Just Finished Reading: Fallen by Lauren Kate (FP: 2009)

After a traumatic summer where a wannabe (or at least might have been) boyfriend died in mysterious circumstances straight A Honour student Lucinda Price finds herself at the Sword & Cross Reform school. Mortified at her fall from grace and the loss of her family, best friend and her mobile phone she is like a fish out of water afraid to talk to anyone and wary of any contact with wackjobs, criminals and drug addicts. What’s even worse is that the ‘things’ she calls shadows that have dogged her every step since childhood seem to have congregated in the nearby cemetery as if waiting for a big event. Within hours of arrival and with a sudden new friend already in tow Luce bumps into someone she instantly recognises but has never met before – Daniel Gregori – a mysterious troubled teen with a sparse past and irresistible eyes. But as Luce gets closer to Daniel the strangeness of situation grows. The more they meet the more Luce is convinced that they have actually met before although she can’t explain where or when. When a friend discovers a book seemingly with Daniel’s photograph taken in the 19th century events start spinning out of control but not before she recognises the young woman standing next to him – Lucinda Price.

I picked up this book and the next two in the series completely on impulse. It was back in the day when I read a lot more Fantasy than I have lately and as the trilogy was on offer I thought it was a pretty good bargain. Of course this was before I have seen/read Twilight (the first film/book anyway) and have become extremely bored with the whole teen/star crossed lovers theme that seems to dominate the world of modern Fantasy. Fallen is most definitely in that mould. We have an immortal boy, a curse (by God no less) and a troubled though supposedly bright girl. However for someone supposedly top of her class in multiple subjects she was pretty slow on the uptake and missed multiple clues as to what exactly what was going on. Even without the clues in the blurb at the back of the book I think I would have picked up on who and what Daniel was way before Luce even had a clue. As heroines go Luce is certainly no Katniss or Tris Prior. Maybe she buffs up in the later novels. I certainly hope so otherwise she’s going to spend all three books being confused, trusting the wrong people and getting her friends killed for no good reason. The story has a modicum of internal consistency and would probably make somewhat more sense to someone with a bit more (actually any) Biblical knowledge. Not that I needed much for the minimal plotline. Secrets (as such) were uncovered but at a glacial pace. Revelations were continually postponed or parcelled out in penny packets by people who seemingly knew *everything* about what was going on but considered the knowledge too much or too dangerous to pass on to those whose ignorance could (and sometimes did) kill them. As you can tell the whole things was pretty frustrating. There was, I think, at least a potentially OK story in there waiting to get out. Unfortunately you just had to wade through far too much teen moping around, bad dialogue and what passes for romantic imagery in High School to enjoy the few tarnished gems to derive much satisfaction from it. Readable but only just and finished mainly because I needed *something* to review today.