The Girl Who Fell From the Sky Summary
Heidi W. Durrow

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky Overview

In Heidi Durrow’s contemporary novel The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, Rachel Morse feels like a new girl when she goes to live with her grandmother in Portland. Besides her bad ear, she has no lasting injuries from her fall from the nine-story apartment building in which she once lived. Her mother, brother, and sister were killed in that fall. As Rachel struggles to acclimate to her new family and surroundings, she must also learn to deal with the backlash of being biracial and the regular teen pressures of sex, drugs, and popularity. In the midst of Rachel’s most troubled times, a friend arrives to help her understand not only what happened to her family, but also why her father never returned for her. Themes in the novel explore race, identity, grief, and the widespread damage caused by addiction.