So: Trash Tuesday is born.
'What's Trash Tuesday?' I hear you ask.
On Trash Tuesday I'm going to post Book Reviews. But not just any book reviews. There will be no Booker or Orange prize winners here. I'm going to review mass- market brain-candy. Mostly Young Adult mass-market brain-candy because I plough through them like popcorn - and like popcorn one bite always makes me want MORE!
So, the first tome to be reviewed?
I'm going to go with Fallen by Lauren Kate, if only because I tripped over it so many times last week that I when someone asks me about the bruises on my legs I want to be able to shake my head and say 'blogging injury' in a knowing tone, perhaps with a sigh and one arched eyebrow.
No. Actually Fallen was ok- but wait! I have yet to introduce you to:
BROWNIAN MOTION
My patented* ranking system, named after the strange phenomenon that occurs when you read a book by Best-Selling-Author-Dan-Brown.*
Brownian Motion Ranking works like this: I read a book (with me so far?) and when I finish reading it I note down how I felt about it. From 'Wow! I'm gonna read it again RIGHT NOW!' through to 'Meh'. Then I wait 24 hours and think about how the book makes me feel. Is it still as great as it was yesterday? Or is it still pretty good, but maybe not so fantastic that I have the urge to carry copies around with me and give them out like the Watchtower.* I do the same on day three and so on until day seven when I complete the review.
So, with the method out of the way, here comes the madness.
Fallen actually has a Brownian Motion rating that dates back to long before I actually read the book. I saw saw it at Waterstones, liked the look of the dress on the cover and picked it up. As soon as I saw the word 'Angel' it went back on the shelf. I had absolutely NO intention of ever reading it.
But then I went on what can charitably be called a reading binge*. I picked over the choicest morsels first, not thinking that eventually I would be left with only tins of spam and noodle-coodle.
Fallen began to look like a possibility.
Finally, in the middle of December I caved and picked it up to complete a 3 for 2.
Lucinda (Luce) Price has been sent to a decaying southern reform school called Sword and Cross for something that gets hinted at, but not revealed, for a good chunk of the book. She doesn't come across as the type who gets sent to reform school, so you figure out pretty quickly that she was either framed, or the EVENT was pretty bad. While at Sword and Cross she meets Daniel, a gorgeous boy who (like all gorgeous boys in recent YA novels) spends half of his time treating her like crap and the other half acting like some kind of Romantic ideal all lip melting kisses and walks by moonlight. Oh yeah, also like every boy in recent YA, Daniel isn't what he appears to be. He's an Angel.
Cue the 'he loves me, he loves me not' melodrama and the 'our love is greater than time and space' hyperbole. So far so good on the 'Be-a-YA-Writer-in-Three-Easy-Steps' check-list.
Where Angels are involved, so are Demons and Luce and Daniel soon have something to occupy them other than laps in the schools pool (a converted church) and alternately avoiding each other and the bodies that start to turn up. Luce is in danger, Daniel wants to save her, not everyone is on the side you think yadda yadda yadda.
And it was good. I enjoyed reading it. The mystery about how Luce got sent off to reform school is pretty well handled, and though you kind of guess the what, you certainly don't guess the how. I'll be interested to see if the tiny seed that gets planted in that reveal comes back into play in the final book of the series.
I did mention at the beginning that this book has Angels in it, right? Okay - well then to try and stay semi-spoiler free I'll only say that some of the Angel characters are pretty bad-ass and others are just pretty bad.
That's actually my biggest complaint about it - my day three thought. Why weren't the two main characters as interesting as the supporting cast? As a wannabe writer, this really bothers me - mostly because I'm afraid that I do it too. (I'm trying really hard not to!) Luce suffers a lot from Bella syndrome - in many scenes she seems to exist solely for the other characters to demonstrate their awesomeness. In others she's better and you can begin to see that there might be something worth rooting for there, but it isn't enough to make me connect with her.* I get no sense that there might be a reason she is so flat - and Lauren Kate has the perfect reason, she just never seems to make use of it. I think that's really at the root of my feelings for it. There are some serious questions that I felt needed to be answered - just what are Angels doing in reform school anyway? And had I been given an answer - any answer to that question and the one above, I probably would have accepted it. For example, Luce had been sent off to Catholic/Protestant/Buddhist/Whatever boarding school for her transgressions, I would not even have questioned the presence of Angels. As it is, I did. Like the question of why Luce so often seems flat,my questions are something that 90% of the supporting cast could and in some cases, should comment on, but never do.
Fallen certainly isn't the best YA book I've read this year. But it certainly isn't the worst. Not by a long shot. Lauren Kate writes well. She writes most of her teenage (human) characters in a believable way and the humour dotted through the book doesn't feel forced. I enjoyed it while reading and my appreciation dropped only a little over the week. I'm willing to admit that the nit-picks listed above might only occur to someone who reads the book with the aim of reviewing it.
So, Brownian Motion Rating starts in the sub-basement on first contact, rises to indifference, reaches acceptance, peaks at enjoyment and then levels out back at acceptance one week after reading. It's an easy read and annoyances are often iced over for several chapters before reappearing. There are some really good characters - Arianne, Pen and Miss Sophia all deserve more than their allotted number of pages. But the two main characters often feel a bit flat and those nit-picky questions DO keep popping up. I'll probably read it again. As mentioned below, I have already finished the second book in the series and book three comes out this summer. Fallen gets 6.5 out of 10.
Next Trash Tuesday I'll review another YA novel : Maggie Steifvater's Lament. Faeries and Music and Magic. Oh my!
* It's very shiny.
*While reading a book by Best-Selling-Author-Dan-Brown (at least the first time you read one of his books or if you are perhaps, on a beach holiday and spending a large percentage of each day slightly drunk) most people really enjoy it. You read the book and you think, 'Wow, this is great. This story is fantastic. I can't wait to find out what happens next.' You give yourself paper-cuts you turn the pages so fast. You ignore family friends and personal hygiene. The book is that good.
The day after you finish a Best-Selling-Author-Dan-Brown book, you sit around in a happy glow. The book was really good. You can't quite stop thinking about it.
On day three you think, yeah. That was good. I enjoyed that, but I'm not actually sure the story made that much sense. What was the point in making the Evil Monk an Albino? And why is everyone introduced with both their name and profession?
By day five plot holes and the overuse of adjectives are seriously beginning to bother you.
By day seven you think that if no one ever finds out that you read a book by Best-Selling-Author-Dan-Brown, all the better.
*There is actually a book that makes me feel like this. I have purchased multiple copies specifically to give to people as un-birthday presents.
*I worked my way through the 3 for 2 offers with the same single minded focus I usually reserve for a box of peanut butter daisies. I was reading three or four books a week, EVERY WEEK. In the month of September alone I spent over £300 on books.
*Okay SPOILER I've also read the second book and I'm now thinking that this is either intentional or else Kate has become a much better writer really quickly. Luce has fewer wallpaper scenes and more spine in book two. She's a definite work in progress. If she ends up somewhere 'real' I'll forgive her characterisation in Fallen and revise the rating accordingly. Until then, I'm annoyed.
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