Kate, Lauren: Fallen
Fallen (2009)
Written by: Lauren Kate
Genre: YA/Paranormal Romance
Pages: 452 (Hardcover)
Series: Book One (ongoing)
I debated this book for a long time. On one hand, GORGEOUS COVER. On the other hand, so-so reviews from several sources and not a very strong average rating on Amazon. My love for the cover didn't cloud the part of the brain that puts down the dough, so I decided I'd wait until this sucker came out in trade before giving it a shot.
But then I read the book review at Dirty Sexy Books. And then I noticed Amazon had the hardcover for a ridiculous cheap price (under $10!), so I thought, what the hell? If I don't like it, I'm not out much money, and if I do like it, I can pre-order the sequel for an equally ridiculous price and be happy.
Happily, for the covers alone, I ended up in the latter camp.
The premise: ganked from the author's website: Some Angels are Destined to Fall
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.
Review style: Let's see, I want to talk about what worked and what didn't in terms of the premise, as well as why I wish this book was written in first-person POV instead of third. In truth, there's not a whole lot to say about this super-fast read, so no worries about spoilers, unless you're just uber-paranoid, in which you just just skip to "My Rating." Everyone else, onward!
I had a lot of trouble with the reform school premise. There are a lot of reasons for this. For starters, the mysterious fire that somehow burned Luce's last love interest into a crisp. While Luce had a history of "mental illness," I just couldn't get my head around the immediate blame that Luce had SOMETHING to do with the fire. I may not have had this issue if we'd seen the pre-reform school life in terms of that particular incident. If we saw what she saw, then flash back to current reform school setting where she's brooding over it, I would've had a easier time accepting Luce's place there. We could've seen her beat herself up over what she told the cops (it was the shadows! -- if that's, indeed, what she told the cops), and we wouldn't have had to question her place at Sword & Cross, which I did pretty regularly.
Also concerning was the fact that we never really LEARNED what everyone was supposedly in there for. I'd rather hoped that all the negative reaction to Cam would stem from the fact he was there for sexual assault or date rape, which would've been extreme (and would they send such a person to reform school instead of juvenile detention?) but given the nature of Sword & Cross, I would've wanted Lucy to really wonder about her classmates, to really try and compare herself to them more. We see erratic behavior (Arriane) and violent (Molly), but the latter's inconsistent and I would expect a reform school (even one made up of the type of, erm, people it is) would have more violence and outbursts and general problems. Sword & Cross simply felt too normal, for all its restrictions.
And Luce acts normal too, despite her circumstances. Why not more resistance of not belonging? Or a real, obvious kinship that she DOES belong? One or the other would've been great instead of mere acceptance. She just goes along making friends with Arriane despite her vague misgivings (and that's right-on behavior for a normal kid in a new school), gets excited about her first note (really? I could've done without that little exclamation on page 47), and can't help but ogling the cute guys. All normal stuff. BUT WE'RE IN REFORM SCHOOL.
These are the kinds of details that keep a book from being great, because while we know we're reading fantasy, because of the modern world setting, the more realistic the real world is, the better. I saw an article (Tor.com?) that talked about the appeal of urban fantasy (this book certain falls in that category, despite the lack of urban setting) is that it focuses on magic in a REAL WORLD where in additional to supernatural and paranormal issues, the hero/heroine also has REAL WORLD issues. This book seems to make the real world into a vague sort of fantasy and asks the reader to accept it in order to enjoy the book.
And here's the kicker: I did. Not in a blind sort of way, but in a way that there was enough enjoyable about this book (zany character of Arriane, the normalcy of Penn, the SUPER FAST turn of the pages) that I decided I wasn't going to let it determine my overall enjoyment of the book.
Suspension of disbelief: it can make or break a book, and this one treads the line. I still wish for more realism on the characterization of Luce as well as the treatment of reform school (would they really have that much freedom to walk the halls? There's security guards in NORMAL schools, for goodness sakes), but I decided to put that aside to enjoy the story itself, the mystery of Luce's relationship (or lack thereof) with Daniel and Cam, and wondering how the hell all of these people know each other.
It worked for me. While the love interests were a little TOO black and white (I think the author had to work harder at the end to make Cam, erm, a bad boy and therefore the "wrong" choice), I had fun.
But here's where a part of me wishes this book were written in first person. In first person, we could've gotten deeper into Luce's struggle of being attracted to Daniel despite his obvious repulsion (by the book's end, I'm still questioning that, but there's more to the series, so I'll keep my mouth shut for now), we could've gotten deeper into the mystery of how all these kids KNOW each other even though some of them arrived the same day as Luce. The author certainly paints some realistic moments that reminded me of high school (yes, I have to think of Sword & Cross as high school, not reform school, or the suspension drops) where Luce thinks she knows who's one her side and who's not but then sees the two sides laughing and having fun together. Or where she's convinced Daniel has a thing for Gabbe and it's such a crushing moment despite there not being anything official between herself and Daniel. Good stuff.
The book reads fast, folks. I have an hour for lunch and it's a seven minute drive to and from work, so by time I'm settled at home to read, I have less than forty minutes, but yet I still found myself devouring around fifty pages per sitting, which was nice, considering this is one of the thicker YAs on the shelf.
I promised I wouldn't say much about the plot, and I won't. Suffice it to say there's lots of speculation until we get some answers, and some of the speculation is obvious whereas some of the answers are not, and the end of the book is really just the tip of an iceberg in that Luce is starting to learn how everything fits together, but she doesn't know the why and how of it. Frustratingly, the reader doesn't either, and yeah, it's obvious the author is holding back for the sequels, but since I know the next book comes out in September? I really don't care. I'm enjoying the story for all its flaws, so I can deal with it.
My Rating
Buy the Paperback: it was worth the cash for me, but then again, I found my hardcover for less than $10. Fallen really asks a lot of its adult readers in terms of suspension of disbelief. What you choose to roll with and what you don't roll with will determine how you enjoy this book. The target audience, however, may not give a fig, and that's not to say the target audience isn't discerning, it's just to say that the story rolls along so quickly and the heroine is likable enough that it's easy to forgive the book for its flaws. Despite what I wish the book could've done in terms of realism, I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed the mystery surrounding the star-crossed lovers (such as they are), and besides, the book does some stuff right. We don't have, for example, the stereotypical absent parents. The heroine has some friends who, while they do talk about boys, talk about other things too. :) And there's some neat developments in the overall mythology (which really is fascinating) of this book, and I like how religious iconography plays a role here and how it seems to fit in naturally with the book. I wasn't even done with this sucker before I pre-ordered the second book (with it's equally gorgeous cover). Don't get me wrong: I don't want to pay full price for these books, but I enjoy them for what they are rather than dislike them for what they aren't, and I think that YA fans who enjoy paranormal romance will have fun with this, especially if they're having withdrawal from certain sparkly vampires and hot werewolves. This has similar ingredients, but it's most certainly its own unique story. At least, as far as my reading goes. No fangs, fur, or fae here!
Cover Commentary: Y'all, I wanted to buy this book for the cover ALONE. That I didn't snatch it up the moment I saw it in the stores (or any subsequent moments afterwards), shows IMMEDIATE restraint. It's just so angsty and gothic and gorgeous. Do I really have to say more? Okay, it indicates a darker story than the one we get, and the dress is more suited to a book not set in modern times, but given the mythology of the overall story, it just works. Rather perfectly.
Next up: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater