Review: Fallen (Fallen #1)

Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate

Publisher: Doubleday; 2009

452 pages, paperback
Source: Purchased through Dymocks

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Seventeen-Year-Old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia. Luce's boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant - even evil - history. It's only when she sees Daniel that her life looks a little better. But Daniel has a secret which will put their lives in danger.

My Review:

Lucinda Price is a trouble teenager. In her last boarding school there was a fire and the boy she liked died - in very mysterious circumstances. Circumstances for which she was blamed, the shadow of which has hung over her since. Almost as literally as the shadows that follow her wherever she goes, shapes only she can see and hear.

Her past has lead her to Swords & Cross reformatory school where she has to navigate a new place, a new system and friends who aren't what they seem. Right until the moment she finds herself ground zero in a heavenly war and at the heart of tragic love story that has been repeated every 17 years for centuries on end and that it. Im good at spin, but I cant really summarise much more. You know usually to summarise plot there actually has to be some plot there.

I had to check several times to remind myself this book was Urban fantasy. By 80% in I was getting desperate, seriously. A vampire, a witch, a fairy - gods, a weremole for crying out loud, give me something!!! Instead we have Luce seeing shadows and having deja vu over the cute guy. That is the mystical extent of this book to that point. After that everyone goes "woooo angels! We fight!" and the book ends. Im serious.

The plot is largely high school drama, for all the different setting. Standard going to classes, talking to friends, hating this class, liking this one. And yes, there's a Mean Girl (there's always a mean girl). Luce herself annoyed me most of the time - she acts isolated and alone when she has penn who is a virtual servant to her, Arianne who welcomed her the first moment and remained friendly (though Luce made little effort to reciprocate the friendliness), Cam who clearly wants a date - and she has several pseudo-dates with him and like him but it generally feels like she's keeping him in reserve. There's Gabe who Luce hates because she had the temerity to speak to the guy she's interested in - Which brings us to Daniel. Daniel who has never indicated the slightest interest in her, avoids her and generally wants to be left alone. But no, Luce gets penn to dig up his confidential file so she can look into his past, looks for a book in the library because it's written by someone with his surname, stares at him for a mind boggling amount of time - That to me is just straight up creepy and kind of stalkerish.

Even with that rating it still made my favorite series fandom. Read the book give your own opinion (some might hate, some might love, you never know).

My Rating: