Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

4 Stars

“In the absence of facts, we tell ourselves stories.”

Lucky you. You get two of my reviews on the same day! I check out so many books at the same time with every intention of promptly reviewing them . . . .



So what am I doing today? Well, if my boss asks I’ve been working diligently. However, since it’s the day before a holiday errrrryone pretty much knows that isn’t true so I’ve actually been downloading pornography from the library. Because this person and this person are bookpushy assholes and I have no willpower. And now I’m going to try and review a legit book and expect to be taken seriously? No, not really. Here are some pictures and you can decide if you want to read this or not.

Before the Fall is about . . . .



Confession: I am morbidly fascinated by airplane crashes (there was a missing plane reported on the news this morning and I. COULD. NOT. pull myself away from the television). Because of this creepy fixation I will most likely never get on a plane again . . . but I sure as shit like reading about ‘em!

Anyway, like I said the main plot point that ties everything/every character together is a plane crash. The plane belongs to a media mogul . . . .


(Only not 417 years old)

Who has invited a super creepy businessman . . . .



To accompany them on the private jet from Martha’s Vineyard back to NYC. Their wives are also on the flight, but who gives a crap about millionaire’s wives, right????



Plus, they’ll be dead in 16 minutes away.

The real focus is on survivors Scott, a painter of unusual images, and the media mogul’s 4 year old son (again, not a lot of character development on that one which is good because, in case you haven’t been around them, 4 year olds are kind of douchebags). Scott pulls off a real Jack Lallane by swimming with a dislocated shoulder through shark infested waters (yes, I know it’s ridiculous Ron, but sometimes you just gotta channel your inner Elsa and let it go) . . . .



The rest of the story does the wibbly wobbly timey wimey in order to provide the deceased passenger’s backstories as well as the aftermath of how Scott and J.J. deal with surviving the tragedy. It also features a shockjock type of news anchor who was one of the most punchable characters I read in 2016 . . . .



This was a Goodreads Choice Awards this year for “Best Mystery Thriller.” Like most of the selections for those awards, I found the category selection misleading at best and asinine at worst. While Before the Fall does have a bit of a “mystery” vibe included with respect to figuring out exactly what happened to make the plane crash this was more of a character study. I didn’t keep turning pages because I was on the edge of my seat, but because I was generally interested in reading more about these peoples’ lives. The writing was solid, it flowed well and at a great pace and it was just a good book. Recommended.