Book Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Pages: 452

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pub. Date: September 28, 2010

Source: My copy

My Rating: 4 out of 5

*There are some small spoilers if you haven't read Fallen. Read my review of Fallen.

Goodreads says, "Hell on earth. That's what it's like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel. It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts - immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students -Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.  At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn't told her everything. He's hiding something - something dangerous. What if Daniel's version of the past isn't actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else? The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series . . . where love never dies."

Luce is away from Daniel while he hunts the Outcasts, who are trying to kill Luce.  He sends Luce to a school in California called Shoreline; it's for Nephilim.  Luce is, essentially, trying to start over and meet new friends at Shoreline, but is having a hard time being away from Daniel and she doesn't see him often.  Luce also learns about Shadows while at Shoreline and how she can access her past lives through them.  The more she learns about her past, the more she realizes she doesn't know the full story, thanks to Daniel.  In turn, she starts questioning her relationship with Daniel and longing for a more normal life. Torment by Lauren Kate is the second book in the Fallen series and it won't disappoint fans.


At first, I was a bit hesitant regarding Torment, which is why I didn't read it last year.  Fallen was decent, but I realized that it had some of those cookie-cutter YA elements to it that drive me nuts.  Torment has some of those very same elements as well, but once I got past them, I was in for an enjoyable read.  There were many plot twists, some were predictable, but surprisingly some caught me off guard.  


One of the reasons I enjoyed Fallen was the fact that it was located in sultry Savannah, one of my favorite cities.  Sadly, Torment doesn't take place there and lacks some of the atmosphere that Fallen had.  On the other the hand, I liked the setting of Shoreline and the descriptions of the fog, the ocean, the rocky shore, etc.  


I used to be a big fan of Daniel; however, Luce meets a new guy at Shoreline named Miles that I liked a lot.  I don't want to give too much away, but it was nice to see Luce branch out and meet new people separate from Daniel.  She really took matters into her own hands at times, which was a nice change. I'm all about this, because Daniel felt too bossy for me in Torment; frankly, he got on my nerves. Luce also met Shelby, her new roommate, who I really enjoyed. She's got a spunky no-nonsense attitude, which I thought played off of Luce's personality pretty well.  If you are a fan of Cam, he is also in this book, but not as much.  Shockingly, he is working with Daniel to get rid of the Outcasts as there is currently a truce between both parties.


Passion, the third book in the series, already came out this month. I think I will enjoy Passion even more than Torment as it has some historical elements and it's no surprise that I am a big fan of historical fiction.  I will definitely have to get my hands on a copy, because after that cliffhanger, I am desperate to find out what happens!

*Buy a copy of Torment

*Check out the book trailer

*Buy a copy of Fallen

*Buy a copy of Passion