Book Reccommendation: The Splendor Falls

The Splendor Falls, in my opinion, is a really great book. It blends sarcastic humor and nostalgic emotion and loss of sanity into one book without making the plot too patchy and confusing.

The Splendor Falls is not just a book about a torn ballerina, as most non-dancers would find that very uninteresting. In fact, while it does make her past more interesting, it doesnt play much of a part in the rollercoaster-like plot. The bigger idea is in Alabama itself, stuck in the Civil-War era where Sylvie's ancestors had produced drama of their own.

I found this book very interesting, and I think that you will, too.

Theme: The Splendor Falls

A lot of life issues are addressed in this novel. They aren't all issues you might encounter in everyday life, since the circumstances of the story were pretty rare. I mean, not everybody becomes the youngest soloist in the American Ballet Theater and snaps her leg in half on her debut, then gets drunk at her mothers wedding and gets carted off to Alabama where she sees ghosts and witnesses voodoo rituals, right?

However, the novel does teach some valuable lessons, if you apply them correctly to your life. I think a particularly important theme is trust. One must place trust in another to achieve happiness and content. But at the same time, one must be cautious in who to place trust. There are people who are genuinely willing to help you, and there are people who are just out or power, and this can be demonstrated in the relationships between Sylvie and Rhys (the good guy) and Sylvie and Shawn (the psycho).

Also, another lesson is to respect the balance in nature. Never try to change the way things work just to make things go in your favor, a lesson learned by Shawn, when he tried to twist fate so that he could have everything he wanted. Instead, he ended up unleashing a huge storm and a torrent of tortured spirits. Need I say more?

But, like I said, I feel that the most important theme is trust. Trust other people, trust your instinct, and trust the fact that everything will eventually be fine.

Character: The Splendor Falls

Sylvie Davis is an interesting character. She is stubborn and witty, and resolved to do exactly the opposite of what everyone else tells her to do. She may sound like the average heroine, but this is what makes her special: she is a crippled former ballerina, determined to overcome her injuries and dance again.

In the beginning of the book, she is especially stubborn and self-centered. After her new stepbrother told her mother and stepfather that she had gotten drunk at their wedding reception (and got her carted off to her cousin's house out in Alabama), Sylvie finds it especially hard to trust people. She is very wary of everyone, and often takes matters into her own hands instead of letting anyone else handle it.

As the story progresses, though, Sylvie begins to confide in certain people she has developed a close bond with, like Rhys, a guest of her cousin's who is visiting from Wales. She had begun to trust Rhys enough to start a relationship with him, and confide in him after she slowly begins to lose her sanity. And after the climax of the story, she seems to be closer to everyone she met in the past week.

At the end of the book, Sylvie not only seems to have become more trusting, she also is much more worldly and mature. Which makes it safe to say, that a possible theme for this story would be: Trust will assist in overcoming obstacles.

Character Analysis: Minor Characters

There are many characters in City of Glass, and most play a pretty important role in the plot. However, some of these characters were a little pointless, and were really only in the story to stir up drama, and didn't really contribute to the conflict. In fact, I wouldn't really mind if they weren't in the story at all. All they really do is add to the clutter of names to remember.

However, while some characters could have been taken out, I think some others could have been enlarged for the purpose of adding a bigger twist, and go more into depth in the history of Shadowhunters. For example, Amatis Herondale.                                                                                                                                                  

Luke Garroway's sister appears all throughout the book. However, her role is minor, and they didn't really go in depth about her fascinating history, which, in my opinion, had the author elaborated upon, would have really made the book much more interesting. You see, her brother is a werewolf. He happened to be turned into a werewolf while he was second-in-command to a man who wanted all werewolves, and Downworlders in general, dead. So naturally, Valentine told Luke to go kill himself (literally), kicked Amatis out of the Circle, and forced her husband to divorce her and marry another compliant girl who was around eighteen years old. Then, Amatis, out of shock, told Luke to go away and to never come back again.

And this is just a summary of what supposedly happened. So, if they really went in depth in this story, then the theme of family values could be greatly improved, and we could have a refreshing break from the usual Clary-Jace drama. Not to mention, we would have more reasons to hate Valentine and cheer when, someday, he is finally defeated.

Reading Skills: City of Glass

So far, City of Glass has been a pretty satisfying book. What makes it interesting are the sudden plot twists, which makes me wonder, what will happen next? 

Of course, there are the obvious parts. Eventually, Valentine will be killed, or at least subdued, and Clary's mother will be awakened, and Alec and Magnus Bane will skip off into the sunset together. But the question is, who will Simon gallop away with? What about Clary and Jace? Are they really siblings or was that just a lie too? What about their romantic feelings for each other? And, at what price will Valentine be killed? How far will they go to stop him? So much is still unresolved...

On a different topic, I found some of these smaller situations very similar to Twilight. The millennium-long rivalry between vampires and werewolves, not to mention the awkward love triangles of three people who have just spent too much time together. Although, the vampire-werewolf thing is kind of a legend from all around the world, not just Twilight.

Speaking of all around the world, I found another thing that sounded shockingly similar. The way that certain Shadowhunters in the Clave looked down on Downworlders (vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks) and sometimes even wanted their race eliminated, sounded just like the segregation years of the 1950s, when Caucasians and African Americans couldn't get along. Or, in some extreme situations, like the days of Hitler and the Holocaust, with Valentine, the snobbiest of them all, in the place of Hitler, commanding and entrancing his followers.

I even found a little bit of similarity between Clary and me. Now, I'm not living in a world full of vampires and werewolves, nor can I create runes out of nowhere, or even be lucky enough to have not one, but two guys chasing after me, but I found myself  relating to the fact that we both have a tendency to make reckless decisions, doing things in the heat of the moment without thinking it through.

Who knew that you could find kindred spirits in books?

Conflict Analysis: City of Bones

The conflict in City of Bones reminds me of an onion. A large, fat, stinking onion. And I don't say that because I think the plot sucks, nope, on the contrary. It's really interesting. But what makes it interesting? Remember what Shrek said?

And just like Shrek points out, layers are what makes things interesting and lovable. There is always more to the story, and in this case, the conflict, when they have layers. There is always more angst to cut into and make you cry. But like all onions, this story also has a core.

The main conflict that spurs this all on is the one between Valentine, the novel's supposed villain, and the Clave, or, shall we say, the leaders of the Shadowhunter society. Valentine believed that the Downworlders (i.e werewolves, vampires, faeries) should be exterminated forever, contrary to the beliefs of the Clave. Whereas with any other Shadowhunter, the Clave could have easily shut them up, Valentine was a particularly powerful and charismatic warrior, and drew up his own army to defeat the Downworlders, thus creating a war.

During this war, Valentine loses and gains followers, but in the process, starts conflicts between his ex-wife, his daughter Clary, and his supposed son Jace with whom, prior to their knowledge of their lineage, had started a romantic relationship with Clary. Not to mention, Valentine's past comrades have drifted apart and nursed different views of the world, starting the shenanigans with kidnapping on a grudge and whatnot.

You see, starting from that one conflict, we now have a tangled up mess. And from that tangled up mess I call an onion, a plot ensues, and it is a very interesting plot at that. Once one problem ends, there is always another. And then another. And another. And that is what makes the book so interesting for me: the conflict never ends.

Theme: City of Bones

Lately, City of Bones has been all the rage. And if you've seen the movie, or at least the trailer, you would probably say that the rage is reasonable. And it would also be reasonable to assume that if the movie was that exciting (kind of), then the books would be pretty good. And, therefore, they must be read.

Not only was the book incredibly descriptive, but I thought that there were many important, if not cliche, life lessons embedded in the story. A particularly big one was forgiveness. When you've been wronged, you feel the deep, fiery pits of hate in you, and you think it perfectly reasonable for all the revenge and hard feelings and shenanigans to come out. But when you look it it from an outside point of view, in this case, getting the entire story, you can't help thinking, This is stupid. Just forgive her already. There are bigger problems at hand, and all you can worry about is how selfish girls are. Which leads to another point, which is seeing the bigger picture, and from another point of view. Maybe your mother abandoned you because she thought you were dead, not because she didn't care about you. She probably keeps your picture in a box and cries over it every night. Maybe your father is sweet-talking you not because he cares for you, but because hes trying to get you on his side so he can fulfill his plans to eliminate an entire race, a plan which you should be stopping.

But my point is, learn to forgive and forget. All throughout the book, dumb things happened which could have been prevented if the character's rage was contained. Whether it was Clary's mother being kidnapped because Clary was angry about being taken away from her friends and left her mother alone for a few hours, or Jace being kidnapped because Hodge was spiteful about the way his life turned out, or a LOT of werewolves dying just because they wanted to get Jace back, so many lives and so much time could have been saved if we all hadn't been stubborn humans, whether you had angel blood or not.

Book Recommendation: Memoirs of a Geisha

I would recommend the book Memoirs of a Geisha. While this may sound uninteresting to you, I assure you that it will be very worthwhile. Not only does it describe Japanese culture in intricate detail, but it also describes the hardships that Chiyo, the main character, experiences in her path to become a geisha. The novel describes Japanese life in the Depression and World War II with brutal honesty but with an innocence and romanticism that will evoke many emotions, and I assure you that you will not be able to put it down.

Memoirs of a Geisha: Characters

This past week, I have been reading the book Memoirs of a Geisha. The main character, Chiyo, is very interesting to me. Even as a little girl, she seems very mature and worldly to me, maybe because Chiyo as an old woman is narrating this. She handles situations with a lot of self-assurance and resourcefulness. As a child in Japan, Chiyo was forcefully sold to a geisha okiya, or, basically, geisha house. Even when she recklessly tried to run away and ruined any chances of becoming a geisha, she resolves to never let herself remain a maid for all of her life. When she meets the Chairman of an electric company, she uses charm to persuade the Chairman to help her in her ambitions of becoming a geisha. When she finally does become an apprentice to the great geisha Mameha, she uses her cleverness to thwart her rivals. Eventually, she becomes a famous geisha, renaming herself Sayuri.

While this may sound uninteresting and confusing in my words, my point is that Sayuri is unfailingly clever and resourceful, always using this to fuel her ambitions and achieve them, no matter what stands in her way. Yet she does this with such naive innocence and purity, you would never accuse her of anything wrong or devilish. And throughout the book, as a mostly flat character, she never falters as a person or a geisha, staying strong even through the starving years of World War II. And for that, I admire her.

Text Structure

1. There are multiple techniques used in the texts we studied. The author used repetition to enforce the message, but also used a real life situation to show and explain the message of the story.
2. The message is explained by the real life example in which the author shows how the message had applied to him in his walk across the beach.
3. The technique helped him explain  the message and add more depth and description.

Summer Reading

I would rate my summmer reading book 9. Tell the Wolves I'm Home is about a girl named June and her Uncle Finn. June and Finn were very close, even knowing that Finn was gay. However, Finn contracts AIDS and dies, leaving June with his boyfriend, Toby. Toby and June are left to find solace in each other and the memories they share of Finn. The themes of this novel are family and acceptance.