Danielle Younger - Ullman, Falling Under

Falling Under

Danielle Younger-Ullman

Plume, Aug 2008, $14.00

ISBN: 9780452289659

When she was a young girl, Mara Foster's parents acrimoniously divorced; besides learning Santa was a fraud that Christmas Mara knew dad was never coming back. She took it personally blaming herself and it still affects her relationships as an adult. Mara always sees the dark side to humans as she suffers from the anxiety disorder agoraphobia.

Men do not want to deal with Mara's issues. That is until she meets Hugo, who wants to be with her in spite of her phobias. He encourages her to move on, but to do so Mara must look deep inside herself; a thought that frightens the young woman, but enough to run from or towards Hugo remains to be seen as she loathes touching and he wants intimacy.

Falling Under is a one woman show as the storyline deals with Mara's phobias that make it impossible for her to have an intimate loving relationship; though in some ways she does have that with her only friend who is as angst laden with demons as she is. The storyline focuses on whether besieged Mara can move past her terrors encouraged by the kind Hugo. Readers who relish a realistic study of a tormented lonely person will appreciate 'Falling Under' as the quince will wonder whether Mara finds her groove or remains tortured in self afflicted hell. P.S. the ending is realistic but not easy to swallow.

Harriet Klausner