TITLE: Torment
AUTHOR: Lauren Kate
AUTHOR WEBSITE: www.LaurenKateBooks.net
GENRE: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance,
PARANORMAL ELEMENT: Fallen Angels
PUBLISHED: 2010
MY SOURCE: Local Library
MY
RATING: 2
REVIEW:
Book 2 of the Fallen Series, TORMENT
continues the romance between a fallen angel, Daniel, and a human girl, Luce.
In the first book (FALLEN) they miraculously break the cycle of Luce dying at
age 17, only to be reincarnated again and again, only to fall in love over and
over. {sigh} Their relationship is under fire again but this time the angels
and demons join forces to protect Luce from the Outcasts. Daniel hides her at a
boarding school for the Nephilim (who are children of humans and fallen
angels.) The story is interesting enough the stakes are high but all we see is
the waiting and waiting to find something out.
REVIEW:
We are given glimpses of the past lives
of Luce but none are really that interesting. We just spend a whole book with
Luce waiting and getting impatient and her breaking rules to find out what’s
going on. I feel this story is interesting but the main character is a
bonehead. It’s okay that she is rebellious, but what she rebels for has no
worth to the story. Who cares if she sneaks off to spy on parents of a previous
life? Who cares that she travels to see a sister of her past life? None of it
ends up meaning anything. (At least not in this book… when it matters.)
The romance between Daniel and Luce has
begun to get annoying too. She is developing a relationship/friendship with a
boy at the school named Miles. She communicates better with him than she does
with her own boyfriend. Do girls really think they can be friends with boys
without #1 her boyfriend getting jealous and #2 without the other boy falling
in love with her? The answer is always NO and it really makes her relationship
with “hot stuff” seem stale and boring. In book 1 it was destiny… in book 2 it
is demoted to trite. I literally stopped caring if they stayed together.
I’m not going to say anything about the
ending except that it was like… “Of course Luce is going to be an idiot,
again.” But the middle was hard to get through especially with “that kind of
ending.” (Trying not to spoil.)
Supernatural/Paranormal Notes:
I understand this book is entirely
fiction but Kate came up with some annoying rules of the supernatural that
kinda bothered me. I read paranormal romance to see if there is anyone out there
that even knows the facts about the spirit realm and use them in their stories
even semi correctly. Angels and demons exist (fact) but she seems to have
created a “fallen angel” that isn’t a demon (fiction.) In the supernatural
there is no in-between, they made one and only one choice… God or Lucifer.
There used to exist the Nephilim (fact) but are not necessary “cool” people
because they are half human half demon… scary. They are the reason for the
flood of Noah… God purified the world of Nephilim, they can’t possibly be good.
Then she came up with these Outcasts (fiction.) They are only cool in the fact
that they are like supernatural zombies (neat-o) it just bothered me that she
decided to tell the world that there is a “grey area” in the spirit realm
(fiction!) It was all kind of weird and quite a stretch. But hey, this is
Fiction, not theology right? Oh well… it’s fun.
RATING:
More Books by Lauren Kate:
The Fallen Series:
Book 1: FALLEN
Book 2: TORMENT
Book 3: PASSION (Not reviewed)