The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
The Girl Who Fell from
the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Rachel
was the only one to survive the fall. Her mother, younger brother and baby
sister lost their lives that day. A few months earlier Rachel’s Danish mother,
Nella, left Roger, Rachel’s African American father and took all the kids to
live in Chicago with a new man in her life. Their untimely death has left
Rachel in the care of her paternal grandmother in Portland. It’s the 1980’s and
Rachel stands out like a sore thumb as the only biracial child in class. She
doesn’t fit in with the black girls who tease her about being so fair skinned
and she doesn’t fit in with the white girls either because of the neighborhood she
comes from. As Rachel ages and matures she struggles to identify with those
around her. She fights to remember the father that never bothered to return for
his daughter and the mother whose love she lost in the fall and whose secret
she’s kept.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky follows
the life of Rachel and a few other characters affected by the death of her
mother and siblings. Rachel is being confronted with the truth of her identity
in a very harsh and abrupt fashion. Rachel, as a biracial child, dealt with
both interracial and intraracial racism. She was an outcast throughout most of
her life because of that. As the narrator throughout most of the novel,
Rachel’s inner thoughts and coping mechanisms were obvious and easy to
understand. She was a put in a very precarious position at a very young age.
When you add in the tragedy that she had been through, it’s hard to believe she
was able to be so level headed throughout the novel. She made mistakes, like
other kids her age, but she never let other people’s opinion of her bring her
to shame. She was able to tap into her own strength and make her way through.
Durrow
did a great job with this debut novel. She was able to create an interesting,
intriguing, delicate story and turn it into a complex, moving novel that
touches on a subjects that many people don’t like to discuss: alcoholism and
racism. There are characters throughout the novel that struggle with alcohol
addiction and abuse. That topic, paired with the obvious issue of racism, made
for a very serious tone throughout the novel yet both issues were handled
delicately and with care. Something that I really enjoyed about the story was
the way in which Durrow shared the history of the parents, using journal
entries and reflecting on moments in the past. Delving into the past added
depth to the story and increased my understanding of how events unfolded. My
only complaint stems from how some of the outlining characters were used, which
in my opinion, at times felt contrived. This novel regardless of my complaint
was easy to become invested in. The underlining mystery of the tragic deaths
kept me turning pages. I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars and would definitely
recommend it.
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