The Falls

One word, terrible. At first I thought it was the audio book that was bad, because the narrator was awful, and i mean really awful. Also, it was 15 CDs, which is long even for a good book. In fact, it almost destroyed my faith in audio books.

But the more I think about this book, the more terrible I think the story itself really was. The characters aren't well developed, and Ariah, the only character who is somewhat developed, is so insane that is is hard to feel any sympathy for or feel any connection with. She is completely uninteresting, the plot drags, and there is really no climax. There are small questions that arise as you're reading that never go anywhere, or aren't answered in an interesting way. The cemetery sex scene, which could have been entertaining, is unrealistic and hokey.

I assumed other book reviewers would feel similarly, but I was surprised by the overwhelming positive responses on Amazon. Joyce Carol Oates regularly gets good reviews, so I wondered if people who liked her as an author read this because of her reputation. "Expertly crafted," "Page turner", "Interesting" - i couldn't disagree more. If anyone were to pick this up to hear an interesting story taking place in Niagara Falls, or to hear a fictionalized account of a family living in the time of the "Love Canal" case, please, don't bother. It's hard for me to stop reading a book once I start, but in this case, I wish heartily that I could have gotten that time of my life in the car back.