Between the Cracks She Fell - Softcover

"Fast moving and compelling, Between the Cracks She Fell explores the complexities of relationships, religions, and the various selves within that help us survive when we "fall" between the cracks. Through the eyes of the likable and lively narrator Joscelyn, and her ever-growing web of new and past relationships, we discover that home is not confined to a physical place--it's the landscape inside where you find yourself. Once again, de Nikolits exhibits her storytelling strengths by weaving various plot strands together, bringing her protagonist to a greater truth."--Catherine Graham, author of Her Red Hair Rises With the Wings of Insects "A lyrical and deeply moving examination of emotional pain and faith on a collision course with organized religion. Lisa de Nikolits' highly believable and human characters are outsiders struggling to find meaning, and perhaps hope, in contemporary urban society. With a deft and confident clarity of style, she explores the complex interplay of faith, crime and social isolation. Highly recommended."--M. H. Callway, author of Windigo Fire"Jolted by where Joscelyn begins, then utterly surprised and in awe of where she goes, I found the journey of a buoyant, playful woman embracing her own experiment of living compelling and real. Joss's attitude becomes evermore rich and grooves without destination. Hers has no absolutes! In spite of her returns to Tim Hortons, her dingy room in an abandoned school, and a rampant lust for her misguided lover, Joscelyn stubbornly derails relinquishing with her past in the attempt to keep a strait lid on her "almost 30" life. In her refusal to part with a home and roots she's outgrown, she scraps to "plaster up" the walls of a romanticized self. Between The Cracks She Fell has a fierce and passionate Joss eroding false identity by choosing to live among abandoned ruins. In this place, a young woman becomes witness to ever thinning spaces among the divine secrets of others, now lost to insanity, and finds a comfortable inner language that translates her abundant wishes to hold her own style of love and longing."--Sonia Di Placido, author of Exultation in Cadmium Red"As usual from Lisa de Nikolits, a well-plotted story, grippingly told. I was impressed by the use of the Qu'ran and The Satanic Verses; it's as if Between The Cracks She Fell is a response to Salman Rushdie's work. Between The Cracks She Fell is a great read. I wonder what Joss will do next?"--Terri Favro, author of The Proxy Bride"Between The Cracks She Fell is a whirligig-ride into the dark recesses of "what-next?" Compelling, multi-layered, bold and engaging, a thought-provoking exploration of gender, genes, nurture, liberty, commitment, ideologies, and doctrines of faith and worship. This is fine story-telling."--Shirley McDaniel, artist, art-explorations.com"Utilizing Joycean techniques of dialogue and a relatable prose, de Nikolits manages to paint a visceral world of a lost, but determined soul. Joscelyn, like many people do, encounters a whole range of characters in her journeys. From her egotistically-minded friend Emma to her relationship with Ashley, a friend who is troubled, but is confident in his own admirable way, Joscelyn must fight adversity at every step. She finds consolation unexpectedly in the diary of Imran Ali, an Islamic fundamentalist whose religious conversion holds a key to her own search for meaning. Her fiery connection with a drug dealer, Lenny, is an example to her fight for identity in a world that continues to repress and oppress her individual will to power. Between The Cracks She Fell is an engaging novel that will have you questioning the stability of learned faith and in awe of the strength of pure human will."--Jacqueline Valencia, author of The Octopus Complex"It's the idea that when everything else in your life is spiraling out of control, you'll grasp onto any idea for it to all make sense again. The juxtaposition between the characters reinforces that it's not any particular religion that is 'bad'. The characters lost control of their lives, and that's when they lost the delicate balance between themselves and their religion. It's beautifully done." --Samia Akhtar, reader

When Joss finds herself having to make mortgage payments without help from her depressed, stoner boyfriend who has just moved out, and the company she works for folds leaving her suddenly unemployed, she is forced to sell her house, on which she takes a financial loss. She decides to camp out in a vacant complex of school buildings to give herself time to decide what to do next. It turns out the building is used by a gang of teenagers for wild, drug-fueled parties and Jess soon finds herself both repelled by their charismatic evil leader, as well as sexually attracted to him. She knows he is dangerous even before she finds his girlfriend's dead and violently abused body in the school library. During this time, she meets and befriends two other people in difficulty: Emma, a narcissistic thief living with her dog in a stolen car and Ashley, a young homosexual who is heartbroken by the fact that he has been expelled from the Jehovah's Witness church because he is gay. When her former boyfriend reappears as a born again Christian, Joss is immersed in a journal she found that contains the thoughts of a Muslim teenager who becomes increasingly radicalized. Her struggle to understand her former boyfriend and this young man's spiritual quests prepare her to make some hard decisions about her future. Between the Cracks She Fell is about a woman who falls off the grid and the explosive consequences of betrayal, survival in troubled times, and the pervasiveness of religious domination.