Coming from a family that suffers from low blood pressure, I’m no stranger to feeling dizzy, blacking out, or fainting. Every member of my family has fainted, and I’ve even been there to catch them on occasion.
I myself only ever truly fainted one time in a doctor’s office. I remember my vision closing in on me from my peripheral vision forward, famously known as tunnel vision. When I woke up, I thought it was the next day, and I was in my bed. Instead, barely a few minutes had gone by. I was on the carpeted floor of the doctor’s office with several faces staring down at me, my mouth filled with blood from biting my tongue, and my face brush burned from striking the carpet.
Despite my firsthand experience, I can’t imagine what it would be like to be Erica O’Donnell, the hero of Leslie Tall Manning’s YA novel, Rules of Falling. Erica is a chronic fainter struggling to come to terms with her condition and its limitations. Below is my review of Manning’s book followed by an interview with Manning about her story and her writing process.
Rules of Falling plot summary
Erica O’Donnell is your average high school girl with a unique condition that causes her to regularly faint. Her fainting spells tend to come without warning, despite taking precautions, medications, and routine trips to the doctor.
Her best friend, Lindsay Bennett, is always around to catch her. But when she begins babysitting for the Taggert family, Lindsay’s attention shifts from hanging out with Erica and her boyfriend, fellow student and volunteer firefighter, Adam Carchelli, to professional firefighter and Taggert family patriarch, Larry.
Erica feels compelled to keep Lindsay’s budding relationship with Larry a secret after all that Lindsay has done for her. But as things grow more serious between them, Erica begins to resist covering for her all the time. That, along with a growing number of fires in the area, pressure from her parents to scale back on her social, and even school, life, and a growing closeness with Lindsay’s boyfriend, Adam, cause tensions to mount before numerous secrets, some dangerous, explode in Erica’s face.
The story
Rules of Falling is told from Erica’s first-person point of view. Her condition is a constant concern and source of struggle, but it doesn’t dominate her every thought or even the story as a whole.
At its forefront is Lindsay’s subplot which is pulled front and center as Erica is sucked into helping her friend to sneak around and feed her obsession with Larry Taggert as payment for years of being there to catch her whenever a fainting spell takes over. Erica gets to play caretaker, both emotionally for Lindsay and physically for the Taggert twins who require a regular babysitter on the weekends.
The guilt begins to eat away at Erica as she sees the warts under the surface of the Taggert family’s seemingly perfect persona. And when their sleepy North Carolina town becomes the victim of a serial arsonist, her focus shifts yet again to solving the mystery of this ongoing crime.
This mystery initially appears to be a clear cut, predictable subplot. But by the end, it is revealed to be more complicated than it lets on. Manning doesn’t dumb down her story for the audience. Instead, she turns the story on its head, culminating in an intense, action-packed, cinematic ending.
The characters
The teenage characters in Rules of Falling are the perfect blend of modern teenagers that are easy for adult readers to stomach. Their dialogue and interactions feel natural and timely while still being universally identifiable. I feel like the witty banter between the characters will hold up over the years rather than sounding of its time.
Erica is fragile and sympathetic while still being brave and determined. It’s tense to watch her try to exceed her limitations by trying to babysit on her own, drive a car, or even bend over to pick up something that she dropped. But it’s also hard to blame her for wanting to do normal teenage things and for taking the risks that she takes in hopes that she’ll get through it without a spell.
Lindsay is a little harder to sympathize with given her neglectful and obsessive nature. But she’s also the product of grooming and the desire to grow up so fast after being Erica’s caretaker all of these years. Like Erica, she is searching for her own independence; she just finds it in the wrong place.
Adam is your typical perfect guy who is thrown over for the wrong guy. His firefighting hobby, sensitivity, and desire to help others, though, makes him a genuinely good guy that readers can root for. He doesn’t always say or do the right thing, but his intentions are always noble.
The adults in the book are just as interesting, from Erica’s ex-grunge parents to the seriously messed up Taggert couple. However, this book is rightly about the kids and how their coming of age is wrapped up in events that are kicked off by adults who either are afraid of letting them grow up or encourage them to grow up way too fast.
My recommendation
Rules of Falling is a unique page-turner that is part romance, part thriller, and part contemporary high school drama with bits of humor, suspense, and action thrown in that compliment each other to tell a fascinating story full of interesting characters dealing with intriguing, thought-provoking storylines. I could see this novel one day being adapted into a streaming show or movie that will draw in both teen and adult fans.
I actually found myself feeling light-headed while reading some of the fainting scenes, and those moments, along with the twists and turns, are elements that I couldn’t see coming. And that’s quite a feat in an age full of predictable storytelling tropes.
My rating
An interview with Leslie Tall Manning
When did you first learn about syncope, and what made you want to write a book about it?
I am so happy you asked me this question because this disease is such a devastating one, and yet it is rarely mentioned in books or conversation. I used to be a high school teacher. I once had a female student who suffered from “non-specific” syncope. In laymen’s terms, she fainted often, and without provocation. She was very depressed much of the time.
I had fainted once back in high school, and it terrified me. I can’t imagine living my life never knowing when the next episode will hit.
Years after I quit teaching to write full time, and a few books into my writing career, I asked my literary agent, “So what are editors looking for these days?” He said, “Write a book with a disease, a mystery, and a romance.” I laughed, then said, “Sure. No problem.”
Ten years later, behold Rules of Falling. It has gone through a rather long transformation to make it into the book it is today. I’m happy to offer a story with an unlikely protagonist as our hero. She owns a cape, but never realizes it until she has to put it on.
What makes Erica so determined despite being so fragile?
This is where Erica is perhaps other young women who may not seem mighty until they are forced into showing their strength. Sometimes it takes hardship to understand how fragile we, and life in general, can be.
We are all fragile in our own ways. Some physically, others mentally. But like teenager Erica, if you told me I couldn’t do something, I’d try to find a way to prove you wrong. Erica doesn’t ask for sympathy from others. This is part of her strength. I wanted to remind young women that a person isn’t brave until they persevere through a terrifying situation.
How did the Lindsay storyline come about?
Some may think it came about on the heels of the “me too” movement. But really, creepy men have been around since the beginning of time.
I knew many as a teen and through the years have been hit on by more than I can count. I wasn’t very pretty as a young girl. I didn’t know what it meant to flirt. I didn’t even have a real boyfriend until I was nineteen. But that didn’t stop older men from coming on to me.
While I know that most men are good and kind, there are a few out there just waiting for a girl like Lindsay to come along. Lindsay is “every girl” in that she represents the average high school girl just trying to make her way in the world, totally unsure like everyone else. Men like Larry have a special radar for girls like Lindsay.
I wanted young women to read this book and think, “Oh my god, [fill in the blank] flirts with me and it makes me uncomfortable.” I want them to remember the ending of Rules of Falling. I want them to understand that a 30-something man wanting to hook up with a high school girl is not just illegal but morally wrong.
Now, as a private tutor as well as an author, I share this precautionary wisdom with my students. In a small way I am helping to protect them from becoming a “Lindsay.”
What is your relationship with firefighters? What made you decide to incorporate fires and firefighting into the story?
I don’t know! I wanted a really cool mystery, and I wanted something that would be extraordinarily dangerous for someone who faints. And voila! I did used to have a student who was a volunteer fireman, and I was able to interview him regarding the ins and outs of the industry, specifically what younger men are allowed to do with equipment, etc.
You will find his name in my acknowledgements. I also am a research fanatic, so digging more deeply into arson fires was really interesting and fun.
Did you have the story plotted out in advance, or did it come about as you wrote?
As the writer of many novels, I have a rough idea of the plot before I ever begin writing. For a few months, or sometimes a year, I keep a folder nearby with notes written on Post-Its for future reference.
Once I have the beginning, the ending, and five or more crucial scenes in my head, I write a vague outline and then begin writing. Honestly, once I get started, it’s no longer my story but the story of my characters. They sort of take over. I don’t take the story back until final edits.
There are a lot of secrets being kept in this book. What are your thoughts on keeping a secret out of loyalty versus betraying someone’s confidence in order to protect them?
In high school, my girlfriends and I had sooooooo many secrets that we only shared with one another, and I will take them to my grave, because that’s what friends do. And yes, authorities should have been contacted once or twice, and yes, if my mother were alive today, she would freak if she knew the stuff we girls did without her knowing.
That said, I did know a teenaged girl in high school who had an older-man affair, and I never told anyone. Now, as an adult, I want to go back in time and turn him in so he can rot in jail, or at the very least try to stop her from getting involved.
Some of us are loyal to a fault, and right or wrong, I was one of those people. If moms think their daughters tell them everything, they are mistaken. It’s part of growing up, keeping things from parents, trying to prove one’s independence. Sadly, some kids end up in frightening situations because they want to prove to the world that they can make grownup decisions.
Do you have a favorite character?
I adore Erica. I totally would have hung out with her, even if there was a chance she would tumble to the floor. I would have wanted to protect her. And I have a little crush on Adam, but that’s because I wrote him that way!
Was there a scene that was particularly fun to write? Which one gave you the most trouble?
Oh, I have to be careful here not to spoil anything! I really enjoyed writing the scene at the picnic when Erica, well, you know what happens!
As a matter of fact, that scene, with the ice cream cone, was based on the student I mentioned earlier who suffered from syncope. Sorry I can’t say anything else about it!
Conversely, the scene that gave me the most trouble was the one when Adam taught Erica to…well…do something she’d always wanted to do. I had to be uber technical throughout the scene, but it had to be done to make it perfect!
Who would you cast in the movie version of Rules of Falling?
Funny you ask this. Rules of Falling is on Taleflick which is a book to film curation service, and they gave the book a “highly recommend” as far as being film worthy, so I know it would adapt well to film or limited series.
I don’t usually cast anyone in my head as I write as I don’t want readers to picture exactly what I picture. I like readers to make up their own minds to an extent. But since you ask.
Mom: Jennifer Aniston or Jennifer Garner
Erica: Sadie Sink (but they’d have to make the film today before she gets too old)
Adam: Someone with a Uriah Shelton look
Lindsay: Amber Midthunder (would be important to use a Native American).
Without giving anything away, have you given any thought to what happens to any or all of the characters after the book ends?
While I think about this as I’m writing the book, and long after the book is written, I don’t know how to share this with your readers without spoiling the ending. I will say that Erica’s relationship with her mother will get much stronger and her confidence will soar, no matter what she does with her life.
As for Erica and Adam? We’ll let Netflix or Amazon decide when they make the series! Wink-wink.
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Absolutely loved your interview! I hope Netflix does pick up her novel, that would be the icing on the cake.
Thanks for reading! Whenever I read and review a good book, I always think about what streaming service would want the story for a movie or series.