Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen 
Lauren Kate

Grade: C


Description from Lauren Kate's website

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 the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

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

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

My thoughts on the book:

After having Fallen recommended to me by several friends, I decided to give it a try. The cover is obviously gorgeous, and the story sounded interesting, and it was. The two main characters, however, were not. 

Luce starts off promising. She is entering a new world at her boarding school, and she is trying to adapt as best she can. Then she sees Daniel, and her personality goes down hill from there. She quickly becomes obsessed with Daniel (think Bella Swan obsessed), and after staring at him for over 300 pages, they finally interact. Boom, she's a goner. She loves him more than anything. She lives and breathes for Daniel. With the past life connections, that could at least be believable, but the fact that they don't interact at all, other than Daniel giving Luce rude gestures and running away , and Luce acting like a creepy stalker, makes it seem a little far-fetched. Besides, who could love Daniel anyway? He's boring. Daniel is vanilla ice cream without the vanilla beans! He's THAT boring!

The secondary characters, however, are wonderful. Cam is my absolute favorite, and I feel that Kate put more effort and thought into him than she did Daniel. Arriane is also a unique and interesting character. Penn is a likable character, and she has her quirks, as well. Gabbe, on the other hand, is a bit cookie cutter for my taste. I think that if Kate had put half the thought into Daniel that she put into Cam, then the novel would have been about 1,000 times better. 

Another thing that I really enjoyed about this novel was all of the references to Paradise Lost. As a lit dork, I loved the direct and indirect references to that novel, and they were put in very strategic and interesting places. On that front, I have to applaud Kate. The allegories were done very well. 

While I did enjoy quite a few things from the novel, many things, other than Daniel and Luce, bugged me. For example, the "big reveal" doesn't come until about 350 pages into the book, and when it comes, it doesn't reveal much of anything that I hadn't already figured out in the prologue or by the hints dropped by Kate. This book moved painfully slow, and if it wasn't for Kate's eloquent writing, I doubt I would have finished it. 

Another thing that bothered me was the fact that I was left with more questions than answers at the end of this book. There was a bit of a cliff hanger, but nothing was tied up... nothing! Usually a few questions are answered at the end of the book, leaving other questions to be answered as the series progresses. But Fallen left me really confused as to what the purpose of this whole novel was. It was over 400 pages total, and not a single question was answered. To me, that screams bad planning. 

Even though I wasn't blown away by this book, I am continuing the series because I simply LOVE Cam! Once I finish Torment, I'll let you guys know what I think of it.  

Want to see how you feel about Fallen? 

Amazon.com: Print

Amazon.com: Kindle E-book

Barnes and Noble: Print

Barnes and Noble: Nook E-book