Sunday, June 2, 2013

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen


Author: Lauren Kate
Release: December 8th 2009
Genre: Supernatural, Angels, Urban Fantasy, YA
#1 in the Fallen quartet
Sequels: Torment (#2), Passion (#3), Rapture (#4)

Plot:

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. 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 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.

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

Review:

FALLEN is lame, boring and the ultimate bullshit. That's what they should have said in the blurb.

It was just so utterly and fully predictable. I could always tell what exactly was going to happen next, there was way too much foreshadowing, Lauren Kate seems to think her readers are complete idiots. It was all a real let-down, a scandal. Another thing that set me off was that even though Cam was perfectly sweet to Luce and made it clear he was interested, she still basically threw herself at Daniel. And Daniel was being a total jerk to her. Any other girl with a tad bit of self-respect would've given him the finger and tried to get to know Cam better. But no. She was just all "HURRR HE'S HOT AND HE HAS A SECRET - I'M GOING TO FIGURE TIS OUT! FUCK YOU CAM I DUNT WANT YO I ONLY WANT THAT GUY WHO'S BEING A  TOTAL DOUCHE!" (Ironic, since in the sequel, she questions her relationship with Daniel all the time...) Also, it was unoriginal and she didn't put much research into this. This was probably the 3829083th angel book I've read, but that's not what wasn't creative - The whole story seemed kinda ripped off. Evermore + Hush, Hush = Fallen. That's what it felt like. 

The characters were flat, 2D and unimpressive. They weren't distinct or original in any way, Mrs Kate could not make them more unrealistic had she tried. Our heroine, Luce Price, is a shallow, weak fool who can't do a thing and has to be saved 100% of the time. All she does during the book is stalk the guy who is very obviously not intersted in her. Daniel is the average "bad boy" douche type of guy you can see in most YA literature nowadays and that doesn't do anything for you, other than make you completely hate him. He's supposed to be this mysterious, dark, sexy boy that's to die for and whose love you couldn't ever live without, but instead, he's just a mean jerk. Cam was good. I liked him, but even he couldn't break out of Lauren Kate's I-have-to-create-shitty-characters master plan. The only character that was good was what's-her-name, Luce's human friend and the daughter of the head master or something like that. But, as you can see, I can't even remember her name, even though I actually liked her. Oh boy.

The story didn't go anywhere. This book was over 400 pages and nothing happened. Nothing. I didn't think that was even possible, but I was proven wrong. Fallen seems to be a book about melodramatic boarding school life, only it's a boarding school for antisocial criminals that constantly treat you like you belong in the trash bin, and incidentally, that's exactly where this novel belongs, too! What a coincidence! 
Do yourself a favor and do not read this. You have been warned.

No comments:

Post a Comment