“Fallen” by Lauren Kate
Release Date: 8th December 2009 (US), 17th December 2009 (UK)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Doubleday (Random House Children’s Books)
If you’re going to judge a book by it’s cover, then “Fallen” is great – a black-haired, pale girl in a black dress stands against a blue-lit forest. Aiming straight for the gothic-at-heart, the large curving font for the title makes it look a lot like an Evanescence cover. That’s not a bad thing – it’s eyes catching.
Then there’s the back cover blurb. If you’ve just finished that guilt-ridden-but-enjoyable binge of every recent vampire book within reach, searching for a way to fill the hole left by the end of the “Twilight” series, it’ll be all you need to read before taking the book to the counter and continuing your paranormal romance spree. The endorsement by P.C. Cast – author of the “House of Night” series – doesn’t hurt either.
SOME ANGELS ARE DESTINED TO FALL.
Instant. Intense. Weirdly familiar . . .
The moment Luce looks at Daniel she knows she has never felt like this before. Except that she can’t shake the feeling that she has. And with him – a boy she doesn’t ever remember setting eyes on.
Will her attempt to find out why enlighten her – or destroy her?
Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, FALLEN is a thrilling story about forbidden love.
“Fallen”‘s main girl is Lucinda Price, a mouthful of a name thankfully shortened to simply Luce. A boy mysterious burned to death while with her, so she’s been packed off to the fantastically gothic Sword & Cross reform school, complete with ever-present CCTV, barbed wire, overgrown vegetation, a full Olympic swimming pool inside a church and a military graveyard where you get to spend detention cleaning up old marble statues. It’s set in the marsh covered side of Savannah, Georgia, but the city itself is never really explored because reform school pupils aren’t supposed to just nip to the shops.
Luce focuses her attention on the gorgeous and alluring Daniel Grigori, but as soon as they make eye contact he flips her off. Charming. There to pick up the gauntlet, however, is the smooth-talking and charming Cam.
They are some of the first of “Fallen”‘s large cast, including the ‘wacky’ and rebellious Arriane, a blunt girl with horrible scars across the back of her neck; the much moodier will-break-your-face-with-her-New-Rocks punk kid Molly; chubby Penn, who always wears multiple layers and has access to everyone’s confidential files and dreadlocked smuggler Roland who handles getting contraband items into the school.
The teachers are a little bit more negatively portrayed – the kind-hearted, motherly librarian (who classes are so boring); the history teacher who’s not too bad a bloke when not lecturing his (bored) class; the manly female teacher and ‘warden’ Randy and a strict and cold gym teacher.
The first half of the story revolves around Luce adapting to this school and its pupils, having a bad-run in with Molly and feeling inexplicably attracted to Daniel even though his words to her mostly consist of lines like “Go away”, “Don’t talk to me” and “You are not my friend”. Luce’s obsession doesn’t go away, though, and in typical teenage girl fashion she proceeds to stalk him and have Penn go through his files while she tries to explain to them that she knows she’s seen him somewhere before. Wait, did I say typical teenage girl fashion? I meant typical teenage girl in a school full of unstable reform kids behavior. At least nobody’s been horribly burnt to death yet.
While my tongue is firmly in-cheek there, despite the slightly creepiness of it, Fallen’s target audience knows what it is to be head-over-heels with a guy so Luce’s longing will be alien to none of them. For older readers, she’s difficult to relate to with her single-minded focus on that one hot guy but as “Twilight” has already shown us, teenage girls just get it. At least she’s not climbing in his window to watch him sleep, right?
While she’s obsessing over Daniel, Cam is desperately trying to get in Luce’s pants and what was once charming and sweet is quickly getting creepy and desperate. As Daniel begins to soften and meet Luce off-campus, still trying to convince her she’s being silly and delusional because they’ve never met, Cam’s forced advances become a quick-trigger for a fist-fight.
There’s a dramatic rescue that rings true to “Twilight”‘s ‘saved from death by being crushed by a large object’ scene, replacing the car with something a bit more symbolic. There’s also another big fire where someone is horribly burnt to death, but they were too undeveloped for me to care very much.
Aside from those above scenes, though, the first half of the book is in need of some editing. Lauren Kate’s prose is clean and easy-to-read, but without enough action and conflict the endless repetition of stalking Daniel, being rejected by him, leading Cam on despite being a bit repulsed by him, and then crawling back to Daniel afterwards gets tiring. The long, eventless build-up didn’t work in Stephenie Meyer’s work and it doesn’t work here. As this is an advanced copy I was reading, with a bit of luck the editor will take a harsh hand with it before final release.
Lauren’s character development is also flawed – while Arriane, Penn and Cam are both varied and exciting characters, Lucinda and Daniel fall flat. Daniel’s constantly mean for no good reason, and despite Luce’s swooning over his looks and her mysterious attraction most girls would write him off as an ass and move on.
Luce isn’t much better – while she starts off promising with her past as a possible-arsonist-and-manslaughterer, her single-minded fixation on Daniel over any of her friends and cruel leading on of Cam makes her difficult to like. She’s better than Bella Swan, but still too passive. At one point she’s facing her own death and just lies back and thinks about how pretty Daniel is instead of trying to avoid it.
I think Lauren Kate knows she’s far from perfect though – possibly acting as her mouthpiece, one character says about Luce: “you’re nothing more than you appear to be: a stupid, selfish, ignorant, spoiled little girl who thinks the world lives or dies on whether she gets to go out with some good-looking boy at school”
The truth if, whether the distinguished readers among us like it or not, most teenage girls are exactly like that. They are going to love it.
The first book in a four book series, the story ends with some cliffhanger set-up for the second book “Torment”, due out September 2010. While its pacing is flawed and it’s main character difficult to love, Lauren Kate shows a lot of promise with world-building and her beautiful settings, along with memorable and likeable side-characters. With some work on developing Luce, and an increase in pace now that introductions are over, the series has a definite potential to progress into something very good.
Until then, young girls are going to love it anyway.
Rating: 3/5 – As the start of a series this dark romance has potential.
Other Books By This Author: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove.
For Fans of: Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight”, P.C. Cast’s “The House of Night”, Becca Fitzpatrick’s “Hush, Hush”,
An advance copy was provided for this review by Random House. The work may change before final print.
Why do they keep comparing it with twilight too much.
For real.
It seems to happen to happen to a lot of supernatural romance books out right now (“Hush, Hush” had commenters saying similar things).
It annoys me too, it seems a shame to just write off books because of similarities.
I think it was a good book, but it took me forever to get through. It just kept dragging on and on. However, since I have read “Torment”, the second book in the series, it was a great introduction. “Torment” was a very enticing book, and I definitely got sucked into it. I only wish “Fallen” had been shorter.
it sounds like a good book but a bit dissapointing… coz i thought it had better characters… but ok i gonna read it xd
I read that they are making these series in to a movie, they’re making it in 2012 It’s going to overtake the twilight fans. I absolutely loved this book I cried nearly three whole times, anyone who doesn’t like this book has no sense of imagination. And I’m sure Im not the only on who thinks that. I used to hate reading but then I met the Fallen series and know I’m In love I want a Daniel!
By far you have the best review on this book! I certainly did not like how the author wrote it. It could have been edited to a shorter length. The story has a lot to grow from but Fallen simply falls short of what could have been a very good introduction to a series.
Thank you! It seems like some book Bloggers are avoiding being too critical
in their reviews these days. Glad you enjoyed the post. :)
Edward Cullen is FAR from being the most loved character ever written, that’s a ludicrous claim, I’m sorry, but what you said actually made me quite angry. But what disappoints me is that most teenage paranormal romance books these days seem to follow the exact same formula as the Twilight series, because that’s what sells. A plain, dull character arrives somewhere new and finds themselves inexplicably drawn to an unnaturally good looking God-like man who initially avoids them and has a sideline flirtation with a friendly, warm character that is also good looking but is simply thrown in as a device to stall the REAL romance from developing as all readers know that he has no chance, not next to the angelic hero that the heroine finds herself unconditionally in love with after two to three lines of dialogue, perhaps even less. This book is no exception.
That could be why so many books today are compared to Stephanie Meyers ‘Twilight’, because they are pretty much EXACTLY THE SAME. Girl falls in love with guy but can’t because he’s a {Insert paranormal creature here} but can’t help it anyway. Now before people type in all caps to inform me of their rage, I have to admit- I don’t hate Twilight. The series has promise; I fell in love with the first book, enjoyed the second, disliked Eclipse, and had a sort of love-hate relationship with the fourth and final book of the series. However, it is shameless copies of this book that I can’t stand. It’s as if a bunch of middle aged women just held their hands up and went ‘Who cares about putting actual time and effort in my writing? Hey, that Twilight series is popular, I’ll just crap something out and let my editor deal with all the mistakes, cause’ that’s what sells today!’
Sorry to sound so bitter, but after reading ‘Fallen’ I’d had enough. It starts out with promise, a shy girl with a tortured mind because of her possibly murderous background being sent to a prison-like facility for teens? Hell yes. This could make an interesting book on its own, forget the romance, forget the love triangle, and forget the tired clichés. Lauren Kate could’ve easily worked on a book full of careful character development, but she missed that opportunity by a landslide, cause’ I forgot, that doesn’t sell. It needs to be a book about fallen angels. But that part needs to be tacked on right at the end, whoever’s heard of build up?
Well she sets ‘first’ sight on her charming love interest, the asshat Daniel who has chiselled good looks that seems to be all that matters. He flips the main character Luce off, and Luce just knew that from that moment, they were destined to be together. Unfortunately she winds up with playful and friendly Cam who seems to be interested in her, but of course this won’t do for Luce. She needs her hunk Daniel to be her beloved, since they HAVE always been bound by fate together. I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how Daniel, who is supposed to be her one true wuv, can just stand there and watch as hard edged, bullying Molly pours the content of her lunch over Luce and yet loses it when Cam kisses her. Can he really just not stand to see her happy?
While the book set off to an interesting start with beautifully made scenery and descriptive background imagery, it slowed down to a miserable halt- before it even reached the halfway mark. Like you pointed out E. Maree, the almost never ending repetition of Luce stalking Daniel, getting rejected, leading Cam on is all extremely tiring, and I was tempted to just give up reading altogether. Whereas with books like Twilight and the House of Night series you can just breeze through, this book was extremely hard to work through as I felt tortured turning the next page over to read yet more of Luce’s mooning over Daniel. To many teenagers everywhere this may be ‘true wuv’, it is simply a pointless, half assed and empty reason to include romance into the story. Both characters need a hit up the head, Daniel for treating Luce like the scum on his shoe, and Luce for going along with it. Here’s an actual excerpt from Fallen, pages 326-327:
*“I don’t get it?” She asked. “I don’t get it? Let me tell you something about what I get. You think you’re so smart? I spent three years on a full academic scholarship at the best college-prep school in the country. And when they kicked me out, I had to petition- petition!- to keep them from wiping out my four-point-oh transcript.”
{She continues to list reasons why she’s smart}
“So don’t tell me I don’t understand just because I can’t decode your erratic, flaky, hot-one-minute-cold-the-next, frankly”- she looked up at him, letting out her breath- “really hurtful behaviour.” She brushed a tear away, angry with herself for getting so worked up.
“Shut up,” Daniel said, but he said it so softly and so tenderly that Luce surprised both of them by obeying.*
Wow. Just… wow. She manages to list just how smart she is, FINALLY letting off steam that by that point I was applauding her, and THEN because she’s so smart lets Daniel walk all over her. AGAIN. She let this guy treat her badly for weeks, and then asked ‘how high?’ whenever Daniel said ‘Jump’. Congrats for raving about your intelligence and independence for most of a page there, cause’ you threw it all away in just one sentence. I like relationships with the whole ‘redemption’ angle, like a former bully stops being a bully and a character finds love with the reformed character, but I don’t like a relationship where a person loves another WHILE their doing the bullying. That’s just sick. What messages does that send to other teenagers who read this kind of stuff? Keep obsessing over a guy who treats you horribly, stalk him, and avoid guys who ARE good for you and then you’ll find true love? At least the boring Edward Cullen actually seemed to care and look after Bella, this Daniel has no personality, no emotions, and no realistic conflicts and is emotionally abusive to Luce.
I like some of the side characters however, Arianne brightened up the pages for the short time she arrived. Why couldn’t she have been the main character? Why couldn’t Luce be the friend that stood to the side and served little to no purpose to the story? I liked Penn, she seemed real and friendly, though I wished she wasn’t so lax and even helpful with Luce’s stalking. She should’ve talked sense into Luce. Plus Molly interested me, why was SHE so angry? What has SHE gone through to reach the point of becoming a tyrannical punk bully in a reform school? Plus Cam seemed like a nice guy, but he has what I like to call the ‘Jacob Black syndrome’, in which he constantly gets led on by main girl, falls in love but is punished for his feelings when they try to act on them when the main girl has decided she doesn’t really want him at all.
While the book has some perks and interesting points, it altogether fails as a good book. Judging by most of the comments however it seems that this book is loved by all teenage girls, so maybe this is perfect for all teenage girls but me. Sorry, I just can’t stand a weak female heroine and amazingly hot guys with messed up motives, and unlike all those other Twilight rip-off books, this rip-off fails to be addictive or exhilarating in anyway because by the time we got to the Daniel/Luce sexual tension scenes I had become so alienated by the characters that I just. Didn’t. Care. My mum bought me the next book in the series by mistakenly thinking I actually enjoyed the first, and I was warned by a friend not to read Torment, as it is apparently worse. Likewise, I advise all not to buy this book, it is a waste of money that could be spent on much more entertaining guilty pleasures- alas, I fear that not many people will listen and go out to seek this book anyway. Well, happy reading, and I apologize for my endless ranting.
Thanks for stopping by with such an in-depth comment. Do you have a blog or Goodreads page? I’d love to keep up with your feelings on other series.
Needless to say, I agree with a you on most points – particular what a shame it is that YA paranormal is being ruled by this formula, and on poor Cam getting the short shaft.
“Judging by most of the comments however it seems that this book is loved by all teenage girls, so maybe this is perfect for all teenage girls but me. Sorry, I just can’t stand a weak female heroine and amazingly hot guys with messed up motives”
Don’t ever apologise for liking strong female characters with healthy relationships! There’s a serious lack of these atm, though there are some writers moving in to fill the gap, so hopefully this will level out soon. YA definitely needs more kick-ass ladies, as well as ones who can be damaged but still be strong.
I was wandering, is the cover a picture or a drawing?
Hi JB, it’s a photograph. They use digital editing software (probably Photoshop) to add the background.
I actually just finished reading Fallen. My eyes were drawn to it’s cover and had just recently read the first book of Becca Fitzpatrick’s series Hush Hush and was interested in reading another book about “fallen angles” since I enjoyed Hush Hush. I read the first five chapters of Fallen and had gotten bored. The plot was slow and I had just given up and moved on to another book. A few weeks later I found myself re-reading it again (Because I have a thing that I must finish a book..). I started getting irritated at the fact Luce was so “in love” with Danial who was being so rude to her. And then after Cam and Danial’s fight I felt that she was getting herself into to much trouble for either one of these boys. After the final concluding chapters (the actual interesting parts)I was completely disgusted. It was almost exactly like Twilight just not vampires. It had the slow beginning and “wait til the last minuet to figure it all out even though it was so obvious”. The love-horny teenage girl who “loves” a guy who treats her like crap. And then the Cam vs. Danial (Jake vs. Edward). Not to mention when I bought the book the check-out lady said “Many teen girls have been buying this”. Note I have read twilight so I know what I’m talking about.
Fallen is just a carbon copy of Twilight just with a different creature. Love sick teenager’s soak this stuff up and call it “real writing” when sadly it’s the only book they have read. The only credit I can give to Lauren Kate is that most of her facts on fallen angles were correct (other then the fight for the world ending thing, but i understand authors creativity) compared to Twilight’s sparkly mind-reading vampire.
To sum things up you should read it if your the love sick willy nilly girls, or if you want to pass the time away (because there are decent characters but they all have to die….). I do not recommend if you hate Twilight like books and hate the “fan girl” type characters.
-I agree completely with you I just wanted to share how I read and viewed the book (PS I commented and then read your article)
I’M FING MAD I LIKE THE BOOK AND THIS IS NOT LIKE TWILIGHT FOR PEET’S SAKE
SRRY PPL BUT IM MAD
I’ve read the Fallen series. It’s an alright series. Not as promising as it seems with a beautiful cover on every book and an interesting synopsis, along with it being the “best selling book around the world.” I personally think the first book was the best out of all of them. The others were good and promising; I agree. But I personally think that even though they may have been more “action-packed” that the story line itself got progressively worse with each book. And frankly, I wasn’t pleased with the ending to the series. It was actually quite disappointing.