Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Dear Blog,

I'm sure most of you know that Torment is being released tomorrow here in the UK (and is just released in the States)  Hence, my review:

Summary (from Goodreads): How many lives do you need to live before you find someone worth dying for? In the aftermath of what happened at Sword & Cross, Luce has been hidden away by her cursed angelic boyfriend, Daniel, in a new school filled with Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans. Daniel promises she will be safe here, protected from those who would kill her. At the school Luce discovers what the Shadows that have followed her all her life mean - and how to manipulate them to see into her other lives. Yet the more Luce learns about herself, the more she realizes that the past is her only key to unlocking her future...and that Daniel hasn't told her everything. What if his version of the past isn't actually the way things happened...what if Luce was really meant to be with someone else?

Review: The first chapter of Torment sees Luce arriving at a new school, this time on the sunny California coastline, and the aforementioned school is (imaginatively named) Shoreline. It's a far cry from the deliciously creepy sinisterness of Sword & Cross; this time the students go for parties on the beach, and there's not a CCTV camera in sight. It makes a refreshing change.

The new cast of characters Luce meets seem to fill the roles of those she left behind at Sword & Cross. Luce's new room mate is yoga addict Shelby, who seems to take the place of Arianne, while the utterly charming Miles assumes the role of Cam. Worry not, for the old S&C crew do make an appearance at the end, and Arianne even has a cameo in Las Vegas. It's a little weird, but in truth I suppose I could imagine her there.
Luce's friend Callie was a nice idea, but I really struggled to like her (I'm not sure if you were supposed to or not). She just seemed slightly giggly and airheaded- although I suppose that compared to a load of angels, demons and Nephilims, anyone relatively human looks that plain and dumb.
Anyway. Back to Miles, for he plays a pretty big part in Torment. Though Miles is not a demon, unlike Cam, and a mere Nephilim, he's still sweet and likeable, and clearly I'm not the only one who thinks so. He and Luce seem pretty attratced to one another, which adds yet another dimension to the tangled web of love that is Luce's life.

Speaking of tangled webs of love. The relationship between Luce and Daniel is just as eternal and passionate as it was before, but this time there's a rough edge to every passionate kiss, which made me happy. Just because it's eternal, doesn't mean that Luce and Daniel can't have a few spats now and again. One one hand it was slightly irritating to see the two fighting, which they do frequently in Torment, because they're so right for each other.  But on the other,  it just seems like a more realistic portrayal of love than some completely perfect relationship that you often come across in books, where the characters never say a word against their significant other. It makes me happy that Luce doesn't just do everything that Daniel tells her to do, even if it makes her sound slightly whiny at times. Now and again I wanted to slap Daniel and yell, "if you love her that much, then trust her, dammit!" Which for much of the book he doesn't seem to do.  And to quote Luce herself, "how am I supposed to understand if you don't tell me what's happening?"  

My thoughts exactly. But here we find out a little more about the mysterious Outcasts and their motives, as well as Luce's past lives with Daniel. It makes for pretty interesting reading, to resolve all these mysteries, and the glimpses into Luce's past lives are probably the most interesting part of the story, seeing as they left me asking the most questions in the last book.
Torment reminded me in a lot of ways of The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray. In some respects, nothing big and exciting really happens for the first couple of hundred phrases, until the climax, which is utterly fantastic and makes up for it. So part of me thinks, does it really have to be this long? But the other part thinks, yes it does. Because many of the questions asked in Fallen are resolved, but still enough is left unsaid to give the book an air of mystery about it.

Despite the slight slowness in parts, it was more addictive than I thought it was, and I read the last 150 pages or so in one sitting. The climax was particularly exciting, and leaves things open for the third book in the series/trilogy/whatever it is going to become, Passion. I suppose it's much like chocolate; you think you should save some for later, because surely it's not healthy, but then you devour it all anyway. It's hard to put down, but easy to pick up. 

In Three Words: Intriguing, romantic, unputdownable.
Recommended for: Everyone who read and loved Fallen. And if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?!
Rating: 4. 

Thank you to Random House for sending me a copy to review.