Rating: 
Summary: Best book I've read in a long time!
Review: This book grabbed me from the start. Well written, interesting characters which put you at the scene. I have to admit I wrote this review before I finished the book, but I can't imagine that it's going to disappoint me. Great Read!
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING!!!!
Review: This could perhaps be my new favorite book. I typically read 1 to 3 novels per week and I can't remember the last time I was so pleased. This book is absolutely amazing and epic in proportion. The book is only 500 hundred pages but seems like 2000...the crazy thing is that this is a good thing!
Every character is so multi-faceted and the prose is so positively lyrical and poetic at times that the entire read kept me in a state of awe. The twists and turns of the endless shocking events of the Piper family kept the pages turning. I would be lying if I said I didn't find myself wanting for breath more than several times.
This book is not intended for the light at heart. It is full of abuses, passions, raging disappointment, and the truly taboo. MacDonald is a genius with the speaking tongue of surreal beauty. She is nothing short of inspiring...I urge everyone who reads this review to buy the book and to keep an open mind while reading it...you WILL NOT be sorry!
This novel is a keeper and it surely hasn't seen the last of me.
Rating: 
Summary: Sprawling generational saga about a tragic family.
Review: Ann-Marie MacDonald's "Fall on Your Knees" is an ambitious novel that chronicles the saga of the Piper family, who live in Cape Breton Island off Nova Scotia in Canada. The narrative starts in 1898 and ends in the middle of the twentieth century. It starts with eighteen-year-old James Piper's ill-fated love affair with Materia Mahmoud, a girl of twelve whose family is wealthy and powerful. James and Materia elope, and the Mahmouds are outraged. As the years pass, James and Materia start a family of their own, and it soon becomes apparent that the Pipers are destined to suffer.MacDonald is a talented writer who experiments interestingly with the written word. She takes off on literary flights of fancy, using interesting metaphors, magical realism and delightful humor to hold the reader's interest throughout this five hundred page epic. The characters are uniformly well drawn. They include Materia, the clueless matriarch, who soon realizes that she has gotten in over her head when she married James; Kathleen, the gorgeous daughter with a glorious singing voice and gigantic ambition; Mercedes, the compassionate and religious sister who tries to keep the family from falling apart after a series of devastating tragedies befall them; and the father, James, a deeply flawed individual who is responsible for many of the terrible events that wreck his family. "Fall on Your Knees" is an account of a bizarre family dynamic. MacDonald depicts the horrible pain that people inflict on their "loved ones" through weakness, malice or perversity. Ultimately, "Fall on Your Knees" sinks somewhat under its own melodramatic weight. However, I still recommend that you read this unusual novel so that you can savor the sheer virtuosity of Ann-Marie MacDonald's original writing style.
Rating: 
Summary: An Epic Shortcoming
Review: From the reviews and all the endorsements this book has received I expected a lot from it, suffice to say, I did get a lot, but a lot of what is a better question. The problem with this tale as I see it, is that it aspires to be too grand and dramatic instead of following it's own natural course and letting genuine affection for its characters and story find a place in the reader's heart. Fall on Your Knees is full of flawed characters which are the most powerful sort, but the way things keep conspiring against the family, stretches the imagination and leaves you feeling empty and manipulated as the book contrives repeatedly to convince you that it is an "epic" story and not merely a soap opera blown out of proportion. Kathleen, Mercedes, Frances and Lily Piper are the true focal point of the novel, although the book starts at the meeting of their parents as young adults in the early 20th century in Cape Breton Island. These four sisters and their troubles, and mysteries are explained throughout the 500+ pages of this overwrought monster of a period drama. These mysteries are presumably the reason for the book being written, although they were flimsy, and rather easy to decipher from clues given earlier in the book. Even the few surprises that aren't figured out easily on your own aren't much of a kick and seem wildly out of place in the setting offered. Many scenes are shocking and objectionable, and they are clearly made to be, intending perhaps, on making you think that the book is addressing issues that need thought and attention, but the novel exploits the situation for attention, and no characters find healing or help. There is a fine line between daring, inventive writing, and filth that you might find on a Jerry Springer Show. The only points the book gets at all are for some of the vivid settings and the interesting blend of races and cultures that get some truly inventive perspectives and descriptions. In the end though that small spark of beauty and interest is crushed by the clumsy heavy-handed drama that tries much too hard to reach a level that few books ever see.
Rating:
Summary: Really, really good - but she needed a better editor
Review: What a wonderful, depressing, funny, uplifting, hopeful, bleak, and mesmerizing story. I could not stop reading, kept racing through each part to see what would happen.
But it was just too, too long. I skimmed and scanned in way too many places, thinking over and over how much better and tighter the results would have been if a skillful editor had taken a scalpel to this otherwise superb book.
The sense of life in the era and location, the desolation and isolation, the dark Catholicism looming over all with its associated themes of guilt and remorse, sin and grace, were all beautifully rendered.
But too long!
Rating:
Summary: what a waste of four hours
Review: This book well, it [was bad]. The writer has decent style at times, but it changed too often and just confuses things further. Beyond that, the story was ridiculous and contrived, the characters were completely one dimensional, and the ending was anti-climactic. Almost every one of the characters is nothing but a stereotype, the good girl, the bad girl, the sweet crippled girl, the tragically undercut future star, etc., etc., etc. Then there are two or three characters in the periphery that don't even need to be in the story. No new ground is broken, no veiled truth comes through in the end. Honestly, the only reason i didn't hurl it into the backyard halfway through was because i wanted to know what the hell happened with Kathleen, the only character I found the least bit compelling. And what happened was completely unbelieveable and contrived, just like the rest of the story. For the people getting all scandalized over its contents, well, I've read much worse in MUCH BETTER BOOKS. It can actually add to the story! In this case, it was little more than ridiculous and seemed like it was only there for shock value. (Mine is ranting, thank you.)
Rating:
Summary: Long read - great ending
Review: Fall On Your Knees was hard to get into at first but every word of it was necessary to understand the ending. Don't give up on it mid-book, which is easy to do. The ending is worth the wait. I can't imagine that an abridged version could possibly do this book justice. The beginning is so very depressing I wondered why I continued with it. Death and dispair seem to be the running theme through the whole book, so don't read if you need a pick-me-up.
Rating:
Summary: No one is this awful - sick and sad
Review: The characters in this book just turned my stomach. I kept reading, hoping things would get better, but they didn't. The author has a unique style of writing, but the images she puts in your head are so unpleasant and disturbing that it almost gives you nightmares. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: A story doesn't have to be smiley & happy to draw you in and this one is not! It certainly made my family look squeaky clean. I could hardly put this book down. The best part of the book was how deeply the author was able to build so many characters. I really felt like I knew these people. I also enjoyed how the book seemed to be several stories that wrapped themselves around each other. It was amazing how I was able to at one point greatly dislike a character and at the next love them! A very touching book that I highly recommend!
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant gem
Review: This is one of the most thought provoking novels I have ever read. While many of the themes are unpleasant - incest, bigotry, suicide, etc...the writing is so beautiful and I guess I would say "interpretive". The tough themes are not "in your face" but rather alluded to in a way that makes you wonder if what you think is happening really is. With that said, this is not a completely dark novel. I found it rather uplifting at times such as the love between the sisters and the forgiveness they are able to grant even their father. The characters were incredibly well developed and I found that for each vile character there was a wonderfully compassionate counterpart.
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