The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Published: January 2011
Publisher: Delacourt Books
Pages: 513
Copy: From Library
Summary: Goodreads

Sylvie Davis is a ballerina who can't dance, she lost everything important to her in one missed step.


Uprooting her from her Manhattan apartment, and shipping her to Alabama is her mother's solution for Sylvie's unhappiness. But life might not be any more simple down south. As it turns out, her family has a lot more history than Sylvie ever knew. More unnerving, though, are the two guys that she can't stop thinking about.


Then Sylvie starts seeing things. A girl down by the lake. A man peering into the window. And a graveyard with an oddly placed headstone. Sylvie's lost nearly everything—is she starting to lose her mind as well?

Before I say anything about the story I have to say that part of the reason I enjoyed reading this book so much was the format.  The copy I read was a trade paperback, with lovely soft, floppy pages and the book stayed open all by itself -  almost to the very last page.  It was a treat to hold on to.  OK, I guess I am now officially a nerd, but I can't help it.  Things like that are important to me.  Because it stayed open by itself, I was able to knit at the same time as I was reading, and that's a major bonus for me!

Enough of the nonsense - on to the review.  I Loved The Splendor Falls.  It was a beautiful book to read, hauntingly written and wonderfully easy to fall in to the story.  The characters almost leapt off the pages, they felt so complete and I loved witnessing each different journey.

There is quite a lot going on in the story.  Sylvie is trying to imagine her life without ballet and is struggling to accept things. Gigi is - well she is a Chihuahua and is a bit like comic relief. I had a good laugh at her protectiveness towards Sylvie. Rhys and his father are suberbly mysterious and it is quite some time before we find out exactly what is going on with them. 

There's Shawn, Aaron, Caitlin, Addy and others who become the bane of Sylvie's existence.  Add in town superstitions about Sylvie's family and Shawn's and some rather nasty ghosts, who appear to have their own agenda, and the whole thing becomes eerie and mysterious.  I was never sure just exactly what was going to happen next, which I rather enjoyed, and a few unexpected twists towards the end completed my enjoyment.

I think this would make a great summer read, when you have time to sit back and enjoy it.  Hope you like things that go bump in the night!

PS Note the number of pages - another long book to add to our list!