Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Torment by Lauren Kate (ARC) - WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling Fallen, the first in the series. Do not read any further if you plan on reading Fallen and do not want to be spoilt.

In "Torment", fallen angel Daniel and his mortal love Lucinda think they are safe but evil forces are massing against them. As Luce learns more about her past, and discovers that the lives she's already lived hold the key to her future happiness; she starts to wonder if Daniel has told her the whole truth. What if his version of events isn't the way things happened? What if that means that she's really meant to be with someone else? From Amazon UK

I fell in love with Luce and Daniel's story in Fallen, and was beyond excited and frustrated when I finished the book; excited because it was just so wow, frustrated because I had so many questions and had to wait so long for Torment! So I ws thrilled when the lovely ladies of Random House UK handed out bound manuscripts of Torment as gifts to the bloggers who came to the Book Bloggers Meet Up in May. And now I've read it, all I can say is OH MY GOD!

I am reeling with amazement as I write this at how incredible Torment is! The writing skill Kate just blows me away. We have a whole slew of new characters who are just so real they could jump out of the page, a plot that is just so believable, a rollercoaster of emotions that will tug at the heart strings, and so much excitement you won't be able to sit still!

You know those questions I mentioned earlier that were left over from Fallen? Well now I have a whole lot more to add to the list. Kate has this brilliant way of just scratching the surface of what's going on, giving you - and Luce - just a glimpse of what is the heart of, well, everything that makes this story, without really answering any questions, yet keeping you turning the pages like your life depended on it. I can't tell you how maddening - in a good way - it is to still not know what's going on! Kate drops hints throughout, and I have my theories, but who knows if they're right? It's just fantastic, I am completely gripped by this story!

We have a few new characters who make an entrance in Torment. Shelby, Luce's roommate at her new school, is great; she's sarcastic, she's a little rough sometimes, but altogether someone you would enjoy being around. Jasmine and Dawn are brilliant, both really sweet and excitable - Dawn especially, just the cutest thing ever. Then there's Miles, the sweetest, loveliest guy! Just adorable! They're all brilliant!

The love between Luce and Daniel is just so wow. I am unable to describe it eloquently. It's this big, wonderful, scary thing that is just overwhelming to read about. It's huge, it's poweful, it's endless - and it's really quite beautiful. Kate's may be some of, if not the best descriptions of all encompassing love I have ever read. It really is amazing how brilliantly Kate puts something so undescribable into words. It's one of the things that makes me love this series so much; not only is the plot exciting and intriguing, the love is just so real it's almost palpable.

The main action, like in Fallen, comes right at the end. There are smaller action scenes throughout the book, but the main event is towards the very end. Luce gets to see more this time round than in Fallen, and it's just awesome to see the angels at work. Really impressive, really exciting, really worrying! I loved it!

The ending! Oh my god, the ending! Such a cliffhanger, with all those added questions! I am dying to find out what will happen, but the next book in the series, Passion, who's publication date is yet to be announced, covers Luce's past lives, so is more of a prequel than a sequel. I cannot wait for the next two books, the wait for them is going to be torture! If you haven't already, you really need to start this series, it's so far beyond amazing there are no words!

Thanks to Random House for the review copy.

Published: 30th September 2010 in UK, 28th September 2010 in US
Publisher: Random House UK, Delecourte Books for Young Readers in US
Buy on Amazon UK
Buy on Amazon US
Lauren Kate's Website
Fallen UK Website

My review of Fallen

Other reviews:
Fluttering Butterflies
Sarah's Book Reviews
Girls Without a Bookshelf

Continue reading Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Guest Post from Lauren Kate - Blurring The Lines

A break in Body Image & Self-Perception Month, today I'm delighted to share with you a guest post from Lauren Kate, author of YA novel Fallen, to talk about good and evil.

Blurring the Lines

When people ask me where I got the idea for Fallen, I usually go back to a line in
Genesis*, which describes a group of angels who were cast out of heaven for falling in love with mortal women. I explain how this line made me wonder about what kind of mortal girl could attract an angel's affection. And then: What kind of emotional baggage would an angel have? What would her very over-protective parents think?

That was the spark that led to Luce and Daniel’s saga. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good love story. They’re what I’ve been writing my whole writing life. I believe that love is what (almost) all good stories really boil down to. But what made this particular love story feel bigger to me—what’s keeping me writing about it for four hefty books and almost as many years—is that I get to grapple with good and evil.

We throw around these two terms all the time, but what do they really mean? It’s difficult to define one without speaking of the other (many of us have heard the phrase “evil is the absence of doing good”). To me, this suggests an interesting reliance. Does “good” require “evil” to exist, to be perceived in the world? Does “evil” need “good” to pit itself against? (When I say “good,” I’m not talking about specific embodiments of what we think of as good or evil, like Mother Teresa or Hitler respectively, rather a broader look at everything each word might suggest.)

If you go back and look at Zoroastrianism, the earliest known dualistic religion (meaning there are two opposite sides), good and evil are twin brothers, two parts of a whole, and born of the same place. In Judaism, God is both merciful (“good”) and just (occasionally punishing or distant). He is, of course, never described as “evil,” but many scholars make the case that the Hebrew god contains some of the same dualities as the pair of Zoroastrian gods. A hard side, and a soft side. In Christianity, there’s Satan. We all know about him.

The fact that all three of these foundational religions have strong dualistic roots has always fascinated me. Can the lines dividing them really be that clean and that stark? And even if they are on paper—or in Heaven—what happens when you throw humans and their free will into the mess? What was black and white becomes grey.

I had all of this in my mind when I started to write Fallen. I’m interested in blurring the lines between angels and demons, between heaven and hell even further. I want readers to fall for the “evil” characters in these books as much as they fall for the “good” ones. Like Satan in Paradise Lost, Cam is (at times) the most charming character in Fallen. And Daniel certainly isn’t a perfect angel in every scene. Luce herself is so wide open—she’s perfect to be put in the middle of this age old battle between good and evil, to have to determine whether each side truly is what she’s grown up thinking it is.

I know many readers were unnerved by the epilogue where Daniel and Cam come together to discuss Luce’s future. All three of these characters have a long way to go before their story is complete, and I can’t wait to explore how complicated the relationship between good and evil can get before it’s over.

*Genesis 6:1-4. (There are other references—a mention in Isaiah about Lucifer being cast into the abyss, and a mention in Psalms 82 of a prince’s [read: possibly Lucifer’s] falling, for example—which together, many scholars think can explain the consequence of God’s anger over these angels’ lust.)

Thank you to Lauren for writing brilliant guest post! So interesting!

You can read my review of Fallen here. Torment is released in the UK on 30th September 2010, Fallen came out in paperback on 1st July 2010.
Be sure to check out the recently updated UK Fallen website and Lauren's website.

You can see the trailer for Fallen that is showing at Eclipse cinema screenings here, and the US teaser trailer for Torment here.

Continue reading Guest Post from Lauren Kate - Blurring The Lines