4. Fallen

Pretty book covers are a personal weakness, so I was easy prey for Fallen. I took one look at the eerie woods, the bleak color scheme, and the striking lady in black, and I had no choice but to pick it up. As enticing as the front was, the actual contents proved to be quite the opposite.


After reading Fallen, I felt as though I had read it before. It was terribly unoriginal, generic, and cliché. This typical story template has been used to its fullest potential, and then some. In summary, a fairly normal high school girl meets a dark, mysterious boy and is immediately attracted to him. She becomes obsessed with him and later finds out he feels the same. Then, the boy turns out to be supernatural (an angel in this case), and the girl is apparently a vital part of the "big picture". She is then thrust into a magical world with a pretty boy by her side. The most frustrating aspect of the storyline was the heroine's lack of concern with the supernatural aspect of things. She is fixated on the boy and other trivial issues, all the while dismissing the much larger problem of a looming angelic war. The author skimps on details which would clarify and develop the mystical side of the story, and she chooses to focus more on the romance. As for the romance itself, I found it lacking and unbelievable. I didn't have much attachment towards the characters, because their relationship felt abrupt and shallow. Even if you have not read Fallen, it is likely that you have read something very similar to it. This hackneyed plot is tiresome even when done excellently, which Fallen was not. The writing style felt amateurish, with little variety in sentence structure. However, even after all that criticism, I will not say that Fallen is the worst novel I have ever read. It followed a generic storyline, because that storyline has proven to be popular in the past. As such, the basic premise of the story was alright to read. It was an okay-ish story, if nothing else- something to read on a hot, quiet summer afternoon.