Torment by Lauren Kate

Torment
Lauren Kate
452 pages
Published September 28 2010 by Delacorte Press
Rating: 2/5

First, I'd like to just say that Torment's cover is beautiful. The dress, like the Fallen cover, is to die for and the background is eerily beautiful. Now, on to the story. Okay, so Torment picks up right where Fallen left off which I believe is good as the author keeps the story moving forward. Sometime authors like to skip time in between books and then have to go back and explain everything that happened in between which is fine but why waste time going back when we could be moving forward. Due to the immediate pickup, there isn't much growth to the main character Luce, however, you would think there would be some slight growth considering she is now aware of the situation/danger she's in. I mean if I'm in grave danger, I'd try to up my maturity and stop whining about how I don't get do to what I want to do. Maybe Luce's attitude is why we have a slightly different Daniel in this book. At times, Daniel came off to act as if he was Luce's father but I guess that's understandable if she's acting like a little brat. I'm not sure how I felt about this change in character. I feel like it was just there because the author needed some type of friction between the two. It just didn't seem organic to me.

One thing I'm starting to notice in the Fallen series is that Lauren Kate is REALLY obvious with some of her characters. Cam reeked of sleezeball in Fallen and you could smell "love triangle" a mile away when new character, Miles was introduced in this book. It was also easy to figure out new character Phil as his physical description was EXACTLY THE SAME as the evil Outcasts. A little less obviousness to the characters would help. I feel like I already know what's going to happen in the story. If I know what's going to happen, then what's the point of reading on? Ms. Kate DISCRETION is key!

Now, on to my favorite scene of the book, THANKSGIVING! I don't want to give away too much but let's just say this is the funniest scene throughout the entire book and involves four humans, two half breeds (human and angel), three angels, three demons, and a dog dressed as a turkey!

Overall, Torment was okay. I feel the Goodreads synopsis is a little misleading. Luce learns some things but not a lot and there isn't much growth to her character. This book is definitely "busy work." It's just meant to keep the reader busy until the third book. If you are into the series, I would recommend this book because even though it's "busy work" there are a few pieces of info you''ll need to get before moving on to the third book.