March 2017: Fallen by Lauren Kate (book and movie review)
Synopsis:
Fallen is the first young adult paranormal romance novel from the Fallen series written by Lauren Kate. The novel revolves around seventeen year old Lucinda (or Luce as she is known). She falls in love with the good-looking and highly intelligent Daniel at their reform school but soon discovers that he is a fallen angel, cursed, destined neither to ascend to Heaven nor descend to Hell. The two realize that they have spent their lifetimes finding and losing one another, and face the final challenge to keep evil forces at bay and seek redemption for all.
A movie just came out based on the book. Because I watched it and read the book, I thought I will do a little review on it :)
The book: 7/10
At first, this book reminded me of Twilight because of the love triangle and of Hush Hush because of the love between angel and human so I didn't really wanted to read it. But, on one of my friend's advice, I decided to give it a try. And I was not disappointed.
Basically, When Luce meets Cam and Daniel in her new school, she is torn between them! They seem to hate each other and are in constant competition! But Cam seems to genuinely like her and Daniel doesn't. That's the thing, Daniel isn't interested in her but she is very interested in him! What she doesn't know is that Daniel is hiding a dark secret: he is an fallen angel.
The setting is delightfully Gothic, the highlight being the church that has been turned into a natatorium.
This book is a book that takes quite a while to get going but don't give up on it! It gets better; it is a book where Luce is getting to know all the characters and there is only action at the end of the book. But it is very good, things do happen! It's a romance book as anyone could probably tell but there isn't lots of romance...
I liked this book also because it's not just a story. It's a fiction that teach you something real about some characters from the Bible just like Percy Jackson told me about Greek Mythology. There are echoes of Milton’s Paradise Lost, the classic epic poem about the struggle for ascendancy between God and Satan and the consequences of the Fall.
After I finished Fallen, all I wanted to do is get Torment (book #2).
it may not be the best book you have ever read but it is an enjoyable read.
The movie: 5/10
I watched the movie in Italian because it's not yet out in English or French (sadly). Even though I didn't understand every dialogues, I've catch the main parts.
I sadly thought that, as with Vampire Academy (another book series that I really enjoy) they tried WAY too hard to make this something it wasn't. They changed many things and brought in things from the other books. They barely showed some characters that are actually important for what's up next. It was just a big mess to me. I mean, maybe if I hadn't have read the books I may have enjoyed it a little more but I would have had sooooo many more questions if I didn't know what was going on already. I doubt it will get any sequels due to the fans of the books not enjoying the movie. I would like to see if they could get better as the Twilight movies did but I don't think they will take that chance.
Anyway, I think that nowadays, the book is still most of the time better than the movie adaptation, especially with teenage fiction book.
I still spent a nice night watching the movie and it wasn't that bad if you haven't read the book.
But, I will not recommend someone who read the book to watch it.
