#falling animals

Armstrong had only published short stories before this novel, something that is readily apparent from the framing device. Each chapter is a short story from a different point of view - no person narrates twice, but some of the point of view characters appear in other people's chapters. On their own, the chapters are about a single thing, not immediately related to the wider story - it's only when you take them as a whole that the picture begins to properly form. I really admired Armstrong's ability to build a strong character in such a short space of time. I always felt like the point of view character for each chapter was a full person, that they had a full life outside of the brief glimpse we got of them in the story, which is really impressive when you consider just how many of these characters show up over the course of the narrative.

As for the wider story, it unfolds with these smaller pieces of the puzzle as the chapters progress. Honestly, while I love ambiguity in a work of fiction, I did find some of the pieces to come down too heavily on the side of being a bit too obtuse. Some of them, their relevance was revealed as the story went on - some of them were only barely connected to the wider puzzle, and just felt like they were there to drive up the mystery in the story rather than to add anything to the plot. That's not a dealbreaker for me or anything, it's just an unfortunate side-effect of this style of writing. On the other hand, I really did love the ambiguity that was present in the story. There were no easy answers, no gathering together of suspects in the study building towards a big reveal. The reader was invited to draw their own conclusions, particularly when it comes to the smaller details of what exactly occurred that day, and that's both an interesting and mature style of fiction. I enjoyed this book, and despite some hiccups, I think you might too!