Fallen (Random House eBook) [Kindle Edition]

Lauren Kate (Author)

Book Description

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up—Luce must spend her senior year at reform school after her boyfriend dies in a mysterious fire. She suspects that the dark shadows that have tormented her all her life had something to do with it. When she meets supernaturally gorgeous Daniel, she feels a familiar longing, making her believe they have met before. Although Cam is clearly interested in her, Luce only wants Daniel, who runs both hot and cold. He tries to keep Luce at a distance, telling her that the truth would kill her as it has many times before. The first chapter is gripping and foreshadows the supernatural elements to come. The plot revolves around lovers who find one another, only to lose one another over and over again in a story that spans centuries. Instead of vampires, though, these are fallen angels. Many elements are not resolved, such as the cause of the fire and why angels are at this school. Still, fans of supernatural romance will be lining up for this book despite its flaws, and begging for a sequel.—Kris Hickey, Columbus Metropolitan Library, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Fallen angels sure seem poised to become the new vampires, with a similarly ideal blend of brooding mystery and sexy rebellion. After a fiery accident kills a boy she is crushing on, Luce gets sent to a reform school populated, most notably, by two gorgeous fellas, Daniel and Cam. Cam is safe and charming and eager to win Luce’s affections, while Daniel operates somewhere between aloof and downright hostile toward her. Readers will figure out Luce and Daniel’s star-crossed-lovers angle early on, making the hints dropped throughout about past lives and dangerous fates more obvious than compelling. Although there’s not enough story to justify the length of this series opener, readers who stick with it get rewarded with a climactic payoff that far exceeds the buildup. The final pages’ flurry of delicious information about what’s really going on with the cadre of angels and demons will likely leave readers more intrigued by what’s next than invested in what just happened. Perhaps the sequel will contain an explanation of what these immortal types are doing at a reform school in the first place. Grades 9-12. --Ian Chipman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1320 KB
• Print Length: 464 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (December 8, 2009)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002WE46VG
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,539 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #48 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

270 of 311 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Fallen & Flawed April 26, 2010

By Dark Faerie Tales

Format:Hardcover

Quick & Dirty: Ultimately this tale isn't captivating and lacks a real villain.

Opening Sentence: Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape.

The Review:

Marketing almost sold me on this book, but the book itself couldn't close the deal. With a beautiful cover, the promise of a tragic love story, a creepy, gothic boarding school setting, and fallen angels, I expected a compelling read. Unfortunately, Fallen is a disappointment.

Fallen's protagonist, Luce, is a suspected arsonist, and claims that she's constantly stalked by malevolent shadows. Her parents, at their breaking point, send her to Sword & Cross, a boarding school. Once at Sword & Cross, Luce battles the typical "new girl" problems and immediately catches the eye of two hot guys at the school. She finds herself drawn to the mysterious Daniel and is determined to find out more about him and his past.

Fallen is a flawed novel and I had to struggle to finish. Fallen was crafted in such a way as to make the story predictable and ultimately doing little to keep the reader engaged. I knew Fallen was a series so I didn't expect the overall story arc to unfold at a breakneck pace, but I did expect something to actually happen. The pacing of the story is slow with little to no action. In my opinion, a lot of the chapters that were written really didn't do much to move the plot forward.

I think the most damning aspect for me is the author's inversion of the Show vs. Tell concept. Meaning, Ms. Kate did more telling than showing me what I needed as a reader. Daniel and Luce are supposed to have this amazing connection and be hopelessly in love, yet none of this is shown to the reader. Ms. Kate didn't establish enough background about Daniel and Luce's relationship to make this a believable or particularly compelling love story. I never established an emotional connection with the characters and their plights simply didn't resonate with me. The dialog was flat and character descriptions were inconsistent. There wasn't enough worldbuilding and as a result the story suffered.

My second gripe concerns the lack of characterization. The difficulty in writing immortal/supernatural characters for a sophisticated audience is that you have to respect their reality. For an immortal character, Daniel certainly lacks imagination, maturity, skill and purpose. His brooding and skulking around didn't make me believe that he was dangerous or a bad boy for that matter. Luce came off as a creepy stalker, pathetic, naďve, weak, and at times really annoying. The narrative voices of the secondary characters aren't particularly unique. With no real character development and growth, it was hard to care about them. I'm not sure if I will invest the time to read the second book in the series, Torment, because Fallen did not grab me.

Overall, Fallen falls prey to clichés. It's all buildup with no climax, and that left me more frustrated than satisfied. Ms. Kate seems to have left key elements of the story for later installments, and a bevy of plot devices weakened the story. With little depth to the characters or plot, I fear some seasoned and savvy readers of the genre will have a hard time falling for Fallen.

Notable Scene:

She looked up into a maelstrom of shadows. A spectrum of shades of gray and deepest black. She should only be able to see as far as the ceiling overhead, but the shadows seemed somehow to extend beyond its limits. Into a strange and hidden sky. They were all tangled up in each other, and yet they were distinct.

FTC Advisory: I purchased a copy of this book. In addition, I don't receive affiliate fees for anything purchased via links from my site.

129 of 153 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars FALLEN Stands Up January 9, 2010

By Elle

Format:Hardcover

WARNING: SPOILERS. Not that you wouldn't figure them out yourself in a few pages, but hey, fair warning:

Wow, so with the vast difference in opinions I'm seeing in reviews of this book, I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring. I almost didn't read it, because of the negative reviews I saw, but I'm glad I did. Now there seem to be more positive than negative comments, but maybe I just misread the number of negatives the first time because I read them on my phone instead of a computer screen. Anyway, I liked FALLEN.

There were problems with this book. I'm not denying that. Most of the time Luce is searching for answers, but she really isn't figuring much out. The readers have pretty much figured out by halfway through, at least, that Daniel is a fallen angel and may well be among others of his kind at Sword and Cross. I mean, if the title wasn't a dead give away, there's the Paradise Lost references, and the whole "Los Angeles" thing. Coincidence? I think not. So, you're searching for a mystery that you already know the answer to for quite a while. Also, the first chapter let's the audience in on why Daniel might be fighting the relationship. I think that's the main problem: the audience knows WAY more than Luce, so it's easy to be exasperated by her ignorance. I left the book thinking of Luce as being a bit of a wimp compared to her hardcore angel retinue, but after some thought, I realize she braves a supernatural fire to save a friend; she hides the horrors of reform school from her parents to protect them and keep them from worrying; and she races into a cemetary of doom filled with creeptastic shadows and weird pyrotechnics of destruction to go save her boyfriend. Not bad for a human chick surrounded by supernatural beings. Luce turns out to be a pretty strong character, just not absurdly so. That's a good thing to keep in mind when you're annoyed at her for not figuring it out already. After all, she doesn't have an opening chapter or an obvious title to give her brain a hint. The fact remains that when the book reaches the falling action and these great mysteries are revealed, the audience already knows most of what is told to them. The majority of the information we want is left a mystery, to be revealed in a sequel. And that's irritating. However, there are several things keeping this book afloat.

-1) The Writing: actually quite solid. Lauren Kate really built good images of her story with her language.
-2) Romantic plot: this kept the story going. The readers may have figured out the central mystery: angels. But they'll stay to find out what happens between Luce, Daniel, and Cam. Speaking of Cam...
-3) Cam!! Thank goodness for Cam. It's not that I loved Cam as a person. The whole, 'I'm good, evil, back to being kind of good' thing was confusing, but Cam was a bit of a curveball. I didn't want Luce to end up with him, but I wanted to find out who he was and what his role was in all this. Cam is the main reason I will probably read the sequel: in lieu of the angel mystery which is obvious, the mystery of Cam is still beyond my grasp. Which is good. Cam constitutes a major redeeming factor.
-4) I'm really curious where the author is going to take this whole angel thing. Apparently there are good fallen andgels and bad fallen angels in this book, and that's new. I want to know how she's going to spin it...and what Luce's baptism or lack there of has to do with anything.

I believe I saw someone say there was nothing original about this book: that it was all recycled. I can see some parallels: Edward and Bella's whole, "We can't be together. I'll hurt you." dangerous relationship thing is in there. The reincarnation and repeated falling in love is reminiscent of EVERMORE, though, in my opinion, FALLEN does it better. However, a reform school for delinquents and crazies populated by humans and fallen angels? That, to me, seems pretty original.

Overall, I liked the story. Despite some flaws, I enjoyed it. FALLEN was pretty well written, and it kept me reading. I really wanted to find out what happens, and I still do. I guess I'll just have to wait for the sequel.

103 of 124 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Terribly disappointing February 25, 2010

By Neutron Lurver Reviews VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Lauren Kate's debut novel, Fallen, has garnered very mixed reviews, so I wanted to check it out for myself. Unfortunately, I fall into the group that disliked the book. Following on the heels of other recent paranormal romances, FALLEN uses a fallen angel theme. After a devastating fire, Luce is pulled out of her high-achieving prep school and deposited within the rusted gates of Sword and Cross reform school in Georgia. Though plagued by visions of lurking shadows and the unexplained death of her classmate, Luce starts making both friends and enemies and drawing the attention (both good and bad) of two guys. Despite his cold behavior, Luce is inexplicably drawn to Daniel, and she slowly finds herself on a path of discovery about her past and her potentially devastating future.

Author Kate appears to be able to write well, as there are some good moments here and there in the novel. However, these moments were outweighed for me by the clumsy dialogue and forced attempts to create a dismal, southern Gothic atmosphere. While the author tried to create a strong sense of place, the descriptions of the South and the reform school were so filled with contradictions that each setting seemed implausible. Editing was also lacking in the book, and these mistakes pulled me out of the story. Further, character development was very limited. Luce came across as mostly inept and uninspiring, even though we're told she's smart, beautiful, and worthy. The romantic connection between the main characters felt superficial at best. Luce's love for Daniel may have been fated, but I never felt why the two loved each other so desperately. The secondary characters of Gabbe, Arriane, and Cam were more interesting, but they seemed like caricatures at most.

The book's story arc was mostly predictable, and the most interesting components, like Luce's constant hallucinations of shadows, were dismissed casually once they were finally mentioned. We're told the two main characters have a damned love, but it was never explained why. Nor was it ever explained why these angels had fallen and why some were now fighting for good and others for bad. All of these things, including Luce's involvement as a catalyst for events to come, were never explained. It seemed obvious that these questions were left unanswered to set up things for the forthcoming sequels (including Torment), but I feel that readers could still anxiously await the next installment while understanding why it's all linked and all so important.

Combined, these concerns made this book a very unsatisfying read for me, but I'm glad that others enjoyed it so much. In the three coming books, I hope that Kate better develops the connection between characters and that she provides more background about Daniel's and Luce's relationship.

More About the Author

Lauren Kate is the internationally number one bestselling author of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, and the Fallen novels: Fallen, Torment, Passion, Fallen in Love, and Rapture. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Photo credit: Andre Vippolis

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

(What's this?)

#47 in Books > Teens

#47 in Books > Teens