Customer Reviews

The Fallen (Nine Lives of Chloe King)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Chloe King is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She may have had extraordinary beginnings - as a Soviet baby adopted by her parents to come and live in San Francisco . . . but since that extraordinary start, Chloe has been thoroughly normal. She has her two best friends - Amy and Paul. She fights with her mum all the time. And she resents her father for walking out twelve years ago . . . she doesn't understand trig and she's desperate to work the cash register at the clothing store where she works. Totally normal.

And then Chloe fell from Coit Tower. A 210-foot drop and Chloe walked away . . . without a scratch.

Now Chloe's life is venturing into the utterly bizarre. Suddenly she has super speed and cat-like abilities - including retractable claws! Chloe's previously barren love life is also suddenly exploding - there's the cute guy, Brian, who she meets at work, not to mention her super-sexy ex-Soviet classmate called Alyec.

Oh, and she's receiving crazy notes from somebody claiming to be from `The Order of the Tenth Blade'. . . not to mention a crazy, knife-wielding stalker is on her trail.

Suddenly, Chloe's life is about as far from normal as you can get.

`The Fallen' is the first book in Celia Thomson's `The Nine Lives of Chloe King' young adult supernatural series.

`Fallen' was published back in 2004, but `Nine Lives' caught my attention because of its recent TV adaptation on ABC family. I watched the first two episodes and was thoroughly impressed - even more so when I discovered it was based on a YA book series. I went into `Fallen' with lofty expectations, considering how much I've been enjoying the supernaturally tween-cool show. So I was somewhat disappointed/gobsmacked to discover that `The Nine Lives of Chloe King' is actually one of those rare bookish phenomena where the adaptation is better than the novel.

The problem I had with `The Fallen' was a serious lack of action. Chloe falls from Coit Tower very early on in the book - and it's a wonderfully gory and dramatic scene that suckers you right into the story. But after that death-defying feat, Chloe shows little reaction to the changes in her. She defeats a violent bum on the street, starts leaping tall buildings and growing claws . . . but she's really more interested in the developing romance between her two besties, Paul and Amy, and what that means for her as their third wheel.

I was quite dismayed to read so much teen melodrama in this book, which is amped-up when Chloe starts seeing two guys at the same time - sweet but mysterious Bryan, and the sexy-confident Alyec. The supernatural/fantasy element (which is so prevalent in the TV series) really takes a back-seat to Chloe's changing friendship and romantic dramas. Much to my chagrin.

It's not that the relationships and romances weren't interesting. And I was pleasantly surprised to read that Thomson's novel is more hard-edged than the strictly-PG ABC family drama. The teenagers in `Fallen' swear, and Chloe's libido is kicking in, along with all her other unique new abilities. There is potential for a complicated love triangle between Chloe, Brian and Alyec. So I did like the romance . . . but it felt like the supernatural aspect of the book was an afterthought for Thomson, sloppily explored in the last few pages.

I'm actually really impressed by the way ABC's adaptation has jumped ahead in the book series - and made the action/drama more of a focus . . . while teasingly playing with Chloe's romance. I was yearning for more action and insight into Chloe's cat-like abilities, because I know from watching the show that that's where the real interest and plot-intricacy lies.

It's a real shame that Thomson didn't make her novel more of a stellar supernatural. There are paragraphs of action brilliance, in which Chloe shows promise as a Buffy-esque heroine. Like when she faces off against a mysterious bad guy and is admirably brazen and witty, despite her fear.

I am loving the ABC adaptation of Celia Thomson's `The Nine Lives of Chloe King' series. Unfortunately, everything that I love about the show is non-existent in the book. Though this is clearly a supernatural series with a superhero-bent, our catty heroine is more interested in her love life and fractured friendships than discovering the truth behind her transformation. I will definitely keep watching the TV series, but I have little interest in reading the based-on books.

According to other reviews, this book has been labelled innappropriate -- bad language, sex references, and alcohol references. I, however, have to disagree. I found, whilst reading this series, it was actually particularly light on those subjects. Sure, she has her temptations with drugs and alcohol, but compared to most other teenage books, it was fairly mild, just like the sex references. She did rise above the rest and refused sex. Her friends who smoke and drink are obviously doing it to look cool, which almost every teenager experiences. Why don't you go pick up a book in the young adult section and find one that's just as mild as this one? You barely can these days. Chloe King is among the few books with such subtle references.

As a teenager who reads constantly, I would know whether this is 'inappropriate.' It's not. The plotline through the whole series is actually very well constructed, and the character development was, in my opinion, very nice. This book is one of my favorites, and I happen to have read all three quite a lot. If in search of a nice teen book, this is the right one.

Just turning 16, Chole King's life changes once she falls off a 20 ft tower and doesnt die. Her body goes through some unusual changes of that of a normal teenager. She now has long sharp cat like nails and can run and jum faster than ever. But whats really get strange is the 3 new guys in her life and a stalker thats trying to kill her and shadowy figure that has the same abilities as her. Are the 3 new guy somehow connected to this stalker or this mysterious person or should she just not trust anyone? With all these crazy things going on in her life the one person in the world she has to share all of this with is too busy with her boyfriend to listen to Chloe. The ending will really surprise you and have you wanting more!

I really enjoyed reading this novel. I thought it was fun and real. I could totally connect with Chloe as feeling like an outsider. I believe its just something we all go through as part of growing up. The ending of this story really had me awed! I couldnt believe it and that it was over...well for now. Which is why I am certainly reading the next installment 'The Stolen'.

Sixteen-year-old Chloe King was a very normal teen girl. She kept up well in her classes, except for some occasional mischief, and generally had some issues with her mother(You know the whole teen girl and mother conflict thingy we all experience). However Chloe's life is about to change forever. The day before her sweet sixteen, Chloe and her two best friends Amy and Paul decided to ditch school so they can visit San Francisco's Coit Tower, the highest tower in the city. In a split second Chloe's life changes when she falls from the tower and hits her head, except defying all odds, she isn't dead, she lives to tell about it. Surviving such a fall is impossible for a human and Chloe soon begins to develop unusual powers. When her two best friends begin dating, Chloe feels left out and begins to have an assortment of relationships with young men who seem really interested in her, to the point of prowling. That not all of Chloe's problems, she's growing claws, ones that a cat might possess and to top it off, someone is trying to kill her, or maybe a secret organization. Can Chloe's other eight lives save her from death?

I first came to know of this series from an excerpt of the book in Francine Pascal's Fearless series. Like the Fearless series, Celia Thompson develops a character who has supernatural powers and has someone after them. A good read for fans of teen fiction for sure, but the book has its weak points. However, I can't wait to read the next one.

This book was very good. Usually I just pick up random books with interesting titles/summaries from the library, and I have struck gold with this book. Chloe is an average teenager, (except for the fact that she has 9 lives), and I can definitely relate to this book, being a 14-year-old. The only thing that took one star away from my rating was the fact that I didn't really like the fantasy part of the book, like when she is getting attacked, because that is just not my taste, but the rest of the book was awesome and I look forward to the other 8 books in this series.

I disagree with the lady who wrote the review. This book is definitely a page turner. Also it's wonderful because it's great to reread (I've read it 3/4/5 times). The second and third books are also great with wonderfully twisty plots :)!!! The one downside is that there isn't a fourth one yet. (every time I remember that I sigh :( How sad!)
Overall the nine lives books are definitely 5 star worthy!!!

I have to admit before anything that this review is more than a little biased. The fact that I watched ABC Family's show based off of this book before I read the book obviously leads to a bias, but I believe that even if I had not seen the show first, I still would have given this novel the same rating that I have. Maybe one star more, but nothing less.

Chloe King is an average sixteen-year-old girl who has friend drama and teenage sexual tendencies and all of that which makes for an average young adult novel, but the best part about it is that she's not an average sixteen-year-old girl at all. From the beginning of the novel, the prologue that insinuates that she's about to die is intriguing enough to want to pick up the book and read it a little more intently than planned, and it only gets better when she falls off of the top of a tower, but other than that, the book falls short of anything considered spectacular.

Chloe's personality was not what I expected at all, and the fact that she just seems to spend the entire novel whining about the fact that she can't get one guy to kiss her despite the fact that she's already kissed/made out with two others is really kind of annoying. I understand the concept of teenagers being obsessed with sex, lies and drugs/alcohol, but I was expecting a little more out of this book, and I didn't think that it was going to revolve around Chloe's determination to get laid or how much alcohol she was going to drink with her friends.

The friend drama was also an annoyance of the book, and that seemed to take up a large chunk of the novel. Between Chloe and Amy fighting, Chloe and Paul disagreeing, Amy and Paul dating and just the three best friend whirlwind of drama, it was just frustrating. The only character I actually liked in the novels was Aleyc (I will never stop calling him Alek though, because that is what ABC Family has ingrained into my head). His personality was the best out of everyone's.

In my opinion, the worst part of the entire book was the fact that Chloe's powers were barely thought about, almost as if they were an afterthought in this teen drama, and the fact that she didn't even seem to care about them at first, that she didn't care about the fact that she'd fallen off the top of a tower or had claws or could do weird gymnastic moves, was just annoying. I know if anything like that had happened to me, I would be freaking out, so I don't understand her. And the end of the book was the only point where her powers were really talked about, and yet we still really never found out what was so special about Chloe King and why she had all these powers.

I am hoping that the next book is better than this one, but if it is not, I might just give up and not even bother to attempt to read the novels that one of my favourite ABC Family shows was based off of. It was just that bad.

This book is a thrilling story of a girl who is trying to find out what to do with her new abilitys. She also deals with the normal teenage stuff like fighting with her mom, and crushes on one to many guys. This book is great for people who like books that are interesting from the beginning to the end. I hope you enjoy.

...on ABC, don't read the books. I read them thinking that I would get insight on the show but instead it was completely different. They are well written books but if you are basing it off of the show you will be in for disappointment.

Sixteen-year-old Chloe King wasn't expecting anything bad to happen to her on that fateful day. After all, she was smart. Did her homework, got good grades, avoided her Mother, you know, usual teen stuff. But that day she just wanted to have some fun and let loose with her two best friends, Amy and Paul. She deserved that, seeing as how no one was really doing anything special for her Sweet Sixteen. So the three of them headed to Coit Tower, San Francisco's highest tower. So she was a little out of it, they all were. But not all of them fell, only Chloe did. She fell the full 200 feet. She should be dead. But she isn't. She lived to tell about it. But now things are weird. Guys are suddenly prowling around Chloe non-stop, when before it was like she wasn't even there. And that's not all. Chloe is growing claws. You know, like the claws that a cat has. And someone's trying to kill her. Good thing for Chloe, she's still carrying eight lives around in her pocket.

THE FALLEN, which is Volume one in the NINE LIVES OF CHLOE KING series is a welcome addition to the teen fiction genre. Chloe is a cool character, who pretty much has a full-on personality change once she experiences her fall from Coit Tower, but that's not a bad thing. Amy and Paul, Chloe's best friends are fantastic supporting characters, and make the story that much better, by putting some minor difficulties in Chloe's already crazy life. Cat lovers, as well as fans of Francine Pascal's FEARLESS series will find themselves flocking to Celia Thomson's THE NINE LIVES OF CHLOE KING, seeing as each character possesses a strange ability, but has to deal with it on top of their normal teenage problems. A must have book, as it takes you on a crazy, yet exhilirating thrill ride from the first page to the last.

Erika Sorocco