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Torment: Fallen, Book 2
- By Lauren Kate
- Genre: Romance
Common Sense Media says
Series fans will find more dreamy angels but not much plot.
Parents say
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that if they let their teen read Twilight, they will probably also be fine with this series about angels. Wings replace fangs but the intensity of romance that doesn't get much beyond kissing is the same. The main character, Luce, puts her life and others at risk, thinking her angel boyfriend is just being overprotective. Arrows are the weapons of choice, but only harm other angels.
What's the story?
After surviving a big angel/demon battle at the end of Fallen, Luce's angel true love Daniel (in this life and many past lives) decides to whisk her across the country to a posh private school on the Northern California coast. Here part-angels hide out in a "gifted" program and get ready for a big Heaven-Hell war in the possible future. While Daniel is off doing important fallen angel things, Luce, who's kind of a celebrity with the celestial crowd, makes new friends, and gets into the kind of trouble Daniel and her teachers warned her about: leaving campus brings her closer to other celestial beings who want to harm her. And then there are the shadows or glimpses of her past life she can summon at will and start to control, but at what cost?
Is it any good?
Oh, Lauren Kate had a good thing going in the first book, that is, if you liked Twilight at all and wished the vampires really had wings instead. The true-love romance had plenty of intensity, the reform-school setting was good fun, and the fantasy elements were vague but going somewhere ... or so you'd think. This book is romance purgatory -- stuck and seemingly going nowhere. Daniel and Luce do a lot of bickering over whether or not Daniel is too controlling -- um, he's trying to save your life and if he says it's not safe to leave campus maybe you should listen. Luce's glimpses at past lives start to get interesting, but reveal next to nothing to keep the plot moving. Danger comes and is gone just as fast, Daniel swoops in for a kiss; gone again -- there's little to hold the book together. Only at the very end does TORMENT take a turn that seems to really go somewhere. Too bad it took that long.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about popular romances like this one or Twilight. What's the draw of super-powered/super-natural boyfriends with wings or fangs?
This is the second installment in a series that began with Fallen. What is fun about reading a series? Why do you think publishers are interested in printing them for teen readers?
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AGE
Very interesting sequel to Fallen.
If you are a fan of Twilight, you will fall for the Fallen series instantly. This book is not about vampires, but Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell, Love and Hate, Good and Evil and a confusing twist about reincarnation revealed in Fallen, not Torment. So pretty much the story fallows Luce, and her love/hate relationship with Daneil, the Angel. The Outcast are hunting down Luce, and she hides in a school on a beach in California, where the school is run by a Demon in love with a daughter of a Angel, (the daughter is a adult, don't worry) But a strange evil force is taunting the school's students. But what is it, and what does it want; Luce? The violence includes a girl being sucked under water by a evil force, but she is rescued before any harm can be done to her, only to be kidnapped over again. No deaths unlike Fallen, and the violent battle scene like in Fallen is near the end, but it finishes to early. Unlike Fallen the book doesn't have the smart charm to help the reader flip through the pages. It's really only the promise of a battle at the end that kept me reading. There are some family matters in the book but Lauren Kate could have done a better job describing. I can't wait for Book Three: Passion! It'll be GREAT! The book is definaly leading the reader into a interesting plot for the next in the Four part series. The kissing, and touching includes touches, groping, kissing passionaly, flirting, and the like, but nothing a normal 14 year old can't handle. The swearing includes two used of sh-, ass, da- and Hell used religously correct. Enjoy!
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AGE
Amazing
I love this book personally Im thirteen and I think it is the best book I have ever read, I have to say thgough it is a little violent if 13 is to young for you I'd say 14 the approriate age. Twilight step back! You have some commpetition!
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AGE
Torment moved so much faster than Fallen, but the plot wasn't really there. i loved how she was having fun! At Sword & Cross, it was so mopey. It was much more fun here.
:-))))
Dylan
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AGE
Best series ever!
I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!! I was hooked from the first page,( okay maybe second chapter ), but it is the best series I've read so far, there are some scenes that aren't great for kids that aren't mature. I'm still waiting for the fourth book "Rapture". It comes out in Spring 2012
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AGE
LOVED IT!Couldn't Stop reading It :)
I just finished reading the book (no kidding, as soon as i finished i came on here to give my review of the book) and i gotta say that i really liked it. This book has a lot of opposite sides in competition like (and i quote what noveleater said) "Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell, Love and Hate, Good and Evil". Positive Message- she has friends who help Luce out during the story, so yeah her friends don't give up on her. Too Violent- well there is killing of the Outcasts(the battle at the end of the book) some blood mentioned, nothing major. Language- yes, there's language in the book, but it helps make the characters not sound so bland, sort of gives them more of a realistic feel not just a these-are-people-in-a-book-so-they-use-proper-english kinda feel.
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| Author: | Lauren Kate |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Romance |
| Publisher: | Random House Books for Young Readers |
| Publication date: | September 28, 2010 |
| Number of pages: | 452 |
| Hardcover price: | $17.99 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 12 - 17 |
| Read aloud: | 12 |
| Read alone: | 12 |
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