Books I read: Fallen, by Lauren Kate
So, I decided to breathe new life into this journal by trying something new: book reviews!!
*crickets*
Very short ones.
Anyway, the first one being Fallen by Lauren Kate, which I just finished today.
Why I bought it: I went to one of my local bookstores recently and the cover caught my eye (see above). Then I remembered reading about it in an ONTD post about "angels being the new vampires". As YA novels are one of my (many many) guilty pleasures I decided to give it a try. At 452 pages it's a rather quick read.
Short Summary: We meet the obligatory gorgeous but kinda beef-witted female teenage protagonist Lucinda Price on her first day at Sword & Cross, a boarding school for... difficult teenagers, where she got sent off by her parents/shrink/court mostly because of an incident that claimed the life of her then crush, but also because everyone bascially thinks she's crazy. We are also introduced to a bunch of fun sounding supporting characters and of course ~teh love interest. (Actually, Kate introduces two of those on the first ten pages alone.) So now all Luce has to do is to survive those loooong and boring school days, while figuring out why that (oblig.) gorgeous but very strange and quiet boy feels so familiar to her and why everyone else tries to keep her away from him. Also, why the shadows that had been following her around basically all her life are suddenly getting all clingy and scary.
What I liked: Although I finished the book in two days, there's not a lot to put into this category. I liked the change of focus from vampires and werewolves to a supernatural force of whole new proportions: angels. I liked the location. Sword & Cross is a run down, bleak and hopeless ruin of a school, with a refunctioned church serving as a gym and a nearby Civil War cemetery where the kids spend their detention hours. Or picnic. Or just.. hang around. All in all the whole setup promised a fun read...
What I didn't like: So, we have a gloomy school, a bunch of crazy kids (some of them equipped with tracking devices) and an (kind of) interesting plot idea. Kate taps into a lot of interesting things in the beginning but we soon find out that most of them don't matter at all and are either swept under the rug or dealt with so poorly it makes my head hurt. We never get to know any of the characters in detail. Sure, there are supposed to be three more of these novels, but we never get a single reason why Luce is so ~special in the first place. Kate just doesn't go into detail at all, on anything. She will start describing one thing only to jump to the next thing halfway through. Don't get me wrong, the writing isn't bad, it just feels rushed. That's why all of the supporting characters, and even the main ones, stay kinda flat and lifeless and you find yourself just don't giving a damn about either of them. Additionally, the whole angel plot becomes very weird and confusing by the end. We learn that the only thing Luce cares about is ~that boy. I realize that that's what teenagers do, but even THEY would freak if a friend's throat had just been cut right in front of them. But we don't know why Luce does the things she does, because we don't know her, or anyone. At all.
What I thunk: Well, even for a YA novel this book was really superficial. I didn't even care for the romance, because it just didn't... click. I was waiting 452 pages for something exciting to happen, but even when it did it just made me go "Alright". *flips page* It's not bad per se. But it's nothing special either. Not even if you're into angels. I think it's overrated and neither "thrilling" nor a "blinder of a book". Also, good angels are all sorts of boring. ;) So.. read it if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you. xD
Next up:
*crickets*
Very short ones.
Anyway, the first one being Fallen by Lauren Kate, which I just finished today.
Why I bought it: I went to one of my local bookstores recently and the cover caught my eye (see above). Then I remembered reading about it in an ONTD post about "angels being the new vampires". As YA novels are one of my (many many) guilty pleasures I decided to give it a try. At 452 pages it's a rather quick read.
Short Summary: We meet the obligatory gorgeous but kinda beef-witted female teenage protagonist Lucinda Price on her first day at Sword & Cross, a boarding school for... difficult teenagers, where she got sent off by her parents/shrink/court mostly because of an incident that claimed the life of her then crush, but also because everyone bascially thinks she's crazy. We are also introduced to a bunch of fun sounding supporting characters and of course ~teh love interest. (Actually, Kate introduces two of those on the first ten pages alone.) So now all Luce has to do is to survive those loooong and boring school days, while figuring out why that (oblig.) gorgeous but very strange and quiet boy feels so familiar to her and why everyone else tries to keep her away from him. Also, why the shadows that had been following her around basically all her life are suddenly getting all clingy and scary.
What I liked: Although I finished the book in two days, there's not a lot to put into this category. I liked the change of focus from vampires and werewolves to a supernatural force of whole new proportions: angels. I liked the location. Sword & Cross is a run down, bleak and hopeless ruin of a school, with a refunctioned church serving as a gym and a nearby Civil War cemetery where the kids spend their detention hours. Or picnic. Or just.. hang around. All in all the whole setup promised a fun read...
What I didn't like: So, we have a gloomy school, a bunch of crazy kids (some of them equipped with tracking devices) and an (kind of) interesting plot idea. Kate taps into a lot of interesting things in the beginning but we soon find out that most of them don't matter at all and are either swept under the rug or dealt with so poorly it makes my head hurt. We never get to know any of the characters in detail. Sure, there are supposed to be three more of these novels, but we never get a single reason why Luce is so ~special in the first place. Kate just doesn't go into detail at all, on anything. She will start describing one thing only to jump to the next thing halfway through. Don't get me wrong, the writing isn't bad, it just feels rushed. That's why all of the supporting characters, and even the main ones, stay kinda flat and lifeless and you find yourself just don't giving a damn about either of them. Additionally, the whole angel plot becomes very weird and confusing by the end. We learn that the only thing Luce cares about is ~that boy. I realize that that's what teenagers do, but even THEY would freak if a friend's throat had just been cut right in front of them. But we don't know why Luce does the things she does, because we don't know her, or anyone. At all.
What I thunk: Well, even for a YA novel this book was really superficial. I didn't even care for the romance, because it just didn't... click. I was waiting 452 pages for something exciting to happen, but even when it did it just made me go "Alright". *flips page* It's not bad per se. But it's nothing special either. Not even if you're into angels. I think it's overrated and neither "thrilling" nor a "blinder of a book". Also, good angels are all sorts of boring. ;) So.. read it if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you. xD
Next up: