‘Skye Falling‘ is an engaging, often funny and touching novel about relationships, identity and modern technology-driven family extension. A world where donating eggs for IVF can have unintended and unimagined consequences, both for child and parent.
‘Skye Falling‘ begins with a bang.
A forty-something lady wakes up with a terrible hangover, barely makes it to an event she’s committed to weeks earlier, and is approached by a young girl in the corridor outside… who tells her:
“I’m your egg!”
A strange set of circumstances throw Skye into proximity with little Vicki. Skye also finds herself attracted to Vicki’s auntie, who is now her primary caretaker. In time this leads to ‘mother’ and daughter actually spending a lot of time together.
As each tries to understand and accept the other as part of their identity, Skye struggles to fit in this new (and unexpected, even unwanted) relationship into the context of her own disturbed one with her own mother.
The story of ‘Skye Falling‘ unfolds with a sequence of really funny incidents and experiences, through which we gain insight into the heroine’s evolving feelings about her mother – and her daughter.
But each time a crisis erupts – often one precipitated by what Skye does or doesn’t do – her first instinct is to run away, hop on a plane and continue her work as a holiday planner for groups of travellers to exotic locations in Africa and Asia.
How does a middle-aged woman come to grips with a major change in her routine?
How does she overcome her innate revulsion for close relationships to fall in love with a part of her genetic self?
How does Vicki worm her way into her heart, showing her the magic of motherhood in all its beauty, joy and specialness?
She laughs again. The sound gets up under my ribs in this weird way, like a vibration. And then, out of nowhere, this thought occurs to me: I have never seen such a perfect human being.
‘Skye Falling‘ is about all of this – and more.
It’s about Skye falling in love with her little girl.
Vicky has turned and is staring at me like she’s trying to see inside me again. I don’t know why, but this time I let her. I don’t look away or make a joke. I just stand there. It’s just a few seconds, but it feels like eons…”
She grins at me, then turns around to face the mirror again. As I stand there watching her adore her reflection, I want to hug her and protect her from all the things in the world that will try to crush this self-love out of her.
It’s about Skye falling in love with Vicki’s aunt, who as it turns out, is a kind of legend in her own right.
And falling in love with her own life.
I want to live in Philly for a long time first.”
“Why?”
She makes a face like that’s a silly question. “Because all my friends and family are here. Duh.”
I wonder what it must be like to be happy where you are.
And accepting it, warts and all – by overcoming her desire to flee and forget.
On a night like tonight, when I was seventeen or eighteen, I’d have been with my friends on South Street, probably high, talking to guys who were too old for me, never imagining that one day I’d be forty-two. You just never conceive that there will come a time when you’re not young anymore, when your whole life won’t be in front of you. You know?”
‘Skye Falling‘ is a beautifully told story of a woman’s transformation from the inside.
What makes it a compelling read is the punchy narration, irreverent tone and funny writing style that Mia McKenzie so effortlessly adopts in sharing Skye with us.
This is a book you’ll enjoy reading – and then remember fondly for a while to come.
