Fallen #1

Fallen
by: Lauren Kate
Terri Thampan 804

   I haven't so much as given up on reading "Eclipse", it's just that I grew rather bored with it, ad wanted something fresh for a while. So I'm going to kind of juggle these two books at the same time.
   Today is the first day I have started "Fallen", by Lauren Kate, and I'm 108 pages in. I checked the pages, then thought I had enough reading time to actually write a blogpost about it.
    Now I usually read books pretty fast, maybe I get like 200 pages a day (on a good day) or more. On bad days, I ca pretty much get 1 page by. This is what happened with Eclipse, there were a lot of boring parts which I would rather not read. Now, back to Fallen.
   "Fallen", has a very familiar plot. A teenage girl has to go to a new place and a new school. Lucinda Price, has been sent to reform school, and it is about the worst place ever. On her first day, she gets into a "Fight" at school; I put quotes around fight because it's more like she knocked into a girl's (Molly's) tray, and then Molly gets frustrated and shoves the food all over Luce's hair, and so Arriane (Luce's new sort-of-friend) punches Molly. There's also this really gorgeous guy who acts like a jerk to Luce even though she does nothing but blush when looking at him. Maybe he hates girls who look at him and blush.
    Right off the bat, I can relate this to Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight", albeit, a bit better. I really like Arriane, and sort of wonder about her past with Cam, as in, why does she dislike him so? I find her personality really sort of say adorable. As in, I might be as psychotic as her. Okay, enough with the as ins, but I find her bubbly like in the way that she acts. Almost a bit cutesy really. But it's more like it's a mask that she wears, a mask that she might enjoy wearing, as she seems to have fun in her own insanity. I find that really cool, as I have a weird like for slightly insane characters (Like Luna Lovegood, she is so adorable), and pretty much find them adorable, while others think she's just plain crazy. To me, it's usually the more insane people, the people who sort of act insane, and super happy, and energetic, are the more sad people. It feels like they use the Happy, Slightly insane (not like actually insane, insane, like killing people insane, but like weirdo insane) to hide their pain, and maybe distract them from it. This makes me want to really learn more about her past.
     I also feel like there's a little chemistry going on between Arriane and Cam. She seems to hate him, but I wonder if itt truly is her way of coping with her feelings of maybe liking him. She is unstable enough to get landed into a reform school, so she might not have the emotional capacity to truly come to grips with herself liking him. Or she might feel as if it would ruin things between them. Or, I could be totally wrong, and She knows that Cam is some evil dude, and is trying to protect Luce from him. But I'd rather think she would be jealous if he hung out with Luce, as he obviously likes her. I mean, what better way to hide jealousy then saying you want the other person, not the one you actually like. Note: I don't know if Cam is actually evil, it's just a theory.
   While I was reading this book, it was painfully obvious that Luce is going to end up with Daniel (the guy who acts like a jerk to her). What kind of really annoys me is when romance novels totally give away the romance on the back cover/blurb. I think it would have been better for people to make assumptions as to who the characters end up with, then just telling us in the blurb. In fact, it just gets me more angry at the whole Daniel/Luce thing because, not only does he treat her like a jerk, she still flocks to him. I get it, hormones make people attractive, but really, do you have to always stare at him Luce? It's pretty creepy as a person who would rather be a bystander and watch love unfold. I mean, I guess I understand her wanting to know why she has this feeling of deja vu near him, but couldn't she just be like, angry instead that when she first glanced at him, he flipped her off, and has continually been rude to her. Couldn't she have just marched over there angrily and asked what his problem was?
    That's why, I would prefer Cam/Luce. He's a total gentleman. He seems like a really nice guy, and he definitely shows that he likes he as well.
    I guess, if the romance wasn't given in the back, and if the author slowly starts building up the relationship between Luce/Daniel, I would really love that. In one of my favorite Anime series, Princess Tutu (The anime was made originally, then the manga, and the anime is way better, even though it does sound girly), the main character is Ahiru. That in English literally translates to duck. The anime, though it sounds very girly, is really complex in its story line, as it's about characters who discover that they are actually the characters in a famous book written by a famous and brilliant (but horrible) man who loved tragedies (and could make his stories come to life) and how they try to defy the fate of the tragic ending they are supposed to live through. The first season is not as complex, but it builds up to the complexity of the second season. Pretty much, in the first season, you really want Ahiru to get with the main character Mytho. Mytho is the prince from before mentioned story titled "The Prince and the Raven". In the book, in order to defeat the raven, he breaks his own heart (like emotions, not actual heart). Ahiru, then transforms as the magical Prima Donna princess, Princess Tutu, and collects the heart shards (which are scattered, and posses other people, and make them feel extreme emotion/the emotion the heart shard is)and then returns them back to Mytho. She does this out of her love for Mytho, and you can clearly see how much she loves him, because throughout the whole anime, she tries to vie for his love. Then in the second anime, you start to see her love life take a turn. I mean, I have nothing against girls falling in love with guys who were jerks to them, or vice-versa, but it has to be written or made nicely. In season 2, Ahiru is forced to team up with Fakir, a boy who has been "friends" (more like he's taken care of Mytho because Mytho does stupid things as he has no heart) with Mytho since he was younger (Because Mytho never ages, literally, when his heart is broken, literally as well). He acts like a straight out jerk to Ahiru. But when they are forced to work together, they start to learn how to tolerate each other, and then appreciate each other, then get to know about each other, and then they start to give each other strength, and it is so obviously hinted that they have fallen in love, or that Fakir has anyways, but it seems pretty mutual. But, the way it was so gradual, and not forced or rushed, it just made me love the pairing even more, and I truly treasured that it made me scream, "Get together already!", when before I would never think of those two getting together. That shows amazing story telling, and now, I just seem to be reading stories where the love is being rushed.
   Not to say this story is bad, I do think it's pretty good, writing wise; but I'm not loving the romance. I will keep reading as it is more interesting than Eclipse.