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.