Reviewer: Andrea
I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
The Summary:
As chaos descends on a crippled Earth, survivors are tormented by strange psychic gifts. In this time of apocalyptic despair, love is put to the test. One woman with mysterious healing power guides eight children to safety. Charismatic Arthur offers her a haven. Slowly Emma falls for him. But at the moment of their sweetest love, his devastating secret is revealed, and they are lost to each other. The award-winning first book in the acclaimed After Series.
The Review:
I’m afraid Fallen fell a bit short for me. Lots of action? You betcha. Lots of characters to remember? You betcha. Lots of ‘mist’ rules? You betcha. Protagonist catchphrase that drove me as crazy as the mists? You betcha. Post-apocalyptic bliss? Not so much.
The idea of the novel isn’t really unique. These “end of the world we are all so dead” novels seem to be pretty common nowadays, probably because of the doomsday tv of late; however, this one did, at least, have a novel method-o-destruction—the mist. This ubiquitous mist rises at unpredictable times and consumes everything in its path, buildings, people, and apparently sanity as well. If you are lucky enough to escape its insidious grasp, you could be left a few sticks shy of a campfire but not always. You see, that was my issue. There were lots of (for lack of better term) ‘rules,’ but those rules seemed to be as fickle as the mist itself. The mist kills but not everyone. The mist crazes but not always. The mist returns but not everywhere. The mist grants supernatural powers but only to some. Confused yet?
The character turnaround was overwhelming, too. Obviously, characters will come and go when you live with a semi-nomadic—but extremely intelligent—band of rag tags converging in France from all over Europe and Asia, but I became completely frustrated by all the names, backstories, and former occupations. However, I’m thinking this might not be such a terrible place to live considering the wealth of knowledge converged in camp. Emma seems to be the only useless character in the whole place; thank goodness she developed that whole healing thing, that and she’s apparently great in the bedroll. Otherwise, why would Arthur keep her around?
2.5 stars
