Author: Lauren Kate | Release date: Dec-2009 | ISBN: 0385738935 | Review date: 6-Jan-2010 – First Book Review!

Sure, this site’s primary focus is movie reviews and related news. But being that it’s the new year and all, I thought it doesn’t hurt to make things a bit spontaneous from time to time. Since I haven’t read for pleasure in some time, I thought this deserves some bit of recognition. So here you have it, my first book review. This book mainly sparked my interest after hearing about the possible film adaptation.

Fallen follows teenager Luce Price, an upper-middle class girl who’s always noticed out of the ordinary things with her life. After a mysterious fire incident that wound up leaving her boyfriend dead, Luce is sent to the Sword and Cross reform school. Luce soon finds herself out of her element to say the least. The other students are primarily made up of your typical image of juvenile delinquents and bad-asses. Among the pierced, tattooed, and hair dyed crowd, Luce forms a few interesting friendships nonetheless.

Amidst the colorful crowd, Luce notices an extraordinarily handsome guy by the name of Daniel Grigori. What’s most perplexing is that Luce feels some sort of connection towards this young man, despite the fact that he’s incredibly rude and distant towards her at the start. Meanwhile, Luce captures the attention Cam, someone who Luce finds attractive and quite pleasant yet she still doesn’t feel the same way towards him as she does with Daniel. Luce also finds herself struggling to figure out which of the other girls she can trust at the school.

While this may sound like a typical teenage romance, it’s far from it. The book starts out simple, introducing us to the diverse characters and taking us through a tour of the bleak yet astounding Sword and Cross grounds. Slowly the more supernatural elements are introduced, which by the end build up quite substantially. Kate’s writing style is superb and easy to follow while being incredibly descriptive. Every bit of moss, mildew, and creaks of wooden floors can be sensed dramatically.

The character of Luce, though a bit cowardly at times, is likable and definitely has room for growth. The other characters are equally interesting. By the last few chapters, we see dramatic changes and revelations in some of the characters that really topped this book off well. The mythology of the story begins to get heavier towards the end as well and really lays the groundwork for a potentially epic series. Kate’s series will consist of four books, with the next installment being called Torment which will be released in September of 2010.

I was thoroughly surprised with this book. I expected a bit of a fairy tale style love story but I ended up getting  a thrilling and mythological tale that’s also a gigantic treat to the senses. I was very impressed by Lauren Kate’s writing style; though this book is geared towards the older teens/younger adults, it doesn’t insult one’s intelligence and is fit for older readers just as well. Though the pace may be a bit slow at times, it focuses mainly on descriptive narratives that I believe are essential to building up the story for the books to come. This book has something for everyone, be it romance, fantasy, religious mythology, or thrilling action. I’m glad I decided to choose this book for my rare step into the reading scene and I surely will look out for the next book in the series.

More thoughts on the possible movie adaptation…

If Disney gets the right people behind this movie and they remain faithful to the story, I think this will be a pretty epic series of films. The visuals, especially the action sequences involving the more supernatural elements will be truly stunning if executed right – which there should really be no excuse for them not to be considering today’s advancements. I await to see what developments come up with the possible adaptation and as of right now I strongly feel like this will be huge competition for the other major book-to-movie series franchises.

Official Lauren Kate site | Official Fallen Books site