In the ninth song from The Way We Fall‘s unofficial soundtrack, we have what I think of as the novel’s love theme: Ani Difranco’s “Falling Is Like This”…

Now, I’ll admit part of what attracted me to this song was the title and chorus line. The way we fall… Falling is like this… They work nicely together, no? 🙂 But I also feel the sweet and straight-forward melody fits the tone of the romance, and many of the lyrics could relate to Kaelyn’s situation quite well. (If you haven’t read the book yet and don’t want any information about the romance spoiled for you, you should stop reading here.)

The lines “you give me that look…/like you’re trying to fight gravity/on a planet that insists/that love is like falling” remind me of the moment in the car after Gav drives Kaelyn “home” from the hospital, when she thinks he’s going to kiss her. (As the author, I can tell you that he totally would have, except he got nervous — thinking about everything she’d just been through — and decided to give her a little more time.) Neither Kaelyn nor Gav are looking for someone to fall for; it just happens, as they spent more time together: “we’ll say we didn’t know, we didn’t even try/one minute there was road beneath us, the next just sky”. Kaelyn worries that Gav will get sick or hurt, trying to help and protect her (“I’m sorry I can’t help you, I cannot keep you safe”), but she realizes that resisting her feelings will just make them both miserable, and what’s most important is the way they can support each other when they’re together (“we can’t fight gravity on a planet that insists/that love is like falling/and falling is like this”). As always, not every line matches perfectly, but it’s the best love song for them I’ve found.