Book Review #1: Fallen

They say you can't judge a book by it's

cover. They never said which one was 

better.

I started this book a few days ago, mainly because I kept seeing it displayed in my school library. Truthfully, I tend to avoid books such as these, as there have been one too many of them lately - more specifically, the human girl falls in love with a supernatural boy but takes a whole series to finally be together. Sounding familiar already?

Unfortunately, Fallen, by Lauren Kate, follows the same guidelines. The main protagonist, whose point of view the story is told from, is a girl named Lucinda Price, or Luce for short. She is entering the reform school Sword and Cross for accidental reasons involving a fire, a kiss, and a dead boy. Of course, "reform" school is this situation means a church converted prison with red security cameras, black on black clothes, one phone call a week, and a gigantic swimming pool behind an altar. And what better place to find your soul mate than behind the barbed wire fence of this school?

Luce proceeds to meet several people, two of which begin to vie for her attention: Cam, a black-haired perfection with intense green eyes described at least a hundred times through the pages, and Daniel, an equally flawless contender that Luce is automatically drawn to - despite the fact that he flicks her off in their first encounter. And thus begins the wonderful, over-used, difficult-to-pull-off-well plot device known as a love triangle. 

Something girl protagonists in these teenage supernatural romance novels desperately need is a personality. Luce has one. Kind of. 99.999% of her "personality" is drowned out by her innate attraction towards Daniel, so in the end the argument can be made that she has no personality at all. What's the word called? Right. Lovesick. As for her star-crossed lover, much of the book is spent on her endless attraction to him that I didn't even figure out why. Or why he was worth it. Was it only because he was hot?

The other characters display more or less dynamism than Luce. Arriane, Luce's friend, is fanatical and rebellious. She was a pleasure to read about. Molly plays the school bully. Gabbe reminds me of a queen bee without an important role - other than to make Luce jealous. Penn, on the other hand, was well worth it. She is independent but still a dedicated friend. She was realistic; her character stood strong around the others. Too bad she met a totally unnecessary end.

And this brings me to my disappointment that Fallen has clearly "fallen" to another teenage supernatural romance cliche. Daniel and Luce were meant to be together. It was set from the get-go, the very moment Luce set foot into the school, even the first few pages of the prologue. It was obvious. Never have I ever wanted more for someone else, someone unexpected, to take the spotlight in the girl's heart. In Fallen, I looked towards Cam. Cam, oh Cam - how I actually enjoyed your character. You were interesting. You connected. You had more personality than fifty Daniel's put together, and that's probably an understatement. Except some moments of creepiness that still had more personality than Daniel. Then again, I may be biased because I have a tendency to like and root for characters like Cam. And interestingly enough, 1) these characters almost always end up being evil to make the main guy look better and 2) these character almost always never end up with the girl, no matter how much better they are than the main guy, and as I read somewhere, are simply there for the so-called but non-existent love triangle. I never said my luck was good.

Fallen's pace was slow. With how it started, it shouldn't have been slow. But three-fourths of the book was spent on Luce stalking and staring Daniel, while the rest, the important plot points that clear up the mess, was piled on in at the end. So there are shadows. Why are there shadows? Why couldn't they find out anything from the last few chapters in the previous hundred or so pages? It felt like a bomb was dropped, characters exploded into pieces, and the book ended. What now?

I did enjoyed some moments of description - the dreary grounds of the school cemetery, the lovely horizons of a nearby lake, the dingy atmosphere of the bar. The one good thing was the descriptions weren't dragging like some of the classics I've read before, making it easier to move ahead. But great writing? Not really.

Besides the obvious plotfalls into the depths of teenage romance, Fallen has impressed upon me a little more than other books of similar genre. There are definitely worse alternatives out there. It is a quick read, if you have the nerve to stomach such things, or if you just need some descriptions of how hot Daniel is to occupy an hour or two. This book had a lot of potential, but it was ruined by the time it should've gotten mind-hookingly interesting. It was predictable in the end, or maybe even in the beginning, but if you get into these sort of things, then you'll enjoy it. And I guarantee that even if you don't, you'll live. I did.

Final Rating: ✐✐