Fallen

Of course I had to pick up Fallen by Lauren Kate, as I said, just to find out how wonderful or terrible it is based on the reviews I've been seeing.  And you know what, it wasn't wonderful.  It wasn't terrible either.  It was overall just a re-hash of what I'm already familiar with from the Twilight novels:  a pretty bland, sad heroine who for some strange reason I will never know only wants for a pea-coat-wearing, brooding, whiny and somewhat effeminate supernatural yang to her yin.  And I still don't get it.


Luce is a troubled girl, whose (dis)ability to see supernatural, terrifying shadow-things has led her to dark and depressing reform school, Sword & Cross in Georgia.  Normally I am *such* a fan of the southern gothic, so I was psyched about this surprise in the story.  The atmosphere sure is dark and brooding, and the reform school is brimming with secrets, eccentric characters and other creatures that we don't really learn about until the book is nearly over.  This was a major problem for me, as I like my vampire, etc. mythology to build itself up and take on a life of its own.  However, Fallen's mythos involves nothing more than a few characters who eventually reveal themselves at the very end, and who for an even-still unexplained reason, seem to care about piny Luce and her dashing, debonair love interest described above -- all after the average reader has long given up hope of any loose ends finding each other.

So you can put me in the negative-review camp for this one.  The atmosphere started out very promising, and the writing was at least superior to the usual fare, although it did occasionally tend to veer on the side of confusing.  This is definitely Twilight-esque, so any reader who really enjoys the pining and what the rest of us might consider a 400-page-long teen love-letter should go for it.  I was ready for something new, though, and just hung on to the southern gothic, awesome-cover train for a tad too long.  Now I'm ready to finish The Stand - oh happy day!