This book was so easy to get into, the characters jumped off the page ready to be devoured

Writing style was fantastic, it made it so easy to forget that we are reading and not watching something. Fast paced and the mixed media delivery was great.

I absolutely loved this book! So well written! I can’t wait to see more from this fantastic author.....

I must have requested this book (electronically) a while ago. Or during a lull. Because when it popped up in my 'due to read' pile I read the back cover blurb and groaned. Not from any physical pain ( ;-) ) but rather the thought of yet another book about parenting wars. I know the fascination with good / bad parenting started before Big Little Lies but the perfect / imperfect mummy thing has become a little old hat. More so for me I suspect as a non-parent.

But I bravely read on, deciding it's not the author's fault there's been a deluge of books about parents being blamed for their children going missing or getting hurt when they should be keeping a better eye on them.

And, I was relieved to discover - after this book kicked off - there are some secrets at play that go beyond the parenting crap, so I found myself more intrigued than I expected to be.

This book unfolds from Liza and Sarah's points of view via alternating chapters. And for a while it felt like it was going to be less about 'bad parenting' or tut-tutting and more about secrets and lies... though ultimately didn't quite get there for me.

It had some potential before falling into a few of the usual cliches with the mother's group (and chat rooms) and the school committees yielding to bright shiny new members with something to offer and quick to ostracise anyone a little different.

Weirdly Ella, the character set up as aloof and the least likeable, (almost) becomes the character I liked most. Sure, she lacks some integrity (!!!) but I appreciated her pragmatism. She kinda buys into the game-playing, but there's a sense that the other women project their perceptions onto her rather than her actually being as dastardly, or impressive, as they think. 

Sarah started as a likeable character. We engaged with her and understood where she was coming from. She's experienced some recent trauma she's not really dealt with, but her well-meaningness (aka guilt) becomes ridiculously meddlesome to the point of being OTT (and perhaps slightly mad). I appreciated that Thornton ensured the reactions of those around her (to her behaviour) was realistic.

And then there's Liza, the mother of the injured child. Liza is separated from her husband Gav, though they're living together. He's certainly over solicitous: Liza thinking he's too distrustful of her; and Sarah believing him to be controlling and perhaps emotionally abusive. I was with Sarah on that as he's quick to become angry at his wife and she seems frightened of him. But we're aware Liza has her secrets. She offers up hints but doesn't give any detail until everything hits the fan and she needs to share all.

Parents (mothers more specifically) will probably relate more to this book than I was able.

But there are some broader lessons here: about making assumptions about others' lives; about the need to consider the motivation behind our actions; and about doing what we think is right even if perhaps we know (deep down) we're overstepping. 

This would most likely be a good bookclub book as it'd definitely generate some discussion around the 'what would you do?' type scenario.

I so wanted to love this book. I feel it was just a little too OTT!! Too much drama all at once, and the ending was a bit of a let down. It was slow to start and often I got lost with who was who and what they were talking about. Too many “secrets” with too many people trying to hide them all, and trying to figure everyone else’s secrets out. I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it either.

In The Fallout, Rebecca Thornton’s third fiction novel, minutes after Sarah witnesses her best friend’s young son climbing a pole in a playground, and distracted, says nothing, the boy falls. Four year old Jack is badly injured, and Sarah is horrified, but can’t bring herself to admit to Liza that she may have been able to prevent the tragedy. Desperate to redeem herself for failing to tell the truth, Sarah vows to do everything she can to make up for her mistake, but lies have consequences, and there are some things can’t be forgiven.

Thornton explores several themes in The Fallout, including friendship, parenting, postpartum depression/psychosis, loss, and post traumatic stress. The story unfolds primarily from the perspectives of Sarah and Liza as they struggle with the fallout from Jack’s accident. Thornton also makes use of WhatsApp chat and interview transcripts in the novel to good effect. Amongst other things, they reveal the petty dynamic too often present among groups of mothers, and illustrate the varying social attitudes to parenting in general, as speculation about the fall, and who is to blame, runs riot.

Sarah is an exhausting character, and though I felt sympathetic towards her, I also found her frustrating, and irritating. Her frenzied anxiety, fed by residual feelings of guilt and grief, leads to impulsive, and sometimes irrational decisions, that worsens every situation exponentially, despite usually having the best of intentions. I did feel that the story got a little bogged down in Sarah’s spiral of panic, occasionally teetering on the edge of absurd, and slowing the pace.

Liza is also wound a little tight, not only because of the uncertainty surrounding Jack’s injury, and the complicated state of her marriage, but also due to a past event, which Thornton delays revealing until the very end of the novel. I’d guessed the circumstances that Liza was struggling with early on, so I found the reveal to be anti-climatic, but I liked the way in which the author acknowledged the impact of events on Liza’s husband’s.

The Fallout is a engaging read, I found the premise to be relatable, and I empathised with the characters.

This is such a simple story but kind of going everywhere unnecessarily. I can feel that the author tried to create a few suspense here and there but they just don't feel right, and actually it's predictable where it headed. I finished this book as I'm intrigued how the author will wrap the ending.

Thank you Netgalley for ARC.