{"id":6804,"date":"2017-09-27T06:25:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T10:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6804"},"modified":"2017-09-27T06:33:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T10:33:35","slug":"the-all-fall-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6804","title":{"rendered":"****They All Fall Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"caramelized<\/a>

photo: Serene Vannoy, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tammy Cohen \u2013 Hannah is a new patient in a women\u2019s low-security psychiatric facility called The Meadows outside London, the result of an incident Cohen takes some time to reveal.<\/p>\n

In the several weeks before this psychological thriller opens, two of the facility\u2019s dozen or so patients have committed suicide. In fact, the first line is, \u201cCharlie cut her wrists last week with a shard of caramelized sugar.\u201d Hannah doesn\u2019t believe Charlie killed herself. She believes both of the so-called suicides were murder. But who will believe her?<\/p>\n

Most of the short chapters are told in either Hannah\u2019s first-person point of view or that of her mother Corinne, in third-person. Corinne isn\u2019t sure what to make of Hannah\u2019s accusations. She wants to believe her daughter, but Hannah\u2019s done some strange things lately that weaken her credibility.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Corinne is desperate to believe her daughter is safe at The Meadows. And the director, Dr. Oliver Roberts, and the art therapist, the supportive Laura, as well as most of the other staff seem capable and conscientious, don\u2019t they? Are these people who they say they are? Their contention that their patients are high-risk, with histories of suicide attempts, never quite reassures her.<\/p>\n

Author Cohen has assembled an interesting group of patients: Odelle, thin as a stick with serious eating disorders; Stella, whose otherworldly appearance results from too many cosmetic surgeries, including removal of a rib to achieve a smaller waistline; and Judith, who says she\u2019s just being \u201chonest\u201d when she makes her intentionally cruel remarks. As events unfold and confidences are shared, these patients form a kind of lamenting Greek chorus.<\/p>\n

The characters are mostly well developed; however, it was jarring when the patients\u2019 ages would be mentioned. They were in their mid-thirties or so (Hannah is 32), but they came across like teenagers. Perhaps this is because they are highly dependent, vulnerable personalities.<\/p>\n

Throw into the mix a lurking filmmaker and his cameraman working on a \u201cfly-on-the-wall\u201d documentary. The filmmakers were a nice touch (with the director Justin \u201cdoused in self-absorption like cheap cologne\u201d), since an underlying theme of the book is perception. What does the \u201cneutral\u201d eye of the camera perceive? What do each of the characters perceive about each other, and do they trust each others\u2019 perceptions\u2014they certainly share doubts about Hannah\u2019s\u2014and does she even trust her own?<\/p>\n

In general, the writing style is effective and the pace is good and varied. Cohen uses cliffhangers to keep you reading \u201cone more chapter\u201d\u2014mysterious items and messages turn up in the hospital, a red baby hat on Corinne\u2019s doorstep. Eventually these are all explained, but the repeated technique begins to feel artificial. On the whole, an intriguing psychological thriller.<\/p>\n

A longer version of this review appeared on CrimeFictionLover.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tammy Cohen \u2013 Hannah is a new patient in a women\u2019s low-security psychiatric facility called The Meadows outside London, the result of an incident Cohen takes some time to reveal. In the several weeks before this psychological thriller opens, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"****The All Fall Down - Are the deaths at a psych hospital really suicide? Hannah says NO, but then, she's a patient . . .","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[52,40,126],"tags":[333,392,1127,1128],"class_list":["post-6804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-fiction","category-reading-2","tag-london","tag-psychological-thriller","tag-tammy-cohen","tag-they-all-fall-down"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1LK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6807,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6804\/revisions\/6807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}