suzemo

Do you see the cover? See how pretty it is? OK, you're done. You've just finished with the best part of the book.

There are a lot of comparisons with Twilight, and it makes sense because the formula is the same: Pathetic Girl + Supernatural Boy = TrueLuv4Eva (while showcasing one of the most unhealthy relationships possible).

Luce is a girl who may or may not have killed her first boy love (with the assistance of "Shadows" which everyone else takes as some sort of schizophrenia fueled hallucinations). She ends up at the most unrealistic boarding school ever. There are a handful of teachers and virtually no security, although the student body is supposed to be made up of some of the most dangerous juvie criminals around. The setting is a vague Eastern Georgia swampland/antebellum estate/concrete bunker. Luce shows up at school, gets treated like crap immediately by Daniel, her one true wuv, who she proceeds to shamelessly stalk. It's just all pretty fucked up. Bella and Edwards levels of fucked up, although I'll give it to Luce that she actually did something.

Daniel's last name is Grigori, which should tell you all you need to know. Supposedly, Kate did a lot of research into fallen angels, etc, but it definitely does not show. Fallen Angels are largely outside of most religious canon, so you'd think she would have plenty of leeway to work within established frameworks, but she just ignores any established mythology... which begs the question of why she even used things like "Daniel Grigori" as a character name *shrug* And I don't mean quibbly little points, but bigger things (well, I guess if vampires sparkle in sunlight anything is possible now). For the record: Fallen angels didn't fall for love. Methuselah =/= Satan =/= Lucifer.

Even worse than the butchery of Judeo-Christian mythology around the angels is that the whole story ("twist") can be figured out in the first chapter, but Kate treats her readers like they're idiots, giving the awesome "reveal" towards the end, after several hundred pages of very, very slow movement. No, it's OK, Kate, we're not all idiots.

There's something in Kate's writing that leads me to believe she could be a decent writer, but instead read Twilight and said "oh hell, I can do *that*"... if that's the case, well, mission accomplished, well done.