Fallen
Lauren Kate, 2009
Fantasy Young adultRomanceHorror
A girl sent to reform school is drawn to a boy whose familiarity feels older than her own memory. The mood is heavy with longing and a low hum of dread, while the reform-school setting keeps the pace brisk and slightly wry.
Feels like longing, curiosity and dread. About freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like this if you enjoy YA fantasy romances set in eerie institutions and don’t mind a heroine pulled toward a boy she can’t quite explain. The attraction arrives with a strong sense of fated familiarity, so readers who want a gradual, grounded courtship may find that pull too immediate.
Why read it
It gives you a moody, fast-moving brush with angel mythology and reform-school tension, with curiosity and dread doing the work.
A page from the book
The first ten minutes at a school where the rules are a warning.
Luce barged into the fluorescent-lit lobby of the Sword & Cross School ten minutes later than she should have. A barrel-chested attendant with ruddy cheeks and a clipboard clamped under an iron bicep was already giving orders—which meant Luce was alreadybehind. “So remember, it’s meds, beds, and reds,” the attendant barked at a cluster of three other students all standing with their backs to Luce. “Remember the basics and no one gets hurt.” Luce hurried to slip in behind the group. She was still trying to figure out whether she’d filled out the giant stack of paperwork correctly, whether this shaven-headed guide standing before them was a man or a woman, whether there was anyone to help herwith this enormous duffel bag, whether her parents were going to get rid of her beloved Plymouth Fury the minute they arrived home from dropping her off here. Lauren Kate.The title Fallen refers to the angels who fell from heaven; the series became part of the early-2010s YA angel-fiction boom.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Fallen for me?
- You may like this if you enjoy YA fantasy romances set in eerie institutions and don’t mind a heroine pulled toward a boy she can’t quite explain. The attraction arrives with a strong sense of fated familiarity, so readers who want a gradual, grounded courtship may find that pull too immediate.
- What is Fallen like?
- The mood is heavy with longing and a low hum of dread, while the reform-school setting keeps the pace brisk and slightly wry. Feels like longing, curiosity and dread. About freedom.
- What should I read after Fallen?
- If you liked Fallen, try Crescendo (Becca Fitzpatrick), Clockwork Angel (Cassandra Clare) and Lock Every Door (Riley Sager).
A taste of the feed
The moment a romantic promise becomes something you can bleed for.
I gripped his collar and pulled him against me, kissing him more fervently, sealing the promise between us. I locked my fingers between his, the sharp edge of the ring biting into our palms. Nothing I did seemed to bring me close enough to him, no amount of him was enough. The ring ground deeper into my hand, until I was certain it had broken skin. A blood promise.
Crescendo · Becca Fitzpatrick
What it means when a shattered face doesn't bleed.
It connected with a sickening sound. Miranda reeled back—and then straightened. Tessa shrieked and dropped the globe, staring—the whole left side of Miranda’s face was crushed in, like a paper mask that had been smashed flat on one side. Her cheekbone was flattened, her lip mashed against her teeth. But there was no blood, no blood at all.
Clockwork Angel · Cassandra Clare
The part of poverty that people who haven't lived it miss.
Because here’s the thing about being poor—most people don’t understand it unless they’ve been there themselves. They don’t know what a fragile balancing act it is to stay afloat and that if, God forbid, you momentarily slip underwater, how hard it is to resurface.
Lock Every Door · Riley Sager
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