I finished the last page as my streetcar pulled up to my office and I was nearly in tears.

A funny and tragic story of 4 sisters. If you have sisters, you’ll feel the essence of a sister relationship as you read, I can’t explain it any other way.

This is my sister’s favourite book and I left it unread on my shelf for too long, but now it will be a long time before I find another book like this.

I liked a lot about this book but, I think, it was a bit over ambitious. There a lot of themes to keep track of and none of them seemed to be fleshed out enough. I liked the first half of the book much better than the second. It felt like the halfway mark was kind of where it went off the rails. The characters are interesting, however, and I like how MacDonald keeps revealing the unexpected around each corner.

If I could unread a book, it would be this one.

This book made me feel sick, honestly. It was an agonizing read and the only reason I finished it was hoping it would
Make sense in the end and it was just tragic. It also pissed me off because I feel like all books based in the East Coast are bizarre!!!! Do not read this, lol. Spare yourself the uncomfortable read.

Definitely a page-turner but it felt like there was a bit too much going on plot-wise by the end.

Extremely painful to read. Often made me feel sick. 5/5

I’m not sure how I felt about this book. It’s a mixed bag for me. Pluses: I LOVED the writing. The characters were complex. The sense of place (as experienced by the characters, rather than by the reader) was well-crafted; especially the scenes in the family home, New York, and in the Canadian dive bar where Frances worked. The minuses: one HECK of a depressing tale. It felt like a cold, cloudy, rainy day in literary form. There was not one likeable character; I was not sympathetic to even one. At times it was hard to follow; I’d read a passage and know it was fitting with SOMETHING, but couldn’t quite grasp what it was. Then several chapters later, it would become clear, as the author revealed the plot details a bit further. Did I mention it was depressing?
The irony for me is that this novel contained so much dysfunction, yet it disturbed me LESS than The Glass Castle did. Maybe because Fall on Your Knees is fiction. Maybe because the abuse and neglect was not as “in-your-face” and matter-of-fact as in The Glass Castle. I can’t really say. But I finished this book, whereas I did NOT finish The Glass Castle (I made it 95% and just couldn’t take any more). I cannot say if I would recommend this book, but for the writing, I give it 3 stars.

This is why I read fiction...so much more honest than nonfiction. Wow, what heavy stuff in this one. I could really see the characters and loved and hated them. This will be in my thoughts for quite some time. Wish we could have shared this one, Lynda.

Ugh that father! This type of book is hard to read at times, but the writing was good.

Every evil thought comes to pass as a deed in this book. After reading it I needed a shower a cleanse an exorcism and a therapist. Very slow start to the book, so you have to work past that. Then it is just one gagging horror after another.

Wow! This story kept me interested from start to finish. The twists and turns, the misfortune of perceptions mistaken throughout. The good are bad, or are the bad good? You want to judge one's character just to find the other side facing you. Excellently woven, and full of emotion. Loved, loved, loved this book!

Best 50 cent purchase of my life. I picked up a copy of this book on impulse this summer at a thrift store in Williams Lake, BC. The first line of praise featured on the inside cover of this edition immediately drew me in: "MacDonald paints a Cape Breton landscape steeped in human emotions..." It doesn't even sound that remarkable but knowing myself and my taste for books that flip characters around inside out, upside down then right-side out and up again, and not needing much of a plot... I had a feeling this would be a good one. But then again... sometimes these books can be incredibly boring if they aren't done well. or if the characters are dull. I opened to the first line: "They're all dead now." Sold.

My aunt came for dinner the other day while I was still in the middle of the book, we were catching up about her and my uncle's recent trip to Nova Scotia when I brought up the book and asked if she had heard of it. She had, and said she enjoyed it. My uncle chimed in that he had also read it, or attempted to, but couldn't finish it. My aunt said she has yet to meet a man who could get through more than three quarters of this novel. That made me like it even more.

If you've read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, this felt like a much darker, more gothic, Canadian version. And while being just as character driven, this plot also drew me in with surprises up until the very end.

In short:
Family drama, teen angst, music, World Wars, girl guides, bootlegging, Catholicism, sainthood, ghosts, the devil, motherhood, femininity, sexuality, immigration, and the Canadian east coast.

11/10 would recommend, a good read especially for this last bit of summer. <3