Review of "Torment"

"Torment"
Lauren Kate


5

Pub. Date: September 28, 2010
Pages: 464

Synopsis: 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.

It took me a little while to get into "Torment", but after about 40 pages or so I was completely hooked! I was very sad that the setting of the story had to change from Sword and Cross to a new school, but Shoreline turned out to be interesting enough. I loved the fact that Luce was infamous at Shoreline because of her and Daniel's epic love story. It was just a nice touch and added conflict to the story. I also liked how I never knew what to expect Daniel or Cam; this book played around with the good vs. evil and blurred the lines making me ding to see where Lauren Kate takes it. Is there really such a huge difference in Kate's world? Is right and wrong always black and white without any grey area?

I was worried that "Torment" would only be about Luce sitting at a school worried about Daniel and questioning their relationship, but luckily this was wrong. The story is about Luce searching for the truth about her relationship with Daniel, but it is also about Luce understanding her past and finding herself. I like how the shadows take on a different role in this book than in "Fallen". Even though Luce was taking unnecessary and dare I say stupid risks to use the power of the shadows to her own end, her experiences with the shadows is what made me fall in love with "Torment".

I was also pretty worried that Penn was a irreplaceable character and that I would spend the entirety of "Torment" missing her, but luckily new characters made the loss of Penn manageable. Shelby is a great character because she is rough around the edges and you never know what will come out of her mouth. Miles is a much more reliable friend and I just couldn't help but like him as the super sweet nice guy. He welcomed Luce to Shoreline on day one and didn't treat her differently because of the rumors about her and Daniel.

I honestly can't wait for the next book "Passion" to come out next summer and not just because "Torment" left on a giant cliffhanger. There are so many unanswered questions and it seems the more answers we get the more questions develop. Lauren Kate has definitely given herself lots to work with in the next two books in the series. I can't wait to see where "Passion" will take our characters!