Noah Hawley's 'Before the Fall' is the book that you need to read. Right. Now.
Put down what you're doing, and find a copy. When I bought mine at Barnes and Noble about two weeks ago, the hardcover editions were 50% off--and this novel is easily worth $13. So get looking at your nearest bookstore while I tell you why you need to be reading this book.
Picture this: 13 people get on a plan--a wealthy Wall Street husband and wife; the owner of a Television network and his wife and two children, one bodyguard for the network owner's family, a flight attendant, one pilot and a co-pilot. Out of these 13, only two will get off. The supposedly-routine flight was meant to last about forty-five minutes. It will end up being in the air for less than fifteen. When the plane goes down, it will end the live of two very famous, very influential men. Such influential men that one can't help but wonder, Could this really have been an accident?
What makes the story so utterly fascinating is its structure. It is told in chapters both before and after the plane crash. Present day narration is by, Scott, one of the two survivors, while past narration alternates point of view, giving the backstory for each person that was on the plane.
Honestly, I couldn't get enough of this book. As I watched the relationship develop between the two survivors, middle-aged Scott and four-year-old JJ, I felt my heart break every time I turned a new page. And getting to hear every character's backstory just made their losses cut even more deeply and feel even more significant. It's one thing to see characters die that you know nothing about; it's completely different to know all this information about them and then to have to reconcile that with the fact that they are dead.
While utterly heartbreaking, I loved this story because I felt so compelled to discover the truth, to seek justice for the innocent lives lost. That is what kept me flying through every page, right up until the very end.
The ending, however, was actually somewhat anti-climatic compared to the rest of the story. The foreshadowing is carefully hidden, and while the ending is unexpected, it is logical within the context of the story. Unfortunately for me, It just was not as dramatic as I was hoping, not as dramatic as the rest of the story had been.
Overall, though, it was a fantastic book, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book that's going hold a tight grip on them, long after the reader has closed the book.
To buy from Barnes & Noble, click here.
To buy from Amazon, click here.
