Rating: 
Summary: Fasten your seatbelt, you're in for a bumpy ride...
Review: Fantastic book. Wow! I was white-knuckled hanging onto this book the whole way through. This book will make you laugh, cry, and want to pull your hair out. I can't imagine how anyone can dream up such an incredible story. Well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Book
Review: Fall on Your Knees was such a powerful story Each person
in the story was a story within itself. It was sad story of
a family that had gone wrong. After finishing the book today,
it took me a while to get back to earth again. My mind was
still with the very powerfully worded story.Thank you so much Ann-Marie MacDonald for writing such a book.
Rating:
Summary: Even if you want to, you will never forget the Piper family!
Review: I am having trouble starting this, because I'm still in shock over the vast amount of negative reviews that I have just read. Even if you don't like the storyline or "relate" to the characters, I am shocked that someone could come up with something negative to say because the writing alone is hands down breathtaking. I did not think it was possible for someone to write so magnificently and yet be an unknown name. It is the most amazing debut novel I have ever read of any author. To be honest, the beginning is a little slow. It took me longer than usual to get into it. However, around page 100, I couldn't put it down. I was so intrigued by every single character. It didn't matter if I related to them or not, what mattered was that I sympathized with them and felt that I knew them. I felt as though I had grown up with the Piper children, and for days after finishing I couldn't stop thinking about Lily or Mercedes or Katherine. There is no denying that the family is more than slightly dysfunctional. As dysfunctional as it is, it is still completely realistic. Fall on your knees is a heartbreaking story of one family. For me, as much as I wanted to hate certain characters, such as John, I couldn't because no matter how horrible he could be, you also see how amazing he could be. You LOVE these characters, even if you don't want to. You get angry and sad, but still, through it all, you feel for them, and see why they do what they do. It's been a long time since I have been so touched by the characters in a book. They became more than characters to me. They were my friends. I cried when they cried and I laughed when they laughed. The story is depressing and dark. It is heartbreaking and pretty emotionally draining, to be honest. If you are looking for a light, fun read, then I don't suggest this. But if you want to read a novel that will stay with you, and touch you and influence you, then Fall on your Knees will do this. Like I said earlier, the writing alone will blow you away. MacDonald is a true storyteller. Everything is intertwined in each other and you don't really understand what is going on until you finish the book. For days I kept going back to and rereading parts, putting it all together. I read the first page over and over so many times the number is too high to recall. Fall on your Knees is a great book. I read it over a month ago, and I still find myself thinking about the Pipers. To me, that says a lot. Even if you disagree with the story or find it to depressing, you cannot deny that MacDonald is an amazing writer. Read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A creeper
Review: This book crept up on me, insinuating itself into my mind so that at the end, I turned back to page one to begin again. Others have commented that they could not identify with the characters; but their "difficulty" was what I loved about them and the book. The characters were each horrible and flawed, but with redemption. And not ever were they reduced to being charicatures of evil or simply "bad." They were real and textured, even James who is the worst of them. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: I fell in love with the setting...
Review: While I couldn't find one character out of the whole lot to really identify with, I still completed this book within 24 hours, and at times felt I couldn't read fast enough. I'm not usually a fan of "gothic" novels, and quite frankly was not intrigued even a little by the incest and abuse theme. Nor could I suspend my disbelief enough to believe in (or care about) the supernatural aspects of this book. Some parts that were decidedly not supposed to be funny made me giggle because they seemed so contrived and implausible. I don't want to spoil too much of this book, so I'll say this: 1) skip the first chapter, and 2) pay attention to the titles of the chapters. I honestly grew to be disgusted with, if not hate most of the characters in the book (except for the "messenger" at the very end) *but* I think MacDonald must have wanted it that way. Why, I don't know, but how are we supposed to work up much sympathy for any of them, especially James? That all said, I still found much to dig into and really enjoy in this book. The setting and the descriptions of daily life on the island were powerful. I was fascinated by the representations of the speech patterns of the Cape Breton Islanders, and also how closely tied many of them were to their Scots ancestry. The description of the uniform(s) James' wore in WWI (a small detail, yes) made some of the less pleasing parts of the novel worthwhile. The details of the coal strike and the workings of the company town were quite powerful. So, this was a different sort of book. The main characters will fade from my memory, but the setting will stay with me.
Rating:
Summary: Captivatingly Beautiful
Review: Haunting!
My eyeballs are screaming in pain from reading this in one sitting, but it was worth it.
Beauty comes in all shapes and forms.
If you're looking for a rose-tinted novel set in an Utopian town where the skies are sunny everyday and inhabit people who sit on the porches and wave hello to everyone that passes by, this isn't a book for you.
You also you need to get a grip on reality, because real life isn't like that.
This is very gritty and true to life whether people want to believe it or not. There is alot of turmoil in the novel (as in life) but the key factor is the final redemption and triumph of the characters over their past and their weaknesses.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, hard to accept
Review: I've just finished the book and I have to say Oprah picks some strange ones. Everyone comments on the incest, but it was just skimmed over in the story, except in James first revulsion in what he felt for his daughter Kathleen. We don't find out anything about the episode of James with his daughter Frances except during Mercedes daydreaming flashback. But it took us till the very last while Lily read her mother's diary to learn who her lover was. Then it switches to James actions on arriving in New York to realize who the father is. I just think it is so sad to read about people's lives that are so completely destroyed through lack of communication and compassion for one and another. This author has a unique way of unfolding the story and I was never bored, although it did seem like we were covering the same event over and over, it was actually being remembered by different people. Very compeling.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disturbing Tale of Dysfunctional Family Ties!
Review: Okay - this is the second "Oprah's Book Club" book that I've read and, like DROWNING RUTH(Christina Schwartz), I disliked the story due to the disturbingly depressing plot. In DROWNING RUTH, the whole idea of a mentally-ill and controlling aunt (Amanda) ruining the life of her little niece (Ruth) after the girl's mother (Mathilda) mysteriously fell through the ice and drowned one cold winter eve was merely depressing; in FALL ON YOUR KNEES, however,the pervading theme of incest was more than distressing, it was just downright gross (and this is from an open-minded reader NOT easily shocked or bothered by sexual content!) Although I am always interested in reading books that deal with sensitive and even shocking topics (sometimes this makes a book more interesting!), I just don't find a need to experience incest in such poetic prose! There's one thing I don't get - in the description on the back cover, the story is called "menacingly dark and hilariously funny" and it is also called "darkly humorous". Maybe I'm missing something or perhaps I'm not sophisticated enough, but I just don't see any humor at all in this distressing tale - and, like I said, I'm a very open-minded reader! ...
Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: Yes. This book holds much that is depressing, and dark. But that does not break down how beautifully written it is. I don't see how any avid reader or reader at all for that matter could call this book "boring"...it's impossible. So much goes on.
As you read, years go by (in the book of course). There are lives; there are deaths...and so much drama. Some things may disturb you, some may touch you, but all and all MacDonald's words can have you captivated; tranced. Either you love it or you hate it. As for me, it moved me. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: unusual and wonderful
Review: I loved this book! Fascinating story of several dysfunctional generations. Beautifully written.
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