Hello again everyone! Hope you’re all staying cool this summer and making lots of progress in your summer reading lists! This summer has been quite the nostalgia trip for me when it comes to my reading. Something that I may or may not have mentioned to you all is my love for fantasy books and my absolute hatred for what I consider “slice of life” fiction. Once I find a type of series that I love, I sort of just dive right into the deep end and the same was true when I came across the Halo series back in junior high school. This series, though I didn’t make it past the first book, tuned me into the Fallen Angel realm that sort of exists as a subgenre in teen fiction. After reading the this one, I sought out other books that fit this same kind of realm and soon found the Fallen series by Lauren Kate and after that, the Hush, hush series that I’m currently on.
Anyway, I was starting to read Silence which is the second book in the series by Fitzpatrick when my boyfriend, Drake, and I started to talk about books. I told him that there were three books I wished he would read so that I could talk about them with him and, because he loves me, he decided to humor me and read them. Out of the ones I recommended, he picked the first book in the Fallen series. It has been so long since I’ve read these books that there was actually a piece of notebook paper inside the cover from Junior High. The piece of paper was a note from one of my friends that I lent the book to way back when. Now though, it’s being used as a bookmark since Drake didn’t seem to have one. He’s currently about a fourth of the way through the book, and the comments he was making were just too funny that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share some with you guys.
Before we get into that though, here’s some context for you so that you can understand the points he’s making and the characters he’s talking about. Fallen is about fallen angels, no surprise there. The main character’s name is Luce and she seems to be a bit troubled. The beginning of the books explains that she has these strange visions and was somehow implicated in the death of a fellow student. Due to this, she is sent to a boarding school, more of a reform school really. It is here that she meets quite a few interesting people, including a cute, green-eyed rebel named Cam, as well as a handsome, confusing boy named Daniel. She meets some great friends and finds some enemies too, like Molly, your average school bully. Not everything is as it seems however, as the students at Sword & Cross are not as human as they appear to be.
Drake’s Interpretation:
Here are just a few of the comments that my boyfriend made while reading that had me absolutely falling apart at the seams.
“I firmly believe that until further notice, the main character is schizophrenic. It’s cool that she can apparently see dead people though.”
“Why do these two (Arriane and Cam) hate each other?I could care less about this series and the stupid love triangle thing I just want to know why they hate each other so much!”
Drake:“Everyone is human until proven otherwise in a court of law.”
Me: “But what if the book says-“
Drake: “COURT OF LAW”
At this point I asked Drake which of the two guy he liked more out of the whole love triangle mess and he wasn’t quite sure, so we made a list of what he liked most thus far from each candidate.
Cam:
“He’s got a nifty tattoo”
“He’s more social and outgoing. Plus he’s cheeky”
“He was the guy that had the cans of spray paint in his backpack at the start yeah? [I nod], yeah I like that”
“He’s in a BAND”
“He gave her a guitar pick that’s the same color of his eyes! Do you know how hard it must have been to find that? I appreciate that.”
Daniel:
“He’s got a red scarf, I can appreciate scarves.”
“The whole flipping her off thing after he meets her, that made me laugh”
“Drawing.”
He read a few more pages and at one point he asked me if anybody dies in the book, I reply simply that there is death towards the end. His response?
“Daniel better die by the end of this book”
So I think we definitely figured out who he’s rooting for! What’s funny, and what I didn’t tell him was, Daniel is one of the main characters, and he sticks around until at least the last book in the series.
Now as I’ve been working on this, Drake has been beside me reading and I decided to ask him to summarize what’s happened for me so far. He looks down at the book, checks the page number and says, “You’re telling me I’m a third of the way through this book, and this is all that’s happened? In one hundred pages all that’s happened is a pointless prologue, a tour of the school, a fight with that [female dog] Molly, and detention. Also Twilight car scene with statue.”
I didn’t really understand that last bit, but he said it was important and that he wanted me to include it in his summary so there you go! That was my boyfriend Drake’s first impression of the book Fallen by Laruen Kate. He’s still got about half to go so I may be doing a part two of this to get his overall reaction to the book.
Happy Reading everyone,
Maddison C. Jones
In My Opinion 