novelesque_life's review against another edition
2.0
2 STARS
After a bizarre fire kills a friend, Luce is sent to a reform school Sword & Cross to "recover". Most of her classmates seem odd yet intriguing. One student in particular catches her eye, gorgeous and standoffish, Daniel Grigori. He turns out to be a Fallen Angel and they have spent many lifetimes trying to be together.
I started out liking the novel and the teen angst and longing was not annoying like Bella and Edward. I thought that the "mystery" (quotes because you know what it is and it says it in the synopsis but it still remains unnamed) dragged out for too long and even when answers were given it still came out stilted. I sort of felt letdown when everything was explained. Unfortunately, I will not continue with this series as I don't have any curiosity left for the series.
After a bizarre fire kills a friend, Luce is sent to a reform school Sword & Cross to "recover". Most of her classmates seem odd yet intriguing. One student in particular catches her eye, gorgeous and standoffish, Daniel Grigori. He turns out to be a Fallen Angel and they have spent many lifetimes trying to be together.
I started out liking the novel and the teen angst and longing was not annoying like Bella and Edward. I thought that the "mystery" (quotes because you know what it is and it says it in the synopsis but it still remains unnamed) dragged out for too long and even when answers were given it still came out stilted. I sort of felt letdown when everything was explained. Unfortunately, I will not continue with this series as I don't have any curiosity left for the series.
kstring's review against another edition
1.0
I was okay with this book until about the last third. Then, the main character became this clingy, whiny, sheltered, cowardly, completely blind, love sick girl. The action stopped and everything revolved around Daniel. Ugh. It was quite frustrating since I was looking forward to some action between the students. Oh well. C'est la vie.
xxertz's review against another edition
3.0
I wouldn't recommend the series based off of the first book. It's a bit of your typical teenage girl with her typical teenage boy obsessions. It's a "this one likes me, but I don't like him as much as the other boy who doesn't like me" kind of thing. That said.. we will see how the second turns out. (Also, this description is hugely undermining my obsession with all things border school set romances. Ugh. Don't judge me too harshly, a girl has got to be a sucker for something.)
nika_nix's review against another edition
3.0
I decided to reread this book only out of curiousity. I read Fallen for the first time when I was 11 or 12 (I don't remember exacty, but around that time) and I remember liking the book, but then it was one of my first YA books ever so I can totally understand why I liked it so much. I will always have a special place in my heart because of it, but I am not going to say it was amazing or perfect or something else I usually say about books I read. However, I went off topic. I picked this book up again because I heard a lot of bad reviews on it recently (in past few months) and I was confused because I was so sure the book is good. That was the reason why I read it again - to see if I'd like it now when I'm older and I have a lot of reading experience behind me. And the conclusion is: I realized why people don't like it. However, I don't hate it and I found it okay, just not amazing.
I had a few problems with it but it also has it's good sides about which I'll be talking in spoiler part. The plot was really unoriginal and the characters were pretty shallow and not very well done, but I still found the story surprisingly entertaining, I guess.
Another thing that actually surprised me was the fact that I remember almost nothing from the first time I read it. I went into this book thinking that I already know everything and that this is just refreshing, but it turned out that I forgot THE WHOLE PLOT. I remembered only some most important parts, and some details for which I was sure were right I actually remembered wrong. That was so shocking! But at least it made the reading more exciting.
All in all, I DO NOT find this book bad, but I don't find it a great masterpiece in YA literature either. It's a fun read if you want to only enjoy reading for a while, and I would recommend it because of that, but don't go into it with high expectations because you will be disappointed.
SPOILER PART – if you haven’t read the book yet, I recommend not to read any further, go and read the book and then come back.
First, I'm going to start with good sides of this book. Atmosphere. I absolutely loved it. It was dark, a bit creepy at times and I just thought it was perfect for Halloween time. The whole Sword & Cross school was so dark and mysterious and Lauren Kate definitely managed to make a dark, depressive atmosphere I usually love in books. This was probably the best thing in this book. If all the other parts of this book (you know, characters, plot...) were as good as atmosphere, this book would get five out of five stars, regardless. But unfortunately, that is not the case.
The thing that bothered me in Fallen the most were the characters. So shall! There was zero character development, zero originality, zero everything except cliches. And that was so frustrating.
First, Luce. Damn, how I hate that girl! She was so irritating and stupid, I just wanted to slap her throughout the whole book. She wasn't in that school for a few hours and she already fell in love with, not one, but two boys! What the hell? And don't even let me started with the fact that the boy she chose was a complete bastard and he treated her like garbage most of the time. But you know, she found that attractive. Also, it was so pathetic that she was stalking Daniel. Get a life, girl! Urgh, I could rant about how annoying Luce is, but I'm going to stop now because I think you got the point.
I have mixed feelings about Daniel. In the first half of the book I totally hated him because he was a total douche with Luce, but later he started acting differently and I started to like him. But I con't say I love him. Although, I ship him and Luce, no matter how irritating their relationship can be at times.
Cam... well I do love him. I loved him the first time I read this book and I loved him now, from the very start. And even though he turns out to be a bad guy at the end, I love him anyway because he reminds me of some other fictional guys I love. Also, I totally imagine him looking like Ian Somerhalder. How can you say no to that?
I loved Arianne from the start, but I don't remember her at all from the first time I read this book. However, she's awesome, but I think Luce was a shitty friend to her. I also have mixed feelings about Gabbe, but at the end I decided that I like the girl, she's pretty kick-but.
The character I couldn't make myself to like is Penn. I have no particular reason why, but I just didn't like her. Also, throughout the whole book I was convinced she's a bad character, but I guess I was wrong about that. Miss Sophia was the one who turned out to be bad, not Penn. Still, I do not like Penn and I'm glad she died at the end.
Another character I liked was Roland. He was just cool, and I absolutely loved his relationship with Arianne. Those two are so funny!
The ending was too rushed. And it bothered me so much! THe whole book was so slow, but then the ending part came and all secrets were revealed, but it all happened too fast. But I guess what bothered me the most was the fact that all the informations about fallen angels and stuff were thrown out there without any sense and any real explanation how the hell all of that actually works. Also, Luce was so stupid and slow, it took her ages to understand few things that were really obvious! Damn, so annoying! I have a few questions that I believe shoud've been answered, but weren't: What the hell happened in that battle between Cam and other angels? Why exactly did Cam separate from other fallen angels? Why is he interested in Luce so much? Why is Luce even important? Why is the whole world depending Luce and Daniel's romance? And I have so many more, but I think you all got what I was trying to say. At the end we only found out that Daniel is fallen angel and that his nad Luce's love is important and that's pretty much everything. YOU CANNOT FINISH A BOOK LIKE THAT! 12-year-old me bought that, but todays me is definitely disappointed. I can only hope we're going to get some answers in the next book (though I still doubt to read it or not).
I believe all of you heard that this book is going to be a movie and I'd like to say a few things about that. I don't think it's a good idea. Okay, if they do it right, it can even turn out to be much better than the book, but I'm afraid that it would be very Twilight-like and I hate when movies are done like that (*cough* Beautiful Creatures *cough*). I'll definitely watch the movie when it comes out, but I'm not expecting much of it. It comes out sometimes in 2015, and I just checked the cast and I have mixed feelings about it. Luce is okay, I have no idea who is the actress who is going to be Luce, but by looks, I can say I like it. Jeremy Irvine is Daniel and I believe he's going to be great Daniel. I'm the most disappointed with Cam. What the freaking hell?! This actor is so not Cam, not at all. When I saw it, I was just freaking out. No. Nope. I refuse. Find someone else! I'm not going to talk about other actors or anything because this is a book review, but I just thought it would be good to share my thoughts about this with you here a well.
I had a few problems with it but it also has it's good sides about which I'll be talking in spoiler part. The plot was really unoriginal and the characters were pretty shallow and not very well done, but I still found the story surprisingly entertaining, I guess.
Another thing that actually surprised me was the fact that I remember almost nothing from the first time I read it. I went into this book thinking that I already know everything and that this is just refreshing, but it turned out that I forgot THE WHOLE PLOT. I remembered only some most important parts, and some details for which I was sure were right I actually remembered wrong. That was so shocking! But at least it made the reading more exciting.
All in all, I DO NOT find this book bad, but I don't find it a great masterpiece in YA literature either. It's a fun read if you want to only enjoy reading for a while, and I would recommend it because of that, but don't go into it with high expectations because you will be disappointed.
SPOILER PART – if you haven’t read the book yet, I recommend not to read any further, go and read the book and then come back.
First, I'm going to start with good sides of this book. Atmosphere. I absolutely loved it. It was dark, a bit creepy at times and I just thought it was perfect for Halloween time. The whole Sword & Cross school was so dark and mysterious and Lauren Kate definitely managed to make a dark, depressive atmosphere I usually love in books. This was probably the best thing in this book. If all the other parts of this book (you know, characters, plot...) were as good as atmosphere, this book would get five out of five stars, regardless. But unfortunately, that is not the case.
The thing that bothered me in Fallen the most were the characters. So shall! There was zero character development, zero originality, zero everything except cliches. And that was so frustrating.
First, Luce. Damn, how I hate that girl! She was so irritating and stupid, I just wanted to slap her throughout the whole book. She wasn't in that school for a few hours and she already fell in love with, not one, but two boys! What the hell? And don't even let me started with the fact that the boy she chose was a complete bastard and he treated her like garbage most of the time. But you know, she found that attractive. Also, it was so pathetic that she was stalking Daniel. Get a life, girl! Urgh, I could rant about how annoying Luce is, but I'm going to stop now because I think you got the point.
I have mixed feelings about Daniel. In the first half of the book I totally hated him because he was a total douche with Luce, but later he started acting differently and I started to like him. But I con't say I love him. Although, I ship him and Luce, no matter how irritating their relationship can be at times.
Cam... well I do love him. I loved him the first time I read this book and I loved him now, from the very start. And even though he turns out to be a bad guy at the end, I love him anyway because he reminds me of some other fictional guys I love. Also, I totally imagine him looking like Ian Somerhalder. How can you say no to that?
I loved Arianne from the start, but I don't remember her at all from the first time I read this book. However, she's awesome, but I think Luce was a shitty friend to her. I also have mixed feelings about Gabbe, but at the end I decided that I like the girl, she's pretty kick-but.
The character I couldn't make myself to like is Penn. I have no particular reason why, but I just didn't like her. Also, throughout the whole book I was convinced she's a bad character, but I guess I was wrong about that. Miss Sophia was the one who turned out to be bad, not Penn. Still, I do not like Penn and I'm glad she died at the end.
Another character I liked was Roland. He was just cool, and I absolutely loved his relationship with Arianne. Those two are so funny!
The ending was too rushed. And it bothered me so much! THe whole book was so slow, but then the ending part came and all secrets were revealed, but it all happened too fast. But I guess what bothered me the most was the fact that all the informations about fallen angels and stuff were thrown out there without any sense and any real explanation how the hell all of that actually works. Also, Luce was so stupid and slow, it took her ages to understand few things that were really obvious! Damn, so annoying! I have a few questions that I believe shoud've been answered, but weren't: What the hell happened in that battle between Cam and other angels? Why exactly did Cam separate from other fallen angels? Why is he interested in Luce so much? Why is Luce even important? Why is the whole world depending Luce and Daniel's romance? And I have so many more, but I think you all got what I was trying to say. At the end we only found out that Daniel is fallen angel and that his nad Luce's love is important and that's pretty much everything. YOU CANNOT FINISH A BOOK LIKE THAT! 12-year-old me bought that, but todays me is definitely disappointed. I can only hope we're going to get some answers in the next book (though I still doubt to read it or not).
I believe all of you heard that this book is going to be a movie and I'd like to say a few things about that. I don't think it's a good idea. Okay, if they do it right, it can even turn out to be much better than the book, but I'm afraid that it would be very Twilight-like and I hate when movies are done like that (*cough* Beautiful Creatures *cough*). I'll definitely watch the movie when it comes out, but I'm not expecting much of it. It comes out sometimes in 2015, and I just checked the cast and I have mixed feelings about it. Luce is okay, I have no idea who is the actress who is going to be Luce, but by looks, I can say I like it. Jeremy Irvine is Daniel and I believe he's going to be great Daniel. I'm the most disappointed with Cam. What the freaking hell?! This actor is so not Cam, not at all. When I saw it, I was just freaking out. No. Nope. I refuse. Find someone else! I'm not going to talk about other actors or anything because this is a book review, but I just thought it would be good to share my thoughts about this with you here a well.
minty's review against another edition
2.0
OK it wasn't exactly The Eternal Ones, but it was close, and I saw what was coming a mile away. Not very original.
mothmans_library's review against another edition
5.0
When I first started reading this book, I was hooked. I loved it from the first page. I would reccomend this book to anyone who's interested in the perfect romance destroyed by a destiny beyond control, or is it? :D
icmcmx's review against another edition
2.0
Read this series when it first came out, decided to re-read.
snjluc's review against another edition
4.0
Kept me fairly captivated, but I would have liked to have a bit more information about the characters' situations. I'm looking forward to the next book!