Short Story Review: 'The Fall Risk' by Abby Jimenez
Pub. Date: 01/03/2025
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.
It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.
The Fall Risk begins with a little dedication to the women who would choose the bear and the men who try to understand why. Reader, I LOL'ed and the madness didn't really stop. This story has one of the most bonkers set-up I have ever read in Romance, or even fanfic, and that says quite a bit. Charlotte and Seth are stuck on their floor because... the stairs have accidentally been taken off. They will be stuck together till Monday and from there begins something of a 48-hour date, which isn't really a date but kinda really is. That alone is a set-up which is delightfully nonsensical, especially if you enjoy the forced proximity trope. BUT added to that is Charlotte's current nightmare of a life. She has been stalked, for the past two years, by a man with (probably) serious mental health issues. As Jimenez herself says in the foreword, she likes including more serious topics in her fiction, but I do not think this short story was the place to try and address stalking and mental health? I do have to admit I have no experience with stalking, so perhaps this is good rep? It didn't feel like it, but an argument could be made that it shows a way of moving past something like this. Seth himself is very recently divorced due to what Jimenez lists among her content warnings as "kissing cousins". Honestly, I LOL'ed again. There is so much going on that, after its 80-odd pages, I had to voicenote my friend to tell her about the nonsense of The Fall Risk. So, it is hilarious, but no sense is being made.
This is my first time reading Abby Jimenez and I did like how she built up certain aspects of her characters, her eye for a fun use of Romance tropes, and her quippy writing. I'm absolutely down to read a full-length book by her, to see how all of this, as well as her interest in more difficult themes, works out there. The Fall Risk, however, I cannot take serious as a romance story. I would have absolutely bought the attraction and vibes between Charlotte and Seth if we didn't have the whole stalking thing looming over Charlotte. It is described as absolutely debilitating, ruining her life, stopping her from even going outside for almost two years. But all it takes is one hot man across the hall to make her consider a different life? I think the set-up, in many ways, is really fun, but maybe there is just a little bit too much going on. However, as I said, I am still down to try more from Abby Jimenez in the future.
I give this short story...
3 Universes!
The Fall Trap is bonkers, but you'll have a fun time with it if the stalking themes are not triggering.
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