NB 4.5 stars.

There is a reason this book has done so well. It is original, authentic and unusual. All the things I like my novels to be. The years of work Filer ploughed into The Shock of the Fall have undoubtedly paid off with a piece of art that not only pulls you in to Matt's story like a magnet but (quite rightly) challenges our perceptions of mental health and the current state of its treatment (at least in UK).

I loved how this novel was brave enough to tackle schizophrenia from the first person. I loved how there was no fear in also bringing Downs Syndrome into the family fold. I loved the use of different fonts and Matt's reflective timeline that jumped all over the place in a sketchy, unapologetic way. I loved that despite all of Matt's anger and angst - not all of which seemed to be down to his illness; he is after all a teenage boy narrator - I still felt drawn to him and I still felt deep empathy for him and his family.

So why not 5 stars?

Well, I found this book brilliantly uncomfortable to read. And sad. So very sad. On more than a few occasions I had to put it down just to gather my thoughts and see if my smile muscles were still working. While this is no criticism of the novel as a body of work, it would just be dishonest to say that I LOVED every single second of this book. As a travel writer, the best analogy I can give is that The Shock of the Fall took me on a very real journey, but it was not necessarily one I wanted to go on.

Bravo Nathan Filer!