The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: The Borough Press (7 Jan 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 000749145X
ISBN-13: 978-0007491452


I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.

The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man’s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new 
voices in fiction.





Cover:  In person, this is a beautiful cover.

This is going to be a tough one for me to review, as I'm left feeling unsure how to sum up this book.
You might think that sounds negative.  It's not.
I just don't want to spoil this for anyone who is tempted to pick it up.
At first I found the writing style a little jarring.  But then, when you take into consideration that it is from the point of a young man suffering from some form of mental illness (we don't know what exactly until further into the book), then it starts to make more sense, and you kind of adapt to reading that way.
From the start you know that Matt's brother died, and in some form of tragic circumstance, but the details are revealed slowly.
I'm not going to lie, there were a few times I teared up.  Seeing how the guilt triggered Matt's mental illness was heartbreaking.
Over all, all I can say is to check this book out.
4.5/5 stars.