Ten Reasons to Read: Falls from Grace by Ruby Landers

I left this book more in love with art and books and music and the magic of humanity. Something very rare these days. Falls from Grace is a special book by a very special author.

100 Word Synopsis

Country music superstar Savannah Grace is looking to launch a solo career after very publicly divorcing her bandmate and husband. Stuck creatively she enlists indie musician Noah Lyman to come help jump start the writing of her next album. Noah is no stranger to helping stuck women. His best friend Brynn Marshall has been stuck since she dropped out of med school and cemented her position as family failure. When she unexpectedly loses her apartment, Noah invites Brynn to join him as his pretend wife. She can reset and support him during this incredible opportunity. It's a flawless plan. Right?

Ten Reasons

Lately I’ve been watching a lot of “Making of…” documentaries. Most of them set in the world of video games. Which is, objectively, weird. Video games have never been a part of my life, nor have I wanted them to be. I am a book person and an outdoor kid. The draw for me is that I am obsessed with craft, story, and how things are made. I love process - that glorious alchmacy of creativity, craft, and plain old fashioned hard work that turns lead into gold over and over again - and in the world of video games process is laid absolutely bare. There is something so compelling in the observation of creation. That lovely contact high that comes from seeing people love something so much it becomes real. A manifestation of that knowing in your bones that this is the real legacy of humanity - we can love things so much they become real. Falls from Grace, Ruby Landers exceptional debut, gave me the same kind of contact high the best “Making of…” documentaries do. I left this book more in love with art and books and music and the magic of humanity. Something very rare these days. Falls from Grace is a special book by a very special author. You should read it. Let me give you ten reasons why.

1. There is a Greek word that was co-opted by Roman philosophers I love: telos. It translates roughly into “correct or perfect purpose.” There are some people when you read them you just know this person is doing exactly what they are meant to be doing. They have found their telos. Landers is such an author. She has incredible story sense, a lovely way with words, and her writing is evocative and flows - both in the psychological and literal sense. She writes like she was born to write and we are all so lucky she realized this and is sharing her work with us. Landers is the kind of writer that makes you love writing and stories. It’s so rare and not to be missed.

2. Good art doesn’t let you play it safe - and neither does falling in love. It is gorgeous the way Falls From Grace captures the creative process and explores the way that falling in love and making art require the same kind of vulnerability.

3. The characters in this book feel like real people. You love and root for and are annoyed by them in the exact ways you are at your actual friends and family members. It’s so good and makes for an incredible visceral reading experience in the best possible ways.

4. I love when a slow burn, slow burns. And this book is deliciously slow. The tension, glorious and horrible, builds and builds and set you alight. Landers is absolutely relentless - and it makes the bre aking of that tension so sweet. It’s so satisfying - pure dopamine.

5. It is really difficult to write kids who feel authentic on the page. Especially when they are toddlers and not written to be exceptional or incredibly precocious. Kids being kids - the wonder and magic and weirdness of that - can often feel ineffable. Landers put on a clinic in terms of writing an authentic toddler. Tucker feels grounded, true, special, and wholly formed without the guardrails of exceptionalism. He feels so real - and that is a stunning achievement.

6. I love how this book really captures the way that falling in love feels like learning a new language - one you share only with this person that becomes–if you are lucky–your primary language. It is such a feat to capture on the page something truly idiosyncratic about the human experience and I don’t know if I have ever seen that obsessive need to understand the lingo of the soul before you that is so present when falling in love as clearly and beautifully captured as it is here. It felt like a new level of craft opened up to me once I realized what Landers was capturing on the page. Ugh. This book is so good. Just read it already. 

7. Reverse My Best Friend’s Wedding - that’s it, that’s the reason. You. Are. Welcome.

8. As an evangelist of the romance novel, I hold as sacred the art of the third act breakup. I truly believe the job of romance, because it is a genre that is about joy and hope and happiness and wonder, is to convincingly remind us over and over again to choose vulnerability. The journey of a romance protagonist is always giving up the safety of the armor they have used to protect themselves and allowing themselves to be truly seen in order to be wholly loved - it is a journey of learning vulnerability. A well executed third act break always happens because one or more of the protagonists refuses to set down their armor and is resolved when they finally do. It is the culmination of the emotional arch of the story and allows for a truly convincing HEA - because it is earned through the act of being vulnerable. Landers executes a perfect third act break-up here. It is so deeply fulfilling and earned and beautiful.

9. This book gave me a perfect life motto: 

   “If homophobes and the religious right didn't like her, she knew she was living her life right."

   And perfect life mottos are hard to come by. This line, and the absolute backing up of it by the story is reason enough to pick up Falls From Grace. It is so fun to read hopeful authentically, proudly, and defiantly queer people and stories - especially as it becomes more and more dangerous to be authentically, proudly, and defiantly queer. 

10. Please understand I know Ruby Landers is from Australia. I don’t know if she has spent a single second in the southern parts of the United States. That conceded, the queer southern representation in Falls From Grace is exceptional. It’s so good I cried more than once. So often, as a person from the south who is openly queer, I have people ask why I don’t just leave. They talk about how much easier it is to be queer in other places, about how I would be safer. And I get it, I do, but the south is my home and I love it here. As Walt Whitman wrote, “O magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! my South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!” The south is imperfect, but it is wonderful and worthy of fighting for. Landers brilliantly captures the feeling that myself and so many others have when it comes to the south - the south is our home and homophobia doesn’t get to take it from us. We belong here and will fight everyday to make this wonderful place even better for the next generation. Because there is nothing quite so beautiful as knowing that you have magnolia trees flowering and azaleas blooming and syrupy accents telling you one more tale mixed in the blood flowing through your veins.

I could have written four of these and not run out of good reasons to read this novel. It’s special. And I just don’t want you to miss out. So, you know, get to reading. And then, if you are so inclined, return here so we can discuss the above and all the reasons you think people should read this book. 

Thanks for your time, and keep reading. Macon.