A review by thevampiremars
Notes Made while Falling by Jenn Ashworth

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Notes Made While Falling is absolutely phenomenal. It is masterfully crafted and clearly built to be a book – it just wouldn’t work in any other medium. The unreliable narration means the anecdotes recounted in this memoir(?) may not be “true” in the strictest sense, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t honest. Ashworth’s writing is captivating, evocative, and, at times, horrifyingly gruesome.

It’s not for the faint of heart but if you can handle gore, trauma, and psychosis then I highly recommend it.

A couple of quotes:

“I want to demonstrate to her something I still can’t help but hope is true of art generally and might one day be true for me in particular: the things we sickly humans make can be more complex and intelligent, more humane and more precious, than the wounded people who make them. / Alone in my bed, I feel ashamed.”

“I am not figuring out a way to ‘tell it slant’ because the thing itself is slant and untellable and only my body knows my evil hour.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Terminal illness, Torture, Xenophobia, Excrement, Antisemitism, Dementia, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

also indoctrination, and religion being used to peddle sexism and other bigotries