Fall River

Author: Meredith Miller

Publisher: Honno Press

Available: 21^st March 2024 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Honno Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

A mesmerising small-town drama packed with intrigue

One young woman disappears and another returns home from London. Alice has turned to the river looking to drown the voices in her head. Khadija has come home to uncover the terrible history hidden under its surface. The London train screeches through while the rest of the town is still asleep along the banks of the Tamar. They’ll wake up that morning to find that everything, and nothing, has changed. Sooner or later, the river pulls them all. Sooner or later, someone falls.

 In this small-town drama, past and present relationships collide, weaving multiple narratives packed with intrigue and authenticity. Meredith Miller skilfully crafts a dark and unfolding psychological mystery, blending lyrical storytelling, a cast of strong female characters and a fresh perspective on contemporary society.

My Thoughts:

Every year of my book blogging journey, I come across novels that I don’t know that I would have discovered during my own forays into bookshops looking for books to engage my literary sweet spot, this was certainly the case with Fall River by Meredith Miller. From the moment, I read the book’s description, those little sparks of anticipation and roiling coils of expectation ignited my book desire synapses.

When I finally held Fall River in my hands and read the first pages of the book, I fell in love with Meredith’s fluid, beguiling and atmospheric words and I knew I was on the cusp of an exceptional reading experience.  As I sat down to write my review of her book, I was perplexed, that I didn’t or don’t, have the skill to convey to you, my fellow bookophiles, how stirringly sublime and superbly sentient Meredith’s novel is. The little book devil on my shoulder is getting progressively louder in his entreaties… that I should type, for goodness’s sake…BUY THIS BOOK NOW…so I have, and I mean it!

Meredith’s book is unequivocally one of my favourite reads of 2024!

Now unusually, I have decided not to go into much detail about the plot of this book, where it starts or from whose perspective, simply because, it will speak to you directly, when you start reading and that first impression, is not mine to share, but yours to experience and I wouldn’t wish to spoil that moment in any way!

But I will share, why I feel this novel has made such a powerful impact on me.   Meredith has the uncommon skill of being able to weave a story, that transports her readers environmentally and psychologically into the diverse world of her characters and allows us to tangibly see their secrets and their scars. Set, in the implacable bubble of the small Cornish town, Saltash, a place divided by the unpredictable flow of the wild Tamar River, a place dominated and distracted by dock yards, and their unsparing imposing impact, with echoes of empire, whispering around their concrete and steel skeletons. A town, where the fingertips of death, has carved rivulets of grief in its inhabitants, its presence may have faded over time but whose inexorable footprint can never be erased. This element of the novel cannot fail to have a potent impact on any reader, as well as providing an educational edge about the true reality of Asbestos use in buildings, with its interminable ramifications and its devastating human cost!

The focus within this novel, that I found so enticing, was Meredith’s cast of arresting women Nora, Jo, Alice, Tina, Khadija, Carol and Tina, whose ages range from old to young and whose life and emotional experiences, combined with their reactions to each other and to the unfolding circumstances that engulf them, can seem irreconcilably different, yet as I read on, I began to see their correlating similarities and the ultimate power of the feminine, be it psychic or something else. I have a considerable soft spot for Nora who is darkly hilarious and sees things others cannot and Jo whose strength of self is invigorating. Each character is eloquently crafted and has her own distinct voice and as a reader it is easy to relate to them and their narratives and I admired how their parts of the story are quilted together, to create the whole picture for us and illustrate, the ties that bind a community together in both the past and the present.

Fall River is truly an outstanding novel, it is observant, ominous, opulent, and original. I could not put it down and its content and context are firmly etched in my heart and mind. Meredith, I applaud your immense imagination, resolute research, clever characterisation, and melodic moving writing. This is a novel not to be missed, so please heed my pleas and get your hands on a copy, ASAP!

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Meredith Miller was born and raised on Long Island, in New York. Before moving to the UK in 1997, she lived on the beach in Oregon for a little while, and in New Orleans for a longer while. She has published two previous novels, Little Wrecks (2017) and How We Learned to Lie (2018). She lives in mid Wales in a tiny house with a chapel attached. A Welsh learner, Meredith is currently restoring the chapel as a literary and cultural space for the Welsh language.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.