(De review is in ‘t Engels omdat ik die ook op Goodreads zet :))

Fallen had been sitting on my shelf for a year now. After watching an interview with author Lauren Kate at a book fair early November, I finally cracked its spine. My expectations weren’t that high, nor were they exceptionally low. The considerable hype surrounding this series definitely had something to do with both the high and the low part. All the same, I ended up disappointed.

I just couldn’t get into it. Part of that is the fact that it’s written from a third person perspective, which nearly always makes me feel distanced from the characters and the events. I strongly prefer books with a first person narrator, books that make you – when you look in a mirror after you’ve read them – surprised not to see the main character’s face looking back at you.

A second reason is the setting. It was bland and gray and boring and the fact that it was a disciplinary boarding school added little or nothing to the story – when it could’ve had. In my opinion, it would have been so much more interesting (and realistic. And creepy!) if Luce were sent to an asylum of some sort.

I also found myself being slung back and forth between my impression of the surroundings (being: rainy, dark, cold, gloomy – as Luce’s mood) and the actual surroundings (being: sunny, warm, beautiful trees etc). Somehow it didn’t seem to fit, leaving me confused whenever Luce commented on it being hot outside. “Wait a second, wasn’t the sky weeping in despair just a second ago? No? Sunny skies all around? Well alrighty then …”

Third reason: it took forever until something supernatural started occurring. 3/4th of this book is basically about a girl getting sent to boarding school, doing research, falling in love with 2 guys at once and being chased by rather harmless shadowy thingies. Yawn. Only at the very end things started getting interesting, but then there was too much happening all at once. I honestly couldn’t be bothered anymore at that point. I wanted to get it over with.

Fourth reason: although the idea of Luce’s incarnations always finding Daniël is, of course, extremely romantic, I didn’t feel anything at their developing love. No nostalgic sighing, no latent butterflies. Nope. Nothing. Sorry.

Fifth and maybe most important reason: I – once again! – made the mistake of reading a translation from English to Dutch. As a general rule, they suck. And I suck for trying to keep reading them. From now on: only English books and Dutch books that were actually written in Dutch.

Hebben jullie Fallen gelezen? Wat vonden jullie ervan? Feel free to comment – happy to discuss 🙂