Bold, dramatic and utterly compelling, Girl Falling forces us to confront the stories we tell ourselves about the people we love. Displaying all of Hayley Scrivenor’s razor-sharp skills for character, landscape and narrative, this is a breathtaking read.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Hayley Scrivenor’s Girl Falling, which is out now.
Why would my best friend want to destroy my life?
Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together in the Blue Mountains. Bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide, they’ve always had a close – sometimes too close – friendship. Now in their twenties, their lives have finally started to diverge: Daphne is at university and Finn is working in the Mountains, as well as falling in love with a beautiful newcomer called Magdu.
Unused to sharing Finn, Daphne starts to act up in ways that will allow her to maintain the control over her best friend she’s always relished. Then, one fateful day, Finn, Daphne and Magdu all go rock-climbing – and Magdu falls to her death. Is it suicide, or a terrible accident – or something more sinister?
Why would my best friend want to destroy my life?
The cliff the three of us were standing on curved down to the valley the way your ear joins your neck, the rock shining yellow and blood orange in the sun. The smell of damp earth growing warm. I was doing everything I could not to think about the question that had been running through my head since the night before. I was pretty good at that: pushing stuff down. I reminded myself that I was in love, that everything was better since a woman named Magdu had arrived, slipping into my life, filling it, changing its mood and temperature. It made what Daphne had done harder to accept, I realised. Now I knew that things could be better, different than they had been.
I took five deep breaths.
On a day like this, you looked across the valley a everything was too sharply in focus, all that detail demanding to be noticed at the same time. Bright blue sky that made you forget about mist and cold, a gentle breeze blowing.
‘Let me check your gear,’ I said.
Magdu turned to me, eyes wide, and raised her arms up and away from her harness. My beautiful girlfriend. I’d said it so often that now it just made Magdu roll her eyes. I tugged on the front loop, resisting the urge to stand closer, to make it an intimate moment. Daphne was nearby, though out of earshot.
Read the room, Finn, I thought. ‘Now, check mine,’ I said.
‘I don’t know what I’m looking for,’ Magdu said. It wasn’t like her to be this nervous.
‘Yes, you do, Mags,’ I said gently. She looked down at her feet.
‘This is your belay device,’ I said. ‘Your rope will feed through as I belay you down. We want to check that this’ – I pulled on the carabiner looped through the front of her harness – ‘is properly attached. It needs to connect these two loops together and be closed tight.’ I let my hand move from the harness to her hip, hooked a finger in her pocket. ‘All Daphne’s gear is self-closing, so I’ve put you on that. If you ever need to be rescued, the climber who rescues you will transfer you onto their gear by attaching to you here.’
‘Rescued?’ Her eyes were wide again.
‘Don’t worry, Mags. I’ve got you. Remember what we talked about.’
It was an easy climb, perfect for a newbie. I would set up two ropes and go down first, abseiling down from the anchor.
Then Daphne would come down at the same time as Magdu while I was on a fireman’s belay below. It meant Magdu would always have someone with her, and I’d be right there, ready to take over and stop her descent if something went wrong. The cliff had a gentle angle, with good handholds. It’d been Daphne’s idea: something fun for the three of us to do together. Now we were here, I wanted to make the best of it.
‘There it is,’ Daphne said from behind me, and I jumped.
She laughed and leaned down to rifle through her bag, then looked up at Magdu. ‘You better hope Finn knows what she’s doing,’ she said with a wink.
Magdu stiffened.
‘I’m just kidding! Finn’s been doing this since she was little.’ Daphne unfolded to her full height but still had to reach up to muss my hair. ‘I mean, she may only be twenty-six, but she’s got years of experience. Right, Finnbo?’
Daphne turned away and I let her go. I couldn’t meet Magdu’s eye. Magdu leaned close and squeezed my hand, and I was reminded why I loved her.
