Author: Lauren Kate
Published: December 2009
Publisher: Doubleday
Series: Fallen #1
452 (paperback)
I have a weakness for books with beautiful covers, and Fallen has a very beautiful cover indeed. Except I don’t think the story inside the book lives up to the packaging. I am not even completely sure what I just read. After finishing the book, I am left with way too many questions, and I don’t feel like anything was really resolved … was there even anything to resolve? I got this book because the majority of my Goodreads friends gave it a high rating, but maybe I should have heeded the ratings of my non-friends more seriously. (Sorry, friends …)
If you’ve read Twilight, Hush Hush, Evermore, Elixir, Dead Beautiful, The Mephisto Covenant, (insert another YA paranormal romance here), you’ve read half this book already. Luce has been troubled by the black shadows she sees for years. She has been pretending she’s completely normal for years, until recently at a high school party, she may or may not have accidentally killed her crush in a fire. And we never find out more about that event because the point of all that is to give a reason for Luce to enter Sword & Cross, a reform school.
Right away, Luce spots Daniel Grigori, who is, of course, drop dead gorgeous, has a “muscled torso” (naturally; he wouldn’t be a very good YA paranormal romance male lead without one), and seems a bit tortured. Their relationship feels a lot like Bella and Edward — Luce performs some Insta-Love™. Daniel tries to stay away from Luce at first, and isn’t very nice to her. Daniel saves Luce from a falling statue, like Edward saved Bella from an incoming car. Luce is still attracted to Daniel despite his efforts to tell her to stay away for her own good. Luce decides to go all stalker-like and literally research Daniel by digging through his school files, using the Internet and looking up his ancestors.
Oh, and the entire time, Luce is pursued by another guy, who is equally good looking, called Cam. Cam actually shows interest in Luce, and expresses how fond of her he is and even buys her a necklace. But no, Luce wants the guy who is trying his best to ignore her. Seriously boggles my mind. (And yes, Cam turns out to be the antagonist. Why??)
At no point in the story did I understand why Luce and Daniel love one another. They just do. They’re soulmates. Daniel may have a supernatural, albeit extremely flimsy, reason for loving Luce, but why does Luce love Daniel? He has shown zero interest in her. Oh wait. I remember. He’s gorgeous.
Not only that, but they’re not very interesting characters either. Luce and Daniel both have no personality, really. Daniel spends all his time feeling tortured and thinking, “Oh, Luce!” and Luce spends all her time being obsessive and thinking, “Oh Daniel!” These characters are like straight from the cheesiest romantic soap operas ever.
The plot … what plot? It was quite boring and slow. For 400 pages, I read about Luce admiring Daniel and how gorgeous he looks. I read about her stalking him. She’s annoyingly persistent. And then, finally, near the end, we have the scene that’s supposed to be the climax of the story — Daniel reveals his paranormal side (hint: the title of this book) — and we find out why he has been avoiding her the whole time. This climax was awful because any reader with half a brain could have pieced together the mystery of Daniel ages ago — not only does the title of this book provide a large clue, but the prologue and Daniel’s full name, Daniel Grigori does as well. It was like walking into a surprise party that you already knew about two weeks earlier.
The end of the book also kind of sets up the next book, but nothing is explained. For example, why is Luce so important that people want to kill her? Why is Cam evil? Why are Cam and Daniel fighting over Luce? Why are there so many of these paranormal creatures (I don’t want to spoil it even though it’s ridiculously easy to guess) gathered at Sword & Cross reform school? I know, I know — “It’ll be answered in the next book!” But to me, that is shoddy storytelling. Even if you are writing a series, each individual book must have a sense of resolution. As it is right now, Fallen feels like half a story. I know and understand nothing about its story world.
So, as you might gather by now, I didn’t like this book. It didn’t have much of a story, and mainly consisted of two overly dramatic, lovesick teenagers being obsessed with one another. And not in an entertaining Ron-and-Sammi-trainwreck kind of way.
(This book was from the library).
My Rating: 1/5
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