Fallen Review

Fallen by Lauren Kate
First book in the Fallen series
Published by Delacorte Press

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at Sword & Cross boarding school in Savannah. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security cameras watch every move.

Except Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce -- he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret...even if it kills her.

I'm going to be one hundred percent honest about this one. I raved about it when I first finished it, but once I let the story soak in, I didn't feel so hot towards it. It has a similar vibe of other novels where the main character falls in love with a "mysterious" boy with supernatural powers who doesn't seem to be interested in them until eventually he just "can't stay away from her anymore."

Luce was extremely passive. She just pretty much let everything happen to her. Even when Cam and Daniel weren't around, it was Arianna or Penn who were controlling her actions.

Daniel intrigued me when they first met, but after awhile his hot/cold behavior started to get a little old and overly familiar. Though, I will admit that he does have a good reason for being the way that he is. Cam is probably the best of the characters and the most intriguing for me. I'm very firmly Team Daniel, but Cam has the most layers and after that epilogue I'm still not sure if I truly know who he is.

Overall: 7.5/10. I loved the voice and the writing and I'd be glad to pick up Torment in the future.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I'm still extremely confused by the fire. I mean, what was the point of Todd dying? And why did the shadows want to burn all of Sophia's research?

Now let's talk about Luce again. I still can't believe she got into a car with a strange driver just because Cam told her to. Especially after Daniel told her to stay away from him. She should've just stood him up instead of constantly trying to "let him down easy" because that wasn't working out too well. I also can't believe that she let him kiss her when she was supposed to be so in love with Daniel.

I can't believe when Daniel finally spilled his guts out to her, she didn't believe him until she saw the photograph. She sees the shadows, she's seen Daniel's wings, and she's the one that always felt like they had some connection and yet when the truth is staring her in the face, she tries to run away from it.

Comments

Sarah said…
I agree about the voice, but I was sorta underwhelmed. I did buy Torment and although I usually burn through books, I haven't managed to get through it yet. I think the author does a pretty good job with description and characterization, though.
January 20, 2011 at 6:02 PM
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