Book Review #2 - Fallen

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Released: 2009

Published: Delacorte Press

Age Group: Young Adult

Overall Rating: 2 stars

Here's the summary from the front flap of the book.

~~ 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 Savannah. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security camera 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 ~~

(For a better summary look at my video review on Youtube)

Now time for my review!

**Plot: The plot for this novel was very slow for most of the story and ill-formed. The introduction to Sword & Cross is good but after that things begin to get very muddled. I felt like in the grand scheme of things not much was happening. There were a couple events here and there but till the last hundred pages there wasn't much going on. There were a couple twists at the end which I did like. It ended in a way I wasn't expecting so that kind of redeemed it for me.

**Pacing: Like I said it was very slow. I felt like for most of the book the author wasn't really quite sure what to write. There were a couple interesting things that would happen but between them there'd be kind of a jumble of random things. Also, Luce's reaction towards Daniel and another character and how her feelings grow and change don't make sense...but maybe that's the point...I don't know.

**Characters: The characters were probably the best part of the book. Luce meets a whole strange array of characters that really are the most interesting thing in the novel. I love a couple of her friends and they really seem to have their own personalities that bring the book to life. Luce her self I did not like because I felt like she was kind of whiny and not very smart. She was pining for Daniel when it didn't make sense and she was looking for a secret that for the longest time didn't seem like anything. She would get all bent out of shape about something tiny and that kind of bugged me. Daniel played his part as the aloof, mysterious, hot and cold love interest. He didn't really seem all that out standing to me all though I did like how he acted in his first "meeting" with Luce, that was something that was a little different.

**Writing: The writing at the beginning was good. The writing at the end was good. The writing in the middle was kind of disappointing. There were many inconsistencies during actions and the way she described things didn't exactly make sense. I kind of felt like the author was just putting words on a page and bidding her time till the end. I mean, there were some interesting and good parts but between them were gaps of stuff that really lacked.

****Overall, I didn't expect much from this novel and I didn't get much. There were good characters and there were a couple good twists but overall I wasn't very impressed. The ending, though, was good enough and ended in such a way that it made me want to read the next book which is called Torment and it will be coming out in September.

OKay so that's my 2nd review! Stay tuned for my next one which will be on The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Sincerely

~Cookie