Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely astounding.
Review: I do have to admit that for the first third of this book, I kept asking myself why I was torturing myself -- why I kept reading when it was all so horrible. But the characters and their tragedies wouldn't leave my thoughts, so I kept going. Ultimately it didn't get all that much better -- but it was so worth it! This is an incredible book that really had an impact on me.
Rating:
Summary: Yet more praise from far a field.
Review: While already reading the on-line reviews of this book, more praise may seem repetitive. However even all the way from Australia, i must say this is now in my top 5 fiction novels that i literally could not put down. Take yourself on a journey, it will make you gasp, laugh, weep and sigh all in just one chapter. Take the emotional rollercoaster - you'll be better for it
Rating:
Summary: My new favorite book!
Review: This was released in Canada, and I read it right away
after attending a reading of it by the author. Some of the most beautiful prose and imagery I've ever read, with a
creative and enchanting/original epic plot. At 500 pages,
I was surprised that I couldnt put it down and read it
in less than 3 days!
I highly recommend it to anyone. A must read!!
Rating:
Summary: I have never felt a writer come so close to playing goddess.
Review: Forever hungry for fiction with redemption and an edge, this
was my favourite read of 1996. MacDonald writes with a kind of deliberate recklessness that somehow cuts and heals
at the same time. I couldn't help admiring the femme in her
expansive research, precision prose and brilliant theatrics. Fall on Your Knees is exactly why I read fiction. Hope the publisher is planning a loud splash here in the Big Show. Lou c/o <roscko@cts.com>
Rating:
Summary: A literary tsunami hits the shores of Cape Breton!
Review: I am a devoted fan of Margaret Atwood and read her current
bestseller, Alias Grace, the first week of its release. It
is a masterful work. Then why was I not thrilled when it
recently won Canada's Giller Prize for fiction? Well, Ann-
Marie MacDonald just happened to have taken me on one of the
most visceral yet breathtakingly beautiful journeys of my
reading life and as if struck by the most powerful tidal wave, I am left awed by its power and beauty. Fall On Your Knees slowly reveals the mysteries of a young girl's life on the island of Cape Breton where the hardships of a coal mining community in the early 1900's mirrors those of
a family rent apart by poverty, race and dysfunction. The tale told here is captivating in its intricacies of plot
alone but the language of this book, its phrases and images
that caress then spear, this is the gift of a writer who is
truly aware of the magic of words. Never can I recall being
so overwhelmed by a single sentence that I had to stop, look
about me for a beacon in the real world then plunge again
into the waters of this author's imagination. Ann-Marie Mac-
Donald may not have yet been officially rewarded for this wonderful novel but she has certainly earned the repect and
admiration from those of us who have tasted the salty air and sweet fury of her pen.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READING that you will not want to put down!
Review: I just read this book and it was so intriguing and detailed that I could feel the characters in the book. It was almost as if I was watching the Piper family. The layers of information and stories and secrets that unfold are exciting and excellent in the writing of Ms.MacDonald. The content is shocking and very delicate and traumatic at the same time. I cannot understand why some readers would call it trash or not be able to handle the content unless they were victims of these types of crimes and not yet ready to confront it. Great novel and novelist and I enjoyed the Catholicism undertone too.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It
Review: After going through the first few reviews here, I thought, "Oh great. What am I about to read here?" But don't let the bad reviews fool you. It's a good book. True, the Piper family endures more tragedies than some small nations, but Miss MacDonald writes in such a manner that it takes awhile for all the suffering to sink in. And I do adore her style!I loved Frances, for her spirit and devotion to her sisters. Mercedes was a bit of a bore but after all she's gone through, it would be odd if she *weren't* slightly nuts. Trust me, it was hardly confusing. I especially enjoyed reading about Kathleen. Miss MacDonald has a wonderfully dark sense of humour. I suppose the magic of the book lies in the style of writing. Just don't read it when you're in a bad mood.
Rating: 
Summary: Keeps me up at night
Review: I picked this book up at the office, and was hoping for an intreguing novel that had something new and interesting to say. I enjoyed the style at first, but it was shortly clouded over the horrific events of the plot. I admit that I couldn't put this book down- in the same way that you can't tear your eyes away from fresh roadkill. Several times I wanted to "put this book in the freezer" to make it go away, but the vivid pictures of incestual rape would not leave my mind. Its been a week since finishing, and I can still see Francis telling Mercedes "Don't worry. It doesn't hurt." This book was simply too vulgar- I wish I had never picked it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the kitchen sink?
Review: The melodrama piles up at a dizzying pace: child-beating and incest followed by killings, racial and ethnic tensions, promiscuity, a lesbian affair, drug abuse. In attempting to play out the Pipers' saga against the backdrop of early 20th-century history, MacDonald has produced an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink narrative that lurches wildly between affecting insight and inexcusable sloppiness. There are anachronisms (would someone really use the term "foolish lardass" in 1914?); cliches ("March came in like a lion"); and awkwardly telescoped transitions ("The summer flies past. Materia cooks, James works, the little girls thrive"). There are also some lyrical descriptions and hilarious dialogue. And the book is almost redeemed by MacDonald's vividly imagined treatment of the Piper children's inner lives: their secrets and terrors, their religious fervor and yearning for redemption. These dreamlike passages, including visions of saints and satanic forces struggling for the children's souls, are harrowing. Less convincing is the way in which these characters metamorphose as adults, the pious Mercedes becoming petty and controlling, bad-girl Frances turning from Magdelene into madonna figure, and the Lear-like father, James, being redeemed by suffering. The point, hardly original, is that humans, like the world they inhabit, are neither all good nor all bad. But MacDonald's characters are too incompletely realized for their hasty transformations to ring true. Her book is a noble failure
Rating:
Summary: It's not about puppies and kittens...
Review: I just finished reading "Fall on Your Knees" and I think it is one of the best books I have read in a while. People are giving this book negative reviews simply because they find it oh, so depressing. While it's true that this book isn't about cute puppies and kittens playing with laughing children in a park and bubble gum and cotton candy, it is GOOD! If you are not mentally prepared to read a book that is about a family that has some serious problems, then I would not recommend this book to you. But, if you are ready to read an amazing story with very unique and individual characters and the dramas and yes, sometimes, tragedies of their lives, then please read this book! I found my self laughing as well as gasping in surprise at the events in this book. I'll admit, it is a lot to get through, but the end benefit of finishing this book is completely rewarding...at least it was to me. I feel like this book is somewhat of a puzzle that you are able to put all of the pieces together, the more that you read. And, I found the ending to be outstanding. I usually rate a book on how good it is based upon how I feel when I finish it. All I know is that when I finished this book, I thought, "WOW! That was a great and moving story". I would definetly recommend it!!
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