Fallen by Lauren Kate

I just finished reading the young adult novel, Fallen, by Lauren Kate. I never really pay attention to the "young adult"/"adult" categories. I probably should have with this one.

Firstly, I was captivated by the book's cover. I give mad props for the artist as well as the publishers for choosing such an enticing cover.

This is a story about Luce (short for Lucinda), a 'troubled' 17 year old girl who gets pulled from a posh prep-school after an unfortunate incident took the life of a boy she liked while at a cabin party. Though Luce doesn't remember anything about what happened, she is questioned by the police and eventually gets placed at the Sword and Cross re-form school by her parents as a last ditch effort to keep her from being medicated, or worse, arrested.

Upon her arrival, Luce learns that this school leans more towards a maximum security prison, rather than a school. Among being forced to surrender her cell phone, she also learns that only one phone call is allowed a week (for fifteen minutes only), the dress code is all dismal black, and there are 'Reds', motion cameras, throughout the entire school, constantly watching the entire school to be sure no kids break the rules.

Luce meets Arianne who quickly takes Luce under her wing, teaching her the ins and outs of the school, and which "crazies" to avoid. While doing so, she sees Daniel from across the way. Luce is immediately drawn to him, for reasons she can't even fathom, even though he makes obscenely rude gestures to her from day one. Cam also catches her eye, a cute 'new' boy who is returning to Swords and Cross after having left.

This story quickly turns into a teenage 'love' triangle, where Cam wants Luce, and Luce wants Daniel, and Daniel avoids her.

In addition to strange dreams and constant deja vu starring Daniel, Luce has begun to see the black shadows more frequently, and notices they are starting to be more bold, openly touching her. After discovering a four year old photo of Daniel, looking exactly the same, Luce and her new friend Pennyweather (Penn for short) start to dig into Daniel's family history, searching for answers. But will they be able to save themselves from the answers they find?

Unfortunately, though the plot and story lines have a lot of potential, I was drowning a bit in the long winded and erroneous story developing. How many times does an author need to tell me that Luce saw Daniel, and swooned. Then again, I try to remember that this is meant for teenage readers; however, I feel like even as a teenager, I would have been disappointed with this one

I give this book a 2/5 stars on the teenage paranormal realm scale.