FALLEN: and Literature goes downhill once again..

[Mikashi]

This sentence could pretty much sum up what FALLEN, by Lauren Kate is: "Another 'Pretty Cover', but bad writing; in fact, there was probably more time spent on the cover, then on the actual writing." Maybe harsh, but it's pretty much the only way to put my thoughts into words, besides my review *points below*.

Here's my review of it on B&N.com:

Augh. I regret picking up this book, it seriously makes me feel like bashing my head into the wall to forget such an atrocity (I can't even finish it *stuck on page 384*). The writing is bland, the characters are horrible one-dimensional characters [The only one who I even remotely liked was Cam, and even as an antagonist he was still pretty poorly written, not to mention I knew the moment he appeared in the book he'd turn out to be the bad guy...]. This is pretty much the plot *spoilers ensue*: Girl is messed up and goes to a reform school, practically five minutes into the tour she *gasp* - falls in love with someone - SHOCKER THERE! - and he turns out to be her soulmate - *eye roll* - he acts cold and distant, she on the other hand, doesn't care and actually stalks the dude - even goes and looks at his personal record - WHAT? THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU JUST DO NOT DO, THIS WOULD BE ONE OF THEM - Eventually, it turns out that he's a fallen angel [like pretty much every other character in the book, predictable much?] and she's a human who is reincarnated every like, fifteen years and every time she gets close to him, she dies. Oh did I happen to mention the "shadows"? She apparently has these black-burbly things follow her around all the time, and half way through the book she realizes she can get them to back off - come on, seriously? So in short: It could have been interesting, if of course, the writing and characters were better...but they're just not...it's kind of pathetic, in a way. I gave it a one-star, but it probably doesn't even deserve it...

I know there were a few on the previous board who fell prey to this...thing, or were contemplating on whether or not to buy it. Hopefully there hasn't been any more victims?

[Lord Lovrina]

I couldn't get past the first 30 pages of that book to be honest. Thank goodness I borrowed the book from my friend, who liked the book.

[J.Day]

I downloaded the e-book for free back when Scribd.com was still free because I was curious. I only read the first few pages, and already I felt bored out of my mind. When I heard about the girl stalking her supposed "soul mate," I decided to go no further. I still have the pdf file saved on my USB, but I think I'll probably just read it for the lulz while taking mental notes to myself on how NOT to write a story.

[Mikashi]

I'm seriously surprised at how far I got in with that atrocious book. Like, page 384 or so? I couldn't even guess how many brain cells I lost due to that thing.

[EarthDragon88]

I got about three chapters in before I threw it against the wall in frustration, the dreariness of the writing leaked into the already dreary atmosphere. I didn't even get to the romance in it. In the end it was one of several books that went to the charity shop, being sold there was probably the most good it did anyone. At least it contributed towards cancer research.

[Mikashi]

^I've felt tempted to do that, in all honesty. The book is trash, pure trash, just like twilight and all it's annoying incarnations (by that, I mean sequels, spin-offs, etc.)
But no matter how trash-worthy, I don't like damaging my books, so I resist the urge to smash them against the wall, I just smash my head against the wall, instead XD.

Edit--how could I have made that grammar mistake? I must've bashed my head against the wall too many times XD. I must be tired *dozes off*.

[KuroChi]

Thanks for making a threat about this book, because I almost wanted to buy it (or worst I almost bought it). What is happening to the books these days?

[Mikashi]

Glad to be of service.
Trash, and trying to milk teenagers (and some adults O.o) into brainwashed copies that will continuously buy their braincell-killing trash so they can make more braincell-killing trash, until, ultimately, they have an army of "zombies" D: and...conquer the world with their utter novel-garbage filled with messy grammar, humongous typos and errors, words used incorrectly, characters have personalities as interesting as cardboard, love-triangles when there shouldn't be one at all/totally unneeded...the whole drill XD. I get shivers thinking about it.

Btw, your siggie is totally hilarious, and true.

Edit: D: I can't believe I made that typo, excuse me while I go punish myself XD.

[KuroChi]

Fast we need to make a bomb shelter to keep the sane people alive.

And thank you .

[PuzzleChick]

I gave up any hope I had on the books the minute I read the summaries. The first one was expounding with angsty, "What if your love is forbidden?!1!?1" nonsense and the second one...just...NO. Her idea of torment/hell is being away from her boyfriend for a period of time? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? All the horrible things that can happen and yet being apart from her (undoubtedly only known a short while) boyfriend is what true Hell is? I nearly threw it across the room just reading the dust cover, but I refrained since it belongs to the bookstore and it's frowned upon employees ruining books that we haven't bought yet.

The melodrama radiates from those things in waves. Even the covers are melodramatic. I want to yell at them: "Good grief random girly in fancy dresses, grow a backbone, you're getting your wangst all over the new carpet."

[Deleted]

I know a few people who really like it, and I've never read it myself, but it seems kind of similar to Twilight. :\ I *might* read it in the future. And the whole 'forbidden love' thing is kind of overused…

[vampirekites]

Reading summaries and some reviews on it, it sounds EXACTLY like Twilight. I'm guessing these books came out after Twilight, so it seems like this author is trying to cash in on some of that success with a basic re-telling.

[Mikashi]

^Yup. You guessed it. It came out like, last year, I think?

[EarthDragon88]

^ It did, I was given it for Christmas.

Although it's not my cup of tea, I got Charlaine Harris's 'Dead before Dark' as well. That I was able to read.

[WolfBloodRei]

Crap. I just got that book the other day in hopes of reading it. >.< Dammit, I should have gone for the "Wuthering Bites" book, instead.

Should I still read it just for the lulz?

[Deleted]

I kept on waiting for something to happen, but nothing until the ending. It should had been in the first 50-100 pages when all of that took place. It's a stupid book and best to skip over for a better series like Darkest Powers one.

[fdragon010]

Back when I worked in a library I took one look at that cover (it was a new book) and said to myself "oh hell no. I just suffered through House of Night, Twiblight, and The Amber Spyglass. No way I am picking up that thing! There has to be something good in this library!"

Guess how fast it took for the little tweens to pick up that stupid book and check it out?

[vampirekites]

Fallen (and basically Twilight) reads like one of those Quizilla stories about a girl falling for a vampire. Actually, that's probably what pissed me off about Twilight's success: any of those twerps could have written it better.

[Deleted]

Nov 25, 2010 12:51:37 GMT -8 EarthDragon88 said:

^ It did, I was given it for Christmas.

Although it's not my cup of tea, I got Charlaine Harris's 'Dead before Dark' as well. That I was able to read.

I love the Sookie Stackhouse series but I'm currently reading The Hunger Games. It's a pretty well thought out story but some of the dialogue gets me a bit annoyed. I guess it's just the author's writing. *shrugs* Back to Sookie, I love the writing and the story that goes with it. My problem is I can't stop reading freakin' Supernatural books. Gah! Especially those YA novels, I'm either addicted or just plain crazy.

Fallen sounds like something that I wouldn't be interested in. I like the idea of a Fallen Angel but if it's like Twilight, I'll just forget about it. Geez, is it just me or so many new authors are becoming like Meyer?

[Kaza999]

I tried reading a few pages of this book when my friend was reading it. It was so...boring.

You know, another supernatural love story with a badly researched mythological creature (with no proper excuse, either) and a whiny girl.

My big issue with this book was the fact that the person the girl falls in love with is an angel. A 'fallen angel,' too. Well, for one thing, fallen angels are demons, or at least hang out in Hell. There's not really a middle ground. For another, angels aren't anywhere near human.

You can excuse someone falling in love with a vampire if the vampire goes out of their way to seduce the person. Sure, it's hard to pull off, and more often than not, it just doesn't make sense, but at least vampires used to be human. Angels never were in the first place. I don't even think that angels have genders, and I think they don't even look human unless they want to.

/rant

[Alice (PMD)]

I just bought it and from what I've read-- 90 pages-- it seems pretty interesting.

[Alice (PMD)]

I finished the book last night, and I have to say-- it isn't that bad. Sure, it's a lot like Twilight and it takes Luce only two or so weeks to fall in love with Daniel, but overall, it wasn't that bad. It's not my favourite, but it would do fine on a rainy day with nothing else to read.

[Deleted]

First, some background on my "friend":
-She constantly brags to me about her apparent University reading level.
-She claims to be more of a bookworm than myself, and can obviously spot better books that I can.
-Her opinion is the only right opinion.

So, months ago she told me I had to read this new book she'd fallen in love with called "Fallen". She claimed it was a literary masterpiece and was one of the most creative novels she had ever read.
So, being slightly interested in it because of the fabulous reviews she was giving, I decided to borrow it from her.
Needless to say I was incredibly disappointed. I never finished the book because I just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe if she had just suggested the book to me without her opinion, I would have finished it. I might have even thought that it wasn't that bad. But when someone tells me that it's the best book they have ever read, I at least expect it to hook me in.

Although, I was very foolish taking advice from her. This is the same girl that claims to be a die-hard Harry Potter fan even though she has only read the last book. The same person whose first tattoo was "Aslan" on her foot despite never even glancing at the novels. The same person who told me that "Twilight" was an amazing read....
At least I know when I read horrible books...

[vampirekites]

One should never take their opinion as fact. That's why it's called an opinion. Plus, it seems like your friend is just aware of books, but has no real knowledge about them. And anyone can brag about being at college level reading. I was at a college reading level at 12, and I still can't read more than a few books at a time. She seems to be up her own ass, and from the looks of it, doesn't have very good taste in books.

[Deleted]

Jan 15, 2011 11:05:54 GMT -8 @vampirekites said:

One should never take their opinion as fact. That's why it's called an opinion. Plus, it seems like your friend is just aware of books, but has no real knowledge about them. And anyone can brag about being at college level reading. I was at a college reading level at 12, and I still can't read more than a few books at a time. She seems to be up her own ass, and from the looks of it, doesn't have very good taste in books.

I think she (despite claiming to hate conformity) is just into books because they seem to be the new fad where I live. I'm guessing she's basing her opinions off of what the majority thinks which is completely stupid.
A teacher told her that her reading level was a few grades higher than normal, and she took it "omg super smartttt". :/
Her head is up her ass. She expects everyone to bow down to her literary genius, yet all she reads is YA, and not the good YA, the Twilight-inspired YA.

[Deleted]

Woah, I was going to read this book as well. It was in the library at my college, but it's as shit as everyone is saying it is, then I'll give it a miss.

[Mikashi]

Then I guess you noticed this thread in time C:.

However, you don't have to form an opinion based on ours, you can try reading it to see if it clicks with you, try reading the synopsis if you haven't, or if you have, try reading the first page or so, it didn't click with me, but on the previous page Alice thought it was an okay book. I guess it depends?

I'm guessing your college library has twilight, house of night, and all those other "books" too? Well, I guess I'm not all too surprised considering that they attract people with their covers, such as myself...I need to stop being attracted to them XD *sigh*.

EDIT: So, has anyone read the sequels, Torment and whatever else the other one was called...Passion?

Just wondering if it decided to redeem itself, if only a little, or, if there are more people who are "not in for the fall" so to speak?

[WolfBloodRei]

Well, I finally read it. Finished it. I didn't think it was horribly horrible, though it did follow the Twilight plot quite a bit, but at least the stalker gets called out on it (and I was cringing every step of the way while she did endless creeper stalking). I didn't think it was a great book, sort of neutral on it. It's good for "lulz" at least. Predictable, cliche, most of the time bland.

And like the first poster said, the only character I liked was Cam. Evil, but fun. A bit of an ass, but has a personality that's not a carbon cut-out of every male protagonist ever -coughedwardcullenstefansalvatorecough-. I was secretly hoping the main male protagonist would die. But alas, it wasn't to be.

Will I read the second book? Well, I have it. Might as well. It'll conflict with my OCD problem of having to finish everything I start otherwise.

Would I recommend this book to anyone? No. Unless you're in it for the lulz, you'll be sadly disappointed with the money wasted on it. It's snark-quality at least if anyone wants to give that a go.

[Deleted]

Jul 2, 2011 16:02:12 GMT -8 Mikashi said:

Then I guess you noticed this thread in time C:.

However, you don't have to form an opinion based on ours, you can try reading it to see if it clicks with you, try reading the synopsis if you haven't, or if you have, try reading the first page or so, it didn't click with me, but on the previous page Alice thought it was an okay book. I guess it depends?

I'm guessing your college library has twilight, house of night, and all those other "books" too? Well, I guess I'm not all too surprised considering that they attract people with their covers, such as myself...I need to stop being attracted to them XD *sigh*.

I read the synopsis of it and I thought it sounded a too twilight-ish and cheesy. I might try and read it when I go back, if there's nothing else to read.

Yep, the library has all those books. Everytime I go in there is at least one person with a twilight book.

[Deleted]

I admit, these books are so tempting because of the beautiful cover art, however, I know better not to judge a book solely by its cover.

The summary of it is too twilight-esque to entice me, since I despise the majority of paranormal romance, I doubt I'll enjoy these books about bland super-spechul angels.

I might find an online version for teh lulz but even then it's not even that lulz-y. Just blandness.

The four books as followed:
1.) Fallen. 2.) Torment. 3.) Passion. 4.) Breaking Dawn.Rapture.