The Book Review: “If I Fall, If I Die” by Michael Christie

Advance Reading Copy Disclosure:

Thanks to Blogging for Books and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I have not read anything else by Christie before but what drew my attention to this book the most was the cover and title. This does not affect my opinion of the content or the book in my review.

“So whether she was scared for him, or of him, it mattered little. Her job was still the same: To build them a world that death could never touch.” – Michael Christie

If I Fall, If I Die is a novel by Michael Christie that can be best described as a boy’s story who wants to go Outside or escape his agoraphobic mother Diane (agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder when the sufferer perceives the environment unsafe and dangerous) who chose to stay in the house with her son. At some point the story transforms into action/mystery that I just did not enjoy. The book starts out with the sentence “The boy stepped Outside and he did not die” which I thought was very catching and interested me to find out why he never stepped outside. You learn quickly that Will stays with his mother in the house (with rooms named after major cities like New York, San Francisco etc.) and never went outside before. His life is his mothers’ and vice versa which I thought was strange. Will’s mother home schools him so he does not need to put himself into danger by going to school. Diane is afraid of choking on the food, so she cooks only in a slow cooker which takes her fears to an extreme crazy extend. 

I loved that their lives are filled with art, painting, reading tons of books and spending so much time together and I also think that Diane really loves her son. As soon as Will steps outside, the reader realizes that conflicts between his mother and him are programmed. Will gets more and more curious and she is simply afraid every single second it seems. Then one of Will’s friends disappears  – then Diane’s past is described. Later some illegal acts come up. I thought the story was very slow and confusing at points which made me put the book aside many times. 

The entire story just seems incomplete to me and I do not recommend the book. 



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