Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Ms. Chevalier is another author that I will pick up simply because her name is on the cover. This was a very interesting read given the fact that I love the time period that the story was set in (end of Victoria's reign, beginning of Edward's) and the way the story was told from several characters POV. This is a story about change and how we live our life. It was truly entertaining and I look forward to more work by Ms. Chevalier.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I truly enjoyed Falling Angles, but then again I've enjoyed just about everything I've read by Tracy Chevalier. It's a sweet book about 2 very different girls growing up in 2 very different environments. The book takes a grim turn, but it works. The most unique aspect of the book is that it is written in each characters voice. You get a look into everyone's head. A nice change from what I am used to reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it with your ears!
Review: Being a fan of Tracy Chevalier, I was eager to read her book "Fallen Angels", but since my time is limited (too many books, too little time), I decided to read it with my ears on audio CD. This was the most fantastic listening experience I have ever had! All the characters came alive because the book was narrated by as many different people as there are characters in the book. The English dialects were perfect and appropriate to the characters' stations in life.The only problem is: I am now spoiled and won't be satisfied with single narrative audio books in the future.
Update: I didn't realize when I wrote this recommendation there are more than one version of this audio cd. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Falls flat
Review: I agree with a few others here, it imparts a limited sense of the struggle for the vote, but the story itself is flat.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Study of Women and Their Times
Review: I like novels set in Victorian England as well as those with female heros, and so was drawn to Falling Angels right away, simply because of its time and place. But the other draw was the primary setting for most of the action, which is a large cemetery in a neighborhood of well-to-do middle class homes. I have always enjoyed cemeteries (so long as I'm not mourning someone who is buried there) as interesting vehicles for gaining an understanding of social history and for feeling my humanness. Some tombstone incriptions amaze me with their heartfelt honesty, and because the emotions expressed are so congruent with my own -- even when the person in question died decades ago. It makes me realize that there really isn't much difference between us in the end. And that is, I believe, the main appeal of this novel. All things happen in the fullness of time -- the tragic, the beloved, and the blessed. And the core substance of life doesn't really change much from era to era.I also enjoyed reading about the sexual byplay between the adult women characters, their husbands and the other men they meet. While some of the action seems to be "typically" Victorian, other scenes are surprising for the time. For instance, there are actually incidents of spouse swapping (most certainly called "wife swapping" at the time), which surprised me given that I have come to think of the Victorians as sexual prudes. And, of course, there is the obligatory punishment for the woman (Kitty Coleman) who steps out of the traditional role to grab a moment of joy for herself. Also alluring are the characterizations of the daughters -- Lavinia, who seems true to the spirit of the era and is, in other words, the sort of Victorian lady who faints and fumes and, generally, portrays herself as the fair flower of womanhood; her younger sister Ivy May, who is quiet and the "nice girl" who finishes last in the end (literally); and Maude, the girl who is too smart for her time and also ends up paying a price. And, while Maude and Ivy May pay obvious prices, the cost to Lavinia of languishing in her socially accpetable role is also quite high. The three girls challenge readers -- female readers anyway -- to place themselves in their shoes and think about the choices that we would make, given the social constraints and rewards of the time. Overall, this is a thought provoking book that encourages the reader to reflect on her/his humanity and the ways that all of us are connected, now and forever.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This is one of those books you can't stop thinking about when you finish. It is drastically different from any of Chevalier's other novels, but it is good in its own right. Just because you loved Girl With A Pearl Earring, do not expect to immediately fall for this book. But the characters are touching, and although you might not completely identify with them, I don't think Chevalier intends you to. This book is at once heart-breaking and captivating. If you can let yourself forget about that girl with an earring, you will be able to relax and enjoy a terrific piece of literature.
Rating:
Summary: Failing Angels
Review: I loved "Pearl Earring", and was looking forward to this book also. I am sorely disappointed; the writing is sophomoric, the characters are surfacely drawn, and basically, it's a silly story, that evokes the question, Who cares?
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best
Review: The story lags, the characters are not as interesting. If you liked The Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Virgin Blue, you will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Is This a Family Novel or a Literary Experiment
Review: I really didn't like GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, but I thought I'd try another Tracy Chevalier book and, since I love reading books set in both Victorian and Edwardian England, FALLING ANGELS seemed perfect.
On the morning following the death of Queen Victoria, intelligent but plain Maude Coleman meets beautiful but shallow Lavinia Waterhouse at the cemetery where both of their families have plots. The five year old girls become fast friends and their lives become intertwined unto death.
FALLING ANGELS is quite different from GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING in more ways than the fact that it does not explore the world of art. Where GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING had only one narrator, Griet, FALLING ANGELS has several and they take turns telling their stories in short, choppy chapters. One of the ways in which both books are similar is the fact that Chevalier never goes inside the mind of her characters...she fails to gives us her characters thoughts, and this, I think, is a very grave mistake. It distanced me from Griet and it distanced me from both Maude and Lavinia and the other characters that populate the pages of FALLING ANGELS.
It's puzzling to me as to why Chevalier would write so many interior monologues yet fail to let even one character reveal his or her thoughts or emotions. Instead of using the third person to help us "know" each character, Chevalier uses it to give us expository information...something that, to me, smacks of the work of an amateur, not a woman who's just written her third novel. It might have been an experimental device, but if it were, I think it's an experiment in technique that failed.
In addition to the above, the first half of the book, which seems to be developing into a family drama simply doesn't coalesce with the second half, where it veers off into something quite different. It seemed as if Chevalier were trying to weave disparate stories from loosely connected characters into one lovely tapestry of a book, but the tapestry just never came together and simply unraveled, instead.
Like GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, FALLING ANGELS is rich in description, something that seems to be Chevalier's forte and something I would expect, given the fact that she was, for many years a reference book editor. In GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING we were treated to a tour of Delft during Vermeer's lifetime. In FALLING ANGELS, we're given a guide to Edwardian England. I liked the description in both books, but lovely description doesn't make a compelling story.
I am going to give Chevalier yet a third chance, something I rarely do with any author. I've recently purchased her latest book, THE LADY AND THE UNICORN. The beautiful tapestries at the Musee National du Moyen Age de Cluny in Paris are among my favorite "artistic treasures," so I really couldn't resist a book woven around them. I just hope Chevalier gives us richer characterizations than she did in FALLING ANGELS.
I would recommend this book only to people so in love with Edwardian England that they simply can't get their fill.
Rating:
Summary: Falling Angels
Review: I was so disappointed with this book! I loved her earlier book, Girl with the Pearl Earrings and expected to enjoy this one too but I did not. The characters in her earlier book were so real that I found myself caring very much what happened to them. The characters in this book were all self-absorbed and unlikable. I was fasinated by the art, the descriptions, and history in Girl with the Pearl Earrings but this book just did not measure up to it.
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