REVIEW: Torment (Fallen #2) by Lauren Kate (@LaurenKateBooks)

Hell on earth.
That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.
At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something—something dangerous.
What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?


As some of you may remember, I was not a huge fan of the first book in this series (you can read that review by clicking here).  The concept behind the book was great but it lacked in plot set up for the big mystery piece.  However, once I knew the big secret at the end of the book, I was hooked and ready to find out what becomes of Luce and Daniel.  That brings us to Torment.
The biggest thing that stands out in my mind about this book is this – Stephenie Meyer needs to take a lesson in the ways of the heart from Lauren Kate.  Not that I am trying to pit one author against another but it is so true!!  One of the things I hated about the Twilight series as a whole was Bella’s unquestioning devotion to Edward.  She never once questioned whether or not it was smart for her to be with him.  She never stopped to put emotion aside and figure out whether or not she should be blindly following Edward to the ends of the earth.  It’s never even considered in her head.  He’s hot, he’s immortal, ‘nuff said.  Well, that’s not good enough for me and I think it’s a bad example for the young girls that are supposed to be reading this stuff.
Well, Lauren Kate does not make that mistake.  Although Luce is madly in love with Daniel and undeniably drawn to him like a frikkin magnet, she takes that necessary pause to figure out what’s best for her, not her heart.  One of my favorite “passages” in this book is something like this (paraphrasing because I cant find the exact quote):
When he kissed me I knew without a doubt that he was my past.  When I am wrapped in his embrace, I desperately want him to continue being my present.  I just don’t know if he should be my future. 
This is the type of thinking that Bella could use a heavy dose of.  With the high handed behavior of the leading men in these books (even though it is supposed to be “for their own good”), any leading lady with half a brain should pose that question to themselves. 
What a totally appropriate title for this book!  Poor Luce.  Just when she thinks that everything is going to turn out ok, it just falls to crap again.  In Torment, Luce is faced with yet more of the struggle that Daniel knows who she is/was and she doesn’t.  I have a feeling that there is so much more to her than we even learn by the end of Torment.  There is some sort of reason that she’s the key to this big epic battle.  I have a theory as to what it is and I cant wait to read Passion to see if I am right.
Torment is a very well written follow-up to Fallen.  I don’t have any of the same frustrations that I had with Fallen in that there is a sprinkling of story revelation throughout this entire book.  I did not spend the entire time feeling like I was left in the dark..  And WHAT A CLIFFHANGER!!!  I am actually starting the Passion audiobook today because I can’t hold off on finding out where this is going! 
Overall, much better than Fallen.  Better quality writing with a fantastic cast of characters brought over from Fallen’s school Sword & Cross (I am a huge fan of Arriane!!) and some new ones from Torment’s Shoreline school.  Loved this book and I give it 4 stars! 
 

 
 
 

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