And here we are at the end (for now): the final song from The Way We Fall‘s unofficial soundtrack, which is Marie Digby’s “Unfold”…

I put this song at the end of the list because I think it sums up Kaelyn’s growth during the course of the novel. She starts out awkward and anxious (“I shrink down to nothing/At the thought of someone/Really seeing me…” “Every word I say/Comes stumbling…”), but aware that she’s allowed herself to become this way (“These hands that I hold/Behind my back are/Bound and broken/By my own doing”). As she goes through all the pain and loss the epidemic brings, she starts to recognize her own value and the fact that she can decide whether her life is one she’ll be proud of (“I can’t live the rest of my life/So guarded…” “It’s up to me to choose/What kind of life I lead”).

While this is a story about a killer virus and a quarantine and a struggle to survive, I think it’s just as much the story of watching Kaelyn “unfold.”