Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Title: Torment
Author: Lauren Kate
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publish Date: September 28, 2010
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Pages: 452
Series: Fallen
1. Fallen (review)
2. Torment
3. Passion (June 14, 2011)

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.

From Goodreads

I was a little wary of being disappointed by Torment. I think that’s always a possibility with sequels. Also, I’d just read Crescendo (sequel to Hush, Hush) and I wasn’t as impressed with it as I had been with the first book in the series. Basically, I didn’t want the same thing to happen with Torment.

I really enjoyed Torment, just as much as I did the first. It took me longer to get through it than I had planned, but I didn’t end up finding the relaxing time around Christmas I was hoping for. I’m actually happy I didn’t just devour it so quickly because it gave me time to think about things that were happening throughout the book. Luce is stuck at Shoreline, a school attended by Nephilim kids who are being taught what they need to know to survive the inevitable war. Daniel is off protecting Luce, but Luce really doesn’t have much of an idea of what’s going on, she just feels like Daniel is treating her like a child (which is the way it seems). Daniel wants her to figure things out for herself which seems very vague and hard to do. With the help of the Nephilim friends she makes at Shoreline, Luce attempts to uncover information about her past lives and figure out what exactly it is that Daniel wants from her.

Luce is still the independent, tough young woman that we met in Fallen, which I love. Although she turns to jelly whenever Daniel is around and any frustrations she may have toward him dissipate, she is still independent of him and does what she wants. Granted, she probably shouldn’t always do what she wants because it gets her into trouble, but the point is she’s not afraid to do it. I know I can’t blame her for being upset with Daniel because he sometimes treats her like it’s another time period and that women are subordinate to men. It’s frustrating, so I see where Luce is coming from.

The new characters that were introduced in Torment are absolutely awesome. I really loved them all and think that they are great additions to Luce’s life. They help her fit in at Shoreline and help her discover things about her past lives. Shelby, her roommate, is a little bit like Arriane. She has this tough exterior, but is really just a softie on the inside that would do anything for her friends. I think she’s a great character. Miles is my other favourite. He’s the-boy-next-door material in the sweetest more kindest and cutest way. It’s great that him and Luce became such close friends.

All in all, Torment really answers a lot of questions about angels, demons, and Luce and Daniel’s past. If you thought questions were answered at the end of Fallen (like I did) then be prepared because there’s so much more to learn. The pace of Torment was great, I didn’t think it lagged or went too fast at any point. And, same as before, Lauren is amazing with words and knows how to string them together beautifully. Highly recommended.