Torment (Fallen, #2)

by Lauren Kate

[rakesandrogues]

(Three and a half stars for now... Rounded up)

I am honestly still trying to make up my mind about this book. I feel so torn on whether or not it was a “good” book, but I do have to admit that I enjoyed reading it. TORMENT picks up where Fallen leaves off, with Luce fleeing Sword & Cross. She travels all the way to California to attend another boarding school, but this time without Daniel.

A little more than half the time while I was reading, I found myself extremely annoyed with Luce. Daniel’s been gone for less than two weeks and she is already questioning their relationship? How can she move so fast from one relationship to another? I know that she and Daniel technically have not been together for very long at all in this lifetime, but I do not like it when female characters in general can just quickly change their mind about a relationship in such a short amount of time. Eighteen days is not that very long to wait.

I think it’s very difficult to retain a reader’s attention once the romance has been established between the two main characters. I guess Kate was trying to add more drama to keep the romance interesting to the readers, but in this case, it just made me really annoyed with Luce. Luce and Daniel do have an epic love story, so I don’t know why Luce is making it so difficult for the both of them!

I do love the new characters in TORMENT however. I love Steven and Francesca and the idea that a demon and an angel can be in a relationship. Kate describes a magnetism between the two of them, but they never really showed that the two of them were really in love. True, they were teachers at the school and had to be professional at all times, but I felt like they could make subtle hints at it. Kind of disappointing, but I love the idea of the two of them together. I just wish more would have gone out of it.

I have to admit that I’m not a huge paranormal genre reader so when I started reading this book and it was already diving into angels, demons, and Outcasts, it turned me off a little. I mostly read Fallen because of the romance, not for the angels specifically. Yet, even if I didn’t think I was going to like it, I kept reading anyways. I honestly did not learn much about the whole angels vs. demons and what exactly Daniel is doing until the very end. The book focuses on the “shadows” (that I think of as Dementors) called Announcers. The good thing about TORMENT is that the Announcers get a lot less Potter-y when Luce learns what the Announcers are truly capable of.

Plotwise, I feel like it really had no build up, similar to the first book. It doesn’t really bother me, but it might bother others. However, unlike the first book, I was left completely unsatisfied by the ending of TORMENT. Sometimes, you have these great endings where you just can’t believe that was the end of the book and you cannot wait for more. I did have that feeling, but not in a good way. I did not feel satiated at all. I felt like the story had left me hanging completely and I didn’t like it. It was completely unresolved and just left an even bigger mess at the end.

Still, I think I will keep reading the series just because I am already so invested in the series. I just want to see where the story will go at this point. I am truly hoping that it will not turn out to be one of those series that will just go on forever. I want some closure.

I would recommend this definitely to those who have read and enjoyed Fallen, but I can’t exactly say whether or not you’ll enjoy it more than the first one. TORMENTis a very different book from the first and you’ll have to decide for yourself!