Began reading: 4.7.2017
Completed reading: 15.7.2017
Overall rating: 3 stars
Love never dies...
It took Lucinda an eternity to find her beloved angel, Daniel.
But he waited for her. Now they are forced apart again, to protect Luce from the Outcasts - immortals who want her dead. During their separation, Luce learns about her mysterious past lives. But the more she discovers, the more she suspects that Daniel is hiding something.
What if Daniel's version of the past isn't true?
Is it really their destiny to be together?
Or is Luce actually meant to be with somebody else?
Torment by Lauren Kate is a fictional young adult novel that contains fantasy, paranormal and romance themes. This is the second time that I have read this book, and I enjoyed it more this time around. There is still room for improvement, but we’ll discuss this as we go along.
Now that Luce has discovered that her life holds much more significance than she first believed, she has been re-located to a new school, filled with Nephilim – students with angel blood in them. Each student has a special talent, but Luce is left feeling out-of-place when she has nothing in common with her fellow students. Luce’s sense of belonging is further disrupted when Daniel decides to keep secrets from her, so Luce relies on her new friends to help her understand what she sees in the Announcers – footage that gives her insight into how her past lives have ended. As Luce explores her former selves, she begins to question why she has always chosen Daniel. Is she better off with another boy? It’s just another question to add to the list of unanswered ones, but the ultimate confusion is brought about when Luce encounters Outcasts – blinded angels that want her dead. With all of the secrets that are being kept from Luce, who can she trust? Is she really in as much danger as everyone says she’s in, or is it a trick to get her on a particular side of the growing war between good and evil?
The book was well-written, especially in terms of structure. Usually, I like when a plot has a major complication and the characters need to spend the rest of the book trying to resolve it. However, this didn’t apply to this novel, as there was more than one complication that needed to be solved. For some strange reason, I really liked that about this plot but I’ll explain it in more detail a little later. There were also various literary techniques that helped with emphasising a specific emotion, description or image, including imagery, setting and conflict. I found that these literary techniques enhanced my understanding of the narrative, which is why I enjoyed the overall plot. There were some great quotes thrown into the book, including:
Having fun wasn’t usually such a simple thing. For so long, laughter had usually been closely followed by guilt, some nagging feeling that she wasn’t supposed to be enjoying herself for one reason or another. But somehow tonight she felt lighter. Without even realising it, she’d been able to shrug off the darkness (p. 112).
His eyes burned violet – not with anger but with intense desire. The kind of look that made you love a person so much, you missed him even when he was standing right in front of you (p. 118).
‘When we summon Announcers, we’re making a sort of wish. Not a wish for anything material, but a wish to better understand the world, our role in it, and what’s to become of us’ (p. 200).
More quotes from the book can be found here.
Something that I always look out for in a book is the variety of characters. In a series like this one, we are given quite a few characters in the first book, then a whole new set are added as the series progresses. I loved that Kate introduced a range of new characters in this novel, but also some familiar faces from the first book were brought back. What made it even better was that some of the old characters got along with the new ones – it was just really interesting to see the old and new characters getting along with each other. Because of this, I’m excited to see how these characters will work together in the coming books. I can’t wait!
In my review for the previous novel, I had a bit of a rant about how uninspiring Luce’s character was and how I hoped that she would grow a backbone. Well, I can see that she has undergone a bit of personal development and has become a little more independent (I mean, she kind of had to because Daniel is being aloof), and I hope that she continues to do things for herself rather than relying on Daniel for everything. I’m hoping that Luce’s decision to explore her past lives will mean that she’ll grow even more independent. There’s nothing more annoying than reading a series with a boring, predictable protagonist.
I mentioned at the beginning of the review that the structure of this book was something that I liked. The narrative was eventful, with not one but a few complications. Like I said, something like this would bother me, but this time it made the book far more interesting. I’m not entirely sure why, but the conflict just made everything more immersive and fascinating. Quite a lot happened and it all linked together, which could be a reason why it wasn’t irritating. It kept the plot from growing dull, and I’m hoping this continues in the next book!
In the previous book, I discussed how similar it was to Twilight, primarily because it was inspired by such a popular book and because it was such a successful text from the same genre. I was hoping that this book would veer away from such a stereotypical storyline, but I was disappointed by how much this plot continues to resemble Twilight. Because of this, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have – it was predictable and clichéd, cringey and unpleasant. The most off-putting thing was how it was meant to be romantic, but just came off as weird. It made the book’s main characters unappealing, which was disheartening.
Speaking of cringey, what was up with the love interests? I thought that having some competition between Daniel and the new guy would spice things up, but it just made things confusing. On the plane to California, Luce abruptly tells a guy (who was interested in her) that she had a boyfriend. YET SHE GOES AHEAD AND KISSES ANOTHER GUY!
My favourite character was Francesca because she was the embodiment of an angel, really sweet and considerate. I don’t really know why I was so drawn to her because she was hardly a prominent character, but she was so interesting. I can’t wait to read more about her.
Daniel and Luce really irritated me – why so many secrets, lies and betrayals? Everything would be fine if Daniel wasn’t so patronising and Luce wasn’t so stubborn. Luce’s stupidity is the reason why so many bad things are happening. Why can’t she see that? How can such a “smart” girl, who claims to do so well at school, be so dumb? How does that even work?
My favourite parts of the novel are Luce’s introduction to Shoreline, and the Thanksgiving at her house. Luce’s introduction to Shoreline was fascinating because it was a stark contrast to Sword & Cross and because we were introduced to new characters. I also enjoyed the Thanksgiving chapter because the dinner with everyone was creative and fun.
Recommendation time! If you like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, The Hollow series by Jessica Verday, and the Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Fallen, the Twilight series, Lucifer tv series, The Vampire Diaries tv series, and Tuck Everlasting.
I will also be reviewing the rest of the Fallen series, including Passion, Fallen in Love, Rapture and Unforgiven. Keep an eye out for those!
My review for Fallen can be found by clicking on the title.
Happy reading!
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