“Ow!” she cried, not because she was hurt exactly, but because she had never been touched by the shadows before.
Fallen, Lauren Kate pp. 113
Synopsis:
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.
Last summer was the summer of Fallen Ages for me – between Supernatural episodes, Patch from Hush Hush, the scary one from The Angel’s Game and the crazy assed Nephillims of Angelology – I was steeped in religious rhetoric and reinterpretations of our friends with the wings and high moral standards. I have always kind of been infatuated by the concept of Fallen Angels and “The Fall” – I like the differing explanations and the interpretations from all sorts of sources – the Young Adult fallen angel seems to be claiming the place formerly (very recently) held by Vampires – that of the bad boy, hot girl type of obsession. But I can’t say I fault them for it – there is something iuniquely romantic about such a tragic like figure.
So, it would surprise people that it took me until this year to read Halo and Fallen (and its sequels Torment and Passion). Well … by the end of last summer I was done with Angels and wants more Werewolves – my first loves (after Zombies, which are more of an obsession, I think than loves.).
But I finally read Fallen, and I get why people liked it so much – it is a very well spun web of stories: we have Luce, a troubled girl who is going to live at a reform school after an event that we get glimpses of, that ended with her boy-crush dead. Luce isn’t the most likable character, but she’s a decent human being, and she gets more likable as the story progresses. She is a broken character of sorts – scared of near everything in a way, and looking at the world as if it will bite her if she isn’t careful. Her hair has been shorn to her ears, the black curls that crest her face a reminder of the pain of losing her boy-crush so mysteriously and with a hazy memory of what happened. Of course, the first day she’s there, she gets flipped off by a hot guy in a red scarf (Daniel), gets befriended by two very different girls – Penn, the orphaned sweet nerd and Arriane – a tough talking queen, gets into a fight with Molly – the bitchy one, begins to hate the blonde perfection of Gabee and catches the attentions of a kid out on parole – Cam. Sword & Cross – the school l – is pretty much a disaster waiting to happen.
Luce is enthralled by Daniel – even if he is a bit of a jerk to her. She keeps running into him, attracted to him despite her own good sense that perks up and warns her away as often as possible. And she is still haunted by what happened to the other boy. And then strange things start happening again – the same things that happened before the tragic fire that took the life of her crush. Shadows.
The shadows were an interesting element – and such a welcome visual element. They are inky and oily black, that flutter around the periphery of Luce’s vision and at times slam into her, depending on their moods. Their visualness – the amount of time Kate took to develop their descriptions – was excellent. They were creepy and dramatic and added to the general atmosphere of the book.
And this is the thing about Fallen – it is not a fast read, it does not come packed with action that keeps the scene changing as it narrates. Instead, this is a very visual book – it builds the intrigue in exchange for the action – even when in the action, Kate takes much time to build up the visual aspects of the scene, making long statements of the trees, the air, the smells and the panic. It is a very visual book. And for that, I like it. I like being able to see the world as it was meant to be seen – the way that the wind moves and moss on the graves at the cemetery. That’s what did it for me – that made this book better than it might have been.
Oh – and it’s sappy. Thankfully, the sappiness does not start until about ¾ of the way through. And even when it starts, it’s almost unreal – being packed into the tight space of the end and then left to hang over into the next book. A good tactic since it kept m reading …
Up next for Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger
Read if you liked:
- Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzgerald
- Halo by Alexandra Ardenetto
- Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Cheers!
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