Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - The Fell

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Fell by Sarah Moss

21 reviews

katewhite77's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A Quiet Novel About The Psychological Effects Of Isolation

Set over a few hours during the second covid lockdown, we hear the story from four perspectives, Kate who goes on an ill advised hike up the local fell, Mat her teenage son, Alice their neighbour who is also shielding and Rob a member of mountain rescue.

This is an abject lesson in There But For The Grace of God Go I, and a reminder of how scared people were of braking the law for doing the most mundane of things and also how judgemental people were of others. It is also a reminder that lockdown was especially hard on those with a mental illness.

To tell the story mostly through a stream of consciousness style was a clever idea as it gave the novel an extra clostraphobic feel. The best thing about the book for me personally, though, was the references to British foĺk music throughout.

If you're looking for a short, quiet, and thoughtful novel about that strange time, then this one might be for you.

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ruby_mae_read's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

owenglasgow's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

snatters's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

michelle_bracher's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

jesshindes's review

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emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I think The Fell is maybe the first COVID book I've read - or at least the first one that's not just influenced by, but specifically about and set during the pandemic. Kate and her son Matt are isolating after a close contact. Neighbour Alice is clinically extremely vulnerable after cancer treatment. And Rob is a mountain rescue volunteer- which gives you a clue about what happens when Kate, going stir crazy, sneaks out for an illegal walk.

Like Summerwater, which I reviewed last year, this Sarah Moss novella shifts between several narrative voices over the short chronological period it covers (less than 24 hours). There are other similarities between the two books - they're both closely rooted in specific places (in this case, the Peak District) and both include characters who rely on exercise to maintain their mental health. A lot of what I liked about Summerwater holds true here, too: Moss is great with characterisation, painting detailed and convincing interior portraits of her narrators and their relationships. The world she depicts feels real and it's very easy to care about the people she shows us for that reason. It's also I think deliberately working on a particular scale - Moss writes short books and they tend to be specific and limited in their scope. I think of her as a sort of painter in miniature. She's not delivering sweeping observations about the nature of man, she's showing us this one time and these specific people and like any detailed study of specific people, that tells us something about people as a whole.

What The Fell in particular has to offer, though, is its specific historical setting, and I thought Moss realised that fantastically. She catches the weird, alienating uncertainty of the early pandemic (this is set in November 2020), the fact that nobody knew how or when or if normal life would be possible again - and although I think it's worth acknowledging that for a lot of people in Alice's position, particularly, things are still a long way from normal, I do think I'd almost forgotten exactly how much we didn't know, how truly unpredictable it all felt and was. Alice's loneliness, Matt's cynicism about the future, Kate's deep frustration and claustrophobia, are all very familiar and I think it's valuable to have this moment captured by someone with Moss's subtlety and skill. I always like her books and I'd recommend her in general to almost anybody but I think this one would chime with a lot of people.

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