Official Review: Fallen (The Fallen Saga, Book 1)

[SharisseEM]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Fallen (The Fallen Saga, Book 1)" by Emily Clarke.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Love, friendship and fallen angels… It’s an ordinary teenager’s life if you take out the last one. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, a lot. Fallen is the first book of The Fallen Saga by Emily Clarke. It’s a Young Adult novel with the paranormal injected into it and focuses on fallen angels and teenager problems. A little disclaimer though, there are a couple of sensitive issues in this book such as self-harm. It’s not graphic but it’s present.

At the beginning, our heroine, Julie Anderson, is made to leave her life, friends and the boy she likes, behind in Connecticut after her father gets a new job in Texas. This forces the family to relocate. To her, it seems like the world is going to end but when she arrives, it’s not as bad as it seems. Yet. She finds a new friend, Stephanie, with whom she can connect with and a new love interest in the form of Nick Landers, a fallen angel who has vowed to never fall in love with a human being. All I can really say about Nick is… Nick. Oh, Nick. He’s a bit of a creep. He has an unhealthy obsession with Julie that borders on controlling and a lack of explanation as to why. A couple of hints would have been much appreciated or maybe just one good one.

I will admit that Julie is a bit of a dramatic character. She even thinks so herself. However, I can empathize with Julie and how she reacted towards being made to move to Texas because I’ve been in that exact same situation. I left everything I knew to move to a country where majority of the people spoke a different language. She was comfortable in Connecticut and had everything going well there. It was home. Although I didn’t react in such a dramatic way, it was pretty funny at times when I read her dialogue only to remember that I’ve said or thought something similar. I felt glad when Julie struck up a friendship with Stephanie and it was nice seeing that friendship develop into something strong.

The odd thing about this book is that I felt like Julie’s parents were close to nonexistent. Sure, they were present in a few scenes but it never really felt like they had a presence except to just show up so Julie could speak and show her frame of mind at the moment. I also can’t help but judge them for their decisions and how they don’t see what their daughter really needs. Thus, when Julie’s mother passed away, I was kind of like ‘meh’. It should have been a ‘NO, NO, NO’ moment because that is supposed to be a pivotal scene where Julie comes to realize that her own life is at risk but I felt indifferent. Oh, and just in case, that is not a spoiler. It’s in the synopsis.

This book was a bit confusing to read from the get go for a couple of reasons. Not that I’m an expert on language but there were many punctuation errors and commas were misused. Scenes did not flow seamlessly and seemed to just be thrown together leaving me confused as to when one idea ended and another began. This book consisted of a lot of dialogue and there were plenty of times when it was hard to tell who was speaking. There was also the switching of thoughts. In this book, the thoughts of other characters are shown and sometimes, it’s only one sentence before it’s back to Julie’s point of view. It was interesting plot wise and there's a lot of potential here so I'm looking forward to seeing the development in the next book.

Overall, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I think Ms. Clarke handled the sensitive topics quite well without glorifying them. Those are pretty tricky issues to include in a book but it made the book that much more realistic especially since plenty of people have been through it so a plus point for that. Julie is a relatable character and her friendship with Stephanie added to the book’s appeal. However, the language errors and more importantly, the sudden change in scenes and point of views gave me whiplash. This book is the first of the Saga meaning that it does end on a cliffhanger so some might want to wait for the rest of the books to come out before reading. Still, I think readers who enjoy dramatic Young Adult romance books might like this one.

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Fallen (The Fallen Saga, Book 1)
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Like SharisseEM's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

Fantastic review SharissEM. I enjoyed reading your review very much. It's very informative and I liked everything you had to say about it. Especially, "Nick. Oh Nick". Great job!

[SharisseEM]

Fantastic review SharissEM. I enjoyed reading your review very much. It's very informative and I liked everything you had to say about it. Especially, "Nick. Oh Nick". Great job!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!