees her as a hero, but that is not the real story and Caggie knows it, but if everyone knew what really happened then Caggie would go back to be unnoticed and alone.

Caggie’s character is hard to like, but I understand why the author wrote her that way and it was very meaningful and inspiring. I felt bad for Caggie because of what happened to her, and she was honestly eaten up every day with guilt and remorse for what had happened to her sister. Her decisions were sometimes not very smart and she had a very negative attitude towards life, but seeing her transform was the most remarkable part of this book.

This book started very slow for me, but when it finally starts to pick up it is impossible to put down. Rebecca Serle writes some very heartwarming and emotional scenes and characters. She allows you, as the reader, to take part in this story and in return really makes you feel for the characters and their situations. This story is full of heartbreak, but isn’t the beauty in the breaking? The end was rewarding for me and I cannot wait to see what she comes out with next!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Simon Pulse in exchange for my honest review***