Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Back Cover Blurb:

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.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

For fans of: Twilight, Blue Bloods

Fallen starts out with Luce, the main character, getting sent to a prison-like reform school called Sword & Cross because her old crush died in a suspicious fire. Unfortunately, due to Luce’s past history of mental health issues, no one believes it was an accident and they all suspect that Luce killed him. The thing is, Luce doesn’t have mental health problems. Luce sees Shadows, inky black entities that have a malevolent feel to them, and since no one else has ever seen them, she was labeled mentally unstable for a while. She knows the Shadows were there the night her crush died, and though she can’t really remember how the fire started, she knows the Shadows had something to do with his death.

When Luce arrives at Sword & Cross, her miserable life becomes even more unbearable. Sword & Cross is located on the edges of a swamp, and once inside the grounds, the students are watched at all times by cameras and are not allowed to have cell phones, just a fifteen minute, once-a-week call. They all have to wear black uniforms and are expected to attend long, demanding classes until the early evening. The only good part of the school is the other students.

Upon her arrival, Luce is befriended by Arriane, a quirky, spontaneous girl who takes her under her wing and shows Luce the ways of the school. Cam, one of the other students, is clearly interested in Luce and begins a campaign to win her affections. Luce, however, has already fallen with a strange intensity for a student named Daniel, who flips her off the first time he sees her and avoids her like the plague. Daniel has a big secret, and that secret seems to be shared by almost everyone at the school. Luce is determined to find out what Daniel is hiding, and, hopefully, win his heart.

Luce spends most of the book stalking Daniel and trying to solve the mystery with the help of another new friend, Penn, a girl who has been at Sword & Cross most of her life. At the same time, Cam keeps trying to get her to fall for him and you’re never really sure whose side Arriane is on. Worse, the Shadows have followed Luce to Sword & Cross and appear to be getting deadlier. When the secrets are finally revealed, Luce could lose her life.

Firstly, I enjoyed Fallen much more than I was expecting to. I adored the beautiful cover (props to the cover artist) and that was what originally attracted me to the book. That gorgeous gothic feel was continued into the story, and I really enjoyed the darker aspects of the book. The imagery was beautiful and well written.

Luce was a decent protagonist. She knows her immediate attraction to Daniel is ridiculous, since he’s a jerk to her and rarely friendly or kind. She tells herself Cam is better for her, and actually tries to end her fascination with Daniel. She is believably upset about the death of her old crush and worries that she really did somehow bring about his death. While Luce does overcome her issues too quickly at times for it to be completely believable, and has a few moments when she doesn’t make the best decisions or acts defeated, she does try to make the best of the situation and isn’t a gloomy character.

The other characters are interesting with their shared secret, and I wanted to know more about them. Arriane was funny and wild and reminded me of one of my own friends, while Cam was sweet and charming, and frankly, I liked him better than Daniel. I loved Penn’s character, mostly because I could picture myself in her shoes.

However, I did have some problems with the narrative. Apparently, everyone at Sword & Cross has ninja-like abilities when it comes to circumventing the rules. The students are constantly sneaking out, having crazy dorm parties with alcohol, and skipping class without repercussion or getting caught by the cameras that are supposedly everywhere, Big Brother style. It’s one of my pet peeves when things are unbelievable outside of the fantasy aspect of the novel. If you are writing a fantasy, it has to have some base in a logical reality or I can’t take it seriously, and this almost crossed the line for me.

Another problem I had was that there are several questions left unanswered at the end of the novel. While you are given a few (very few) hints throughout the novel about the mysteries and secrets, too many of them are left hanging at the end for my taste. I can understand leaving some mystery for the sequel(s), but really? I need a little more to go on.

Also, Daniel is supposed to be the main love interest, but Cam gets much more face time than Daniel does. I actually preferred Cam up until near the end, when Daniel made a great come back to capture my interest again. I would have liked Daniel to appear a little more earlier in the novel.

I am not a huge fan of predestined love, and Fallen didn’t really change my impression of that. I need, at the very least, a suggestion of why Luce and Daniel have been predestined to love each other and why they stay in love. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t believe the romance between the two of them.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I liked the story, I liked the characters, and I loved the gothic imagery. It was a great dark romance without suffering from too much angst. While it could have been improved by a little more revelation, the story wasn’t harmed too badly and still made sense without the answers I would have liked. I’ll probably read the next book in the series, though I probably won’t reread Fallen.

My Grade: B-