One of the favorite time settings for YA novels is that between high school and university. Smyth’s The Falling in Love Montage features seventeen-year-old Saoirse Carke, a cynical Irish lesbian who vows she will never love again after having her heart broken by her first love. She is prepared to make out with straight girls who are curious about kissing another girl, but she is not interested in romance. Then she meets another girl, Ruby, at a party who she is very attracted to, and she softens her position. She is up for a summer romance, but wants to put the whole thing in quotation marks, and they agree to do all the romantic things that occur in rom-coms. Ruby is a big fan of those movies, and she gets Saoirse to watch them. They have a good time together, and grow closer.

But there are parts of her family life that Saoirse does not want to reveal to Ruby, and that creates tension between them. [Spoilers from here!] Saoirse lives with her father, while her mother lives in a residential home, unable to look after herself. Her mother has early-onset dementia, and needs constant supervision. She has little ability to recall people’s names and she is very confused. Saoirse sees her nearly every day, but it is hard. On top of that, her father has a girlfriend who is getting serious with. Saoirse has a lot of difficulty adapting to these changes, and is often angry with her father. She is also torn about whether she should go away to England to university: so long as her exam results are good, she will be able to go to Oxford University. Her darkest worry is that she will inherit the condition her mother has, and lose her ability to look after herself at a young age. This makes her doubt whether she should even go to university at all.

While the same-sex love themes may what brings some readers to The Falling in Love Montage, they are not really a big issue in the novel. The theme of dementia is more deeply explored and makes Smyth’s work stand out as interesting. Saoirse is going through a lot, and she feels isolated. She also acts unpleasantly to her father and her other friends. She has to go through her own transformation before she will be able to make the best of her life. 

Smyth manages to blend serious parts with lighter ones, making an appealing combination. Alana Kerr Collins performs the audiobook with good energy, and her Irish accent helps add some authenticity to the experience. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology. He lives in Suffolk County of Long Island, NY. He is Full Adjunct Professor at St John’s University, Vice President of AAPP and is an APPA Certified Philosophical Counselor.

Categories: Fiction, Sexuality

Keywords: dementia, lesbian YA, fiction