Review: Torment: Lauren Kate ***3 STARS***

Torment: Lauren Kate

Synopsis: Goodreads

Hell on earth.

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

My Review:

                So many of you who have read my review on Fallen or who have seen my IMM on Torment know my beef with these books. I think they are wonderful and full of so much potential but I am not a fan of writing and the development in the stories. It so frustrating to me, when the authors like to string along the reader just for a little piece of info at the end of the book. I ended up listening to this book on audio, which I am so glad I did. The reader was good even though I thought her voice was funny. I think if I would have read the book I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.

                I don’t think the hopes I had for this book was too much to ask for. One explain what the hell happened in Fallen, two what is everyone fighting for, three tell Luce what the hell is going on, and four stop trying to create more stuff for me to ask questions about. Maybe that might sound like much for some people but not for me. I don’t mind while reading a book having 1-3 questions, but not knowing what is really going on in the book is quite annoying. And so I begin my review.

                Luce…. She is how can I say it, I don’t think she will ever be that strong capable character I wanted her to be. She’s so frail all the time. If it’s not that she’s absolutely in love with Daniel and believing every word he says, than it’s that she’s doing the complete opposite and questioning everything and going back and forth. My problem with Luce is that she doesn’t act or have a mind at times. The whole let me color my hair and cut it for a new start. REALLLY???? I don’t know.  I mean not once did she really seek out the truth from Roland. She could have found something out. It was like Roland appears to sign up for this school and she mentions him very few times in the book.

The only thing that I was happy I saw her doing was actively looking at the shadows. Finally she has the balls to do something that she made a decision about without caring really what everyone thinks. I am glad they explained finally explained into depths about the shadow, because I was still left confused after fallen. But I still feel cheated in a way. It’s like in Fallen, scary shadows following Luce. They could cause depth uuuuu scary shadows. At the end of Fallen, don’t worry shadows are just messengers………………………………..  Okay what the hell does that mean??? Now the entire book of Torment let’s explain everything there is to know about shadows. I mean, I understand it was pivotal to the story I get it. But I just feel this book could be so much better. It doesn’t take advantage of different parts where it should.

  Daniel was annoying me a lot in this book also. I mean all she wanted to know is what was going on. Is that too much to ask? If he knows her like he claims to know her than he should have known better than to continually hide stuff. I mean he didn’t have to get into specifics, but just a general idea. I mean the way he would just pop in and out it was so frustrating. Why couldn’t he just speak something besides I love you and don’t leave the school? I get it he’s afraid if he tells her what’s going on she will combust. Got it, but this has just gotten ridiculous. The lack of communication in this whole book/series is the thing that makes me not want to read it. I think if Lauren Kate didn’t give that snippet from the beginning in the book I would have been going just as crazy as Luce. I really thought when I first read that snippet after Fallen that the author was going to really get into this world but I was disappointed.

I really enjoyed the boarding school. The whole Francesca and Stephen being together but one is evil and the other is good was pretty interesting. I felt like the school was like Percy’s Jackson’s camp. Where all the Nephilim, learn about their world. I really like Shelby. She was funny and straight up. Even though she was mean to Luce in the beginning I had a feeling I was going to like her. Miles was nice; of course he was going to fall for Luce. Why else would he be nice? Just kidding.. I really enjoyed their personalities and how they were good friends to Luce. It’s funny that I mention that, because in Fallen I enjoyed the side characters as well much more than Luce.

BTW, the ending was retarded!!! Really she needed time for herself. She couldn’t stick around a bit longer to figure out what was going on. It’s just maddening!!!

I think the story line was slow paced, just like Fallen. This is why I didn’t mind listening to it, because if I would have read it than I would have gone crazy. All in all, the book was okay. I think I might have had too many complaints. It’s just that it frustrates me so much when I invest so many hours of my life either listening to or reading a book and not have the book deliver. These books have a lot of potential. But I have come to realized after this book, that all the books in the series will be written like this. That is just the author’s style of writing. I doubt I will read the third book Passion. If the book is on audio at the library I will borrow it though. The book is maddening but still enjoyable in its own way.

I will say this….. If you did not like Fallen, do not get this book!!! If you really enjoyed Fallen, then go for it, you will enjoy it. I think this book is just one of those books that will just forever be just an okay book. I am not going to go crazy trying to figure out what’s going on anymore. I believe I wrote this in my review of Fallen. I had said that I would give Lauren Kate a chance to redeem herself from Fallen, so I would invest in this series. But I think Fallen & Torment are a good measure at how the pacing, character development, story lines are for this series. They are very much the same. If I would have known that then I probably wouldn’t have read it! Either way though it wasn’t horrible it was enjoyable.

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