Book Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Title: Fallen

Author: Lauren Kate

Publisher: Random House UK

Publishing Date: December 2009

Length: 464 pages

Genre: Paranormal Romance, YA, Fantasy

5/5 ***** Fallen is an absorbing battle between light and darkness, love and loss, future and past. Start reading! 

~ The Author ~ 

Lauren Kate grew up in Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York.
She is the author of Fallen and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. She lives in Laurel Canyon with her husband and hopes to work in a restaurant kitchen, get a dog, and learn how to surf.

Author profile by Goodreads

For further information check out http://laurenkatebooks.net/

~ The Novel ~

Fallen is the first book in a proposed quartet about Luce and Daniel and was released in December 2009. The sequel, Torment was just released in September 2010.

~ The Story ~

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.

Summary by Goodreads

~ The Review ~

It all starts with the prologue set in 1854, in which we learn something about the story’s heart without being given any details. The embodiment of a teasing prologue!

Then story sets back into present time where we attend Sword & Cross school together with Luce, from whose POV Fallen is narrated. Although she is just one of many troubled teenagers at Sword & Cross who have committed crimes, identifying with her felt very easy to me. The more she puts the blame for a murder on her, the more I want to prove her innocence. Luce is a protagonist, whose whole identity hasn’t been revealed yet, which makes her interesting and mysterious.

Beside this haunting murder mystery, Luce has to experience immediate rejection by Daniel, one of the dark Sword & Cross students, she feels exceptionally attracted to. The more Daniel pushes Luce away, the more Cam, a fellow new student, uses the chance to lull Luce into his irresistible charm. I considered Daniel and Cam as interesting counterparts, Cam the charming, active and almost angelic and Daniel the passive, cold and dark fighter. Both hold high tension potential, that not only Luce gets mesmerized by.

I am not only eager to learn more about the future of each character and the mysteries that accompany them, but about Luce’ and Daniel’s past and the dark secret that lingers around their fate.

My favourite symbolism lies in the application of shadows as enemies and the growing power of an ancient evil. Although the final enemy hasn’t appeared yet, the threatening shadows produce an ever present awareness of the danger awaiting our favourite protagonists.

I like Lauren Kate’s pleasant writing style and the way she develops the story around Luce and Daniel, never giving away too much to hold the overall tension. She created a world in which every character seems to have an even darker secret than the other, you have to expect the unexpected every new page and in which you feel like a small feather in the infinite currents of heaven and the dark fires of hell.

~ We love this book because… ~

1) of its idea of eternal love and fate

2) a starlit beach has the potential to make you feel so much closer to heaven

3) even if you don’t believe in guardian angels, they are present, always protecting you

4) we love drawing and the way it lets us express our feelings very personally

5) an identity is more than some random lines on a file

~ The Verdict ~

It looks like Fallen is just the rising in a suspense curve about the quartet around Luce and Daniel. Go and get Torment, because you won’t be able to stand the tormenting wait for the story to continue for long!