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selenelavellan · 7 years

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Concert AU

Dirthamen, Deceit, and Fear are @feynites

TW for Abuse, past rape mentions.

Selene breaks the news to Des over milkshakes.

Their customary milkshakes, at a small family run restaurant between the community center where Des attends his rehabilitation meetings and their old apartment. A bit out of the way now that they've moved, but not enough to deter them from the only place they've found that carries the blackberry and chocolate flavor they've come to prefer.

“I'm leaving for Var Bellanaris,” she announces “Tomorrow.”

Des's eyes snap away from his phone screen, attention fully on her, now.

“I'm sorry. I think I must've hallucinated for a moment there. What did you just say?”

“I bought a plane ticket to Verchiel,” she continues “It'll only be a few days walk to get there if I take the old paths. I should be back by the end of the week.”

“Why would you ever go back there?”

Selene lets out a sigh, fidgeting with the end of her straw. “It's been fifteen years since I saw Mamae. You know Elrogathe hasn't made the journey. Someone should check on her.”

Des blows into his milkshake, bubbles rising rapidly to the surface as he gives her his best 'you have got to be shitting me' look.

“You're truly awful at the 'leave the past in the past' thing, y'know?”

“It's not like I'm going back to see the clan-” she points out.

“What did you tell the others? I can't imagine Fear handling the news of you flying to the Dales alone well.”

Selene shifts awkwardly on her side of their booth, silently stirring the chocolate chips deeper into the depths of her milkshake.

“You didn't tell them yet.” Des realizes flatly.

“Fear wouldn't take well to this, you're right-”

“You have to tell them.”

“I will.”

“Before you leave.”

Selene shifts again, looking guiltily into her purple drink.

“I don't want it to be a thing.”

“Well if you leave without telling them, it'll be a much bigger thing.”

“It's not so different from when they leave for tour, and they're gone for months at a time.”

“And they always tell us beforehand. And keep in touch during.”

Selene sighs, and takes a long drink. “Fine. I'll tell them at dinner.”

–

Dinner comes and goes, and Selene is just finishing drying the dishes with Dirthamen when Des loudly clears his throat.

“Selene has something she'd like to say.” He announces.

Selene sends him a glare as she comes around the corner, dishtowel still in her hands.

“Thank you, Des.”

She rolls back and forth slightly on the balls of her feet as four pairs of eyes settle on her expectantly.

“I'm going on a small trip tomorrow,” She admits. “But I won't be gone long. Less than a week.”

Fear carefully places the book they had been reading down on the coffee table and looks up at her, chin resting on the back of their hands. “Where are you going?”

“I'm flying into Verchiel, and the rest of the trip will be made on foot.”

Fears mouth opens with what she is sure is a long string of questions and holes to poke in her plans, but Deceit speaks first.

“Where are you walking to, exactly?”

“Var Bellanaris.”

The room goes silent for a moment, before Dirthamen finally steps out from the kitchen and places a consoling hand on Selenes shoulder.

“I am sorry for your loss. Is there anything we could do to make this easier for you?”

“Oh, no!” Selene explains, shaking her head slightly. “No one's dead. I mean, yeah, Mamae technically is, but she's been dead for a while now. No one's died recently, though. Well, that's not true, someone definitely has, but no one I know personally. It's just...it's been a long time, and I finally have the money and time to check on her, so I thought I...would.”

“One of us should go with you,” Deceit pipes up again. “You shouldn't go alone.”

“It'll be safer if I do. None of you are Dalish, you're not supposed to set foot near Var Bellanaris.”

“Neither are you.” Des points out.

Selene huffs. “I know the rituals, and the proper rites. One trespasser will be better than two.”

Deceit and Dirthamen share an uneasy look, while Fear still looks entirely skeptical about the whole thing. But no one pushes any harder, and Selene excuses herself to finish packing and get some sleep before her early morning flight.

She does promise Fear to at least keep her phone charged and GPS on, and doesn't bother asking where they found the six portable chargers.

–

The flight is long, and delayed from the start. Heavy storms keep her sitting in the terminal and waiting for her boarding, and it is late afternoon before she finally steps foot in Verchiel. The ground is still damp from recent rain, and she changes out of her flats and into her boots for the trip.

It takes her two and a half days to make the journey, in the end. Made shorter, she admits, by exchanging group texts with the others as she goes. Sending pictures of scenery, and herself near rare plants to assure Fear that she is still in good condition and not mauled by bears or wyverns or wandering wildlife.

It doesn't take her long to find the space where her Mamae had been laid to rest. She clears away a pile of fallen leaves with the gloves she had packed, and performs the rites before the nearest statue of Fen'harel, praying to the gods she walked away from to protect the mother who never lost her faith.

Once she's completed them, Selene notices several newer graves. Some are from other clans, of course. But two are not.

One, freshly planted near to her mother. Her uncle, she realizes.

And another, placed at the top of a mound.

Keeper Deshanna.

Selene hesitates.

And then calls Des.

“Hellooooo?” he sings.

“I'm going to be a few extra days.”

Des sighs, and she can practically hear him tugging on the ends of his hair through the phone. “Why?”

“I need to visit Alaris.”

“Did he leave the clan?”

“No.”

Des lets out a long groan and a quiet string of curses. “You can't go back alone.”

“You're going to join me then?”

“Fuck no! I left for a reason. So did you. Alaris has gone this long without us, he'll be fine.”

“Keeper Deshanna passed,” Selene breathes. “So did his papae.”

Des is silent, as a heavy moment passes between them.

“I don't feel any loss for Deshanna,” he admits “But I will admit Alaris deserves better than to think he's alone. Or worse, left with just your father for family.”

“Thank you.”

“I'll let the others know you're going to be gone for more than a week. But if Dirthamen decides to fly us out on a private jet or something to come get you, I'm not gonna get in the way!”

“Thank you.” She repeats.

Des murmurs something under his breath before clicking the line closed, and Selene takes a final stock of Var Bellanaris.

And then begins her journey back to Clan Lavellan.

–

As it happens, she comes across the hunting party first, three days later. One of them recognizes her, and when she asks to see Alaris, they bring her along with only mild complaining.

The campsite has changed less than she thought it would. There are more Halla than there used to be, but she supposes that's to be expected as a side effect of breeding. Some of the crops have changed, soil rotated, and a few more aravels are scattered around the campsite.

“Sulvuna!” She finally hears, before two arms wrap around her from behind, nearly tackling her to the ground in their exuberance.

“Alaris!” she returns, flinching only internally at her old name “It's good to see you again.”

“You too!” he exclaims. “What brings you here? Not that I'm complaining, you're always welcome of course, but I wasn't...We haven't heard from you in almost...what, eight years now?”

“Something like that,” She agrees sheepishly “I wasn't planning on coming back, honestly.”

“So why are you?”

“I went to visit Mamae in Var Bellanaris and I saw Keeper and your Papae.”

Alaris nods in understanding, weight shifting until his is leaning on his staff. And suddenly Selene can see it; the weight on him, of being First for so long and Keeper now. Of losing his Aunt, and his cousin, and his first love, and finally his father.

It's a weight she feels in her own chest, formed of guilt she thought she had shed long ago. Back now with a vengeance.

He motions for her to follow into his own aravel, and quietly brews her a cup of tea while they exchange small talk. What the clan has been up to, how Alaris has been faring.

“How's Era'harel?” Alaris finally asks, fingers slightly shaky around his cup as he sits.

“He's doing well,” Selene evades “But he changed his name.”

Alaris nods “Good. That's...” He sighs. “Will you send him my apologies?”

Selene blinks, and slowly agrees before Alaris continues.

“I didn't know....I mean, I was just a kid. It's not an excuse, I know, but I didn't think anything of his name then. I didn't realize what we were really calling him. Please, let him know I'm so sorry for the way he was treated when he was with Clan Lavellan. If he...if he ever wants to visit, or come back, I will ensure he is treated with respect, as he deserves.”

“I will,” she agrees again.

“...Is he seeing anyone?” Alaris mumbles into the edge of his cup.

Selene shifts awkwardly. “Uh....yeah.”

“Oh. Well...I hope they're treating him well.”

“We try.” Selene admits with a slight tilt of her head.

Alaris's eyebrows raise, as her words dawn on him.

“Oh. Oh! I didn't-I wasn't trying to-”

“It's fine, it's fine,” She laughs “We're together but we're not-I mean we're seeing other people. Together. So I guess we are together, but it's not just us. We'd drive each other nuts without a buffer.”

“So you made your own clan.” Alaris grins.

“Oh, don't say that,” Selene groans “I have a hard enough time not running away in terror some days, I don't need that hanging over me.”

“Are they people you should fear?” Alaris asks with more than a touch of concern.

“No, no. They're wonderful, and I love them all deeply. They would never hurt me. I just have a hard time with commitment and remembering things are more than temporary sometimes.”

“Shocking,” Alaris teases. “Is that why you left Haleir then?”

Selene freezes.

“I...” she swallows. “Is he still around?”

“He's in town right now, but he's due back in the morning if you'd like to stick around and say hello.”

“No.” she practically yells, abruptly pushing her seat out from the table. “I...he never told you?”

“He doesn't really talk about it,” Alaris says slowly “He says he just woke up, and the two of you had left.”

“Elrogathe never told you?”

“...told me what, Sulvuna?”

She's shaking, now. She knows she is, no matter that she's trying not to. She shouldn't have come alone. Stupid, stupid.

“It's..he...” She takes a deep breath, grounds herself. Steadies herself. “It's not important,” she lies. “I think I'd rather be gone before he comes back though.”

Alaris quietly agrees without pushing the subject, and switches topics back to happier things. They exchange stories about Deshanna, and his father, and eventually it loops back to Selene's significant others. “Here, hold on,” Selene says as she fishes her cell phone out of her pocket “I've got pictures.”

Alaris eagerly watches her flip through the photos on her phone. Some candid, some not. A few taken at concerts, of Dirthamen, Deceit, and Fear performing.

“Are they any good?” he asks.

“I think so,” Selene smiles. “I've got a few songs of theirs on here if you want to hear.”

She plays a few of her favorites for her cousin, and he asks her to send him some copies. It's then she finds out that someone posted a cell tower just outside the clans territory, so Alaris ended up with one himself.

“They're very useful,” he points out. “We still communicate with most other clans the way we always have, of course, but being able to get immediate contact has helped us greatly.”

“You sound like a Keeper.” she teases.

“I sure try to!” He laughs.

The sun starts to set, and Selene announces that she should head out, to avoid being here in the morning.

Alaris pleads with her to stay, just for the one night.

She's always had trouble saying no to him.

She calls up Des, while Alaris retrieves her old hammock from her fathers aravel (Because she adamantly refused to sleep in there again).

“Still hanging in there?” He greets.

“It's not so terrible. Alaris is Keeper now.”

“Shame. He seemed so nice when he was younger.” Des pines.

She rolls her eyes “He asked me to stay in the clan overnight, so I'll start making my way back to the airport in the morning. Should just be another couple of days.”

“Where would you have been staying otherwise?” Comes Fears voice from over the line.

Selene blinks. “Am I on speaker phone?”

“We miss you.” Calls Deceit.

“I miss you all too. I'll be home soon.” She relents.

“You didn't answer my question.” Comes Fear again.

“Clearly, I was sharing a cave space with giant spiders,” Selene teases “But before that I just took shelter in a Dragon's nest.”

“Careful, they might believe you.” Des warns.

Selene doesn't mention that she really did spend one of her nights in a cave, to escape the rain. She didn't see any giant spiders, anyways.

“Can I talk to just Des for a minute?” She asks. She waits through the awkward shuffling of the phone being moved to an ear and the click that the speakers have been turned off.

“What's wrong?” he asks, suddenly serious.

“Nothing, really. I just. I thought you should know Haleir was still...around.”

“Did he do something?”

She can hear someone moving around behind him, followed by the sound of Des taking several steps away from whoever it was.

“No,” she assures him “He's out. He comes back in the morning though.”

“You need to be gone before he shows up.”

“I know.”

“...I should have gone with you.”

“No, Des. I'll be ok. I just thought you should know.”

“If he comes within arms reach of you, light the bastard up.”

“Will do,” Selene agrees, glancing up as Alaris steps back into the aravel. “I have to go. Love you, tell the others I love them as well.”

“No, I'm keeping your love all to myself. You can tell them yourself when you get back.”

Selene laughs, and hangs up with one last goodbye before standing to assist Alaris in getting both of their hammocks set up.

“Who was that?” he asks.

“That was Des.” Selene says before she can catch herself.

“Which one is that?”

“Ah, that's what Era goes by now.”

“Oh.” Alaris says. “Des,” he says as though testing the feel of it on his tongue. He nods, seemingly satisfied “It suits him.”

Selene nods “I think so too.”

–

Alaris wakes Selene in the morning, when the sun is just beginning to rise. It's too early, she thinks. But better this than to run into Haleir again. Alaris still takes the time to braid her hair into a long ponytail while she sips at a cup of tea. He brings her a pack as well, filled with rolls and jerky and a bit of halla cheese. In the bottom are two sets of robes; hers, and Des's.

“You kept these?” She asks, holding up the old fabrics, fingers trailing over patterns she hasn't seen in nearly a decade.

“Your father did.” Alaris informs her.

She gives him a skeptical look, but he just nods and indicates towards Elrogathes aravel with his head.

“No.” she says before he can verbally ask her.

“Just say hello-”

“No.” she repeats.

“You'll regret it if you don't.”

“I doubt that.”

“Look,” Alaris pushes “I'd give anything to be able to have another conversation with my Papae. Even if we didn't always get along, we loved each other deeply.”

“See, that's where we differ.”

“Sulvuna,” he emphasizes. “Go say hello to your father or I swear to Elgar'nan I will give him your cell phone number.”

“...He has a cell phone?”

“Well...no. But I do, and I will force him to use it!”

Selene lets out a groan, and finally relents under threat of being forced to have regular contact with him.

She knocks three times on the outside of his aravel.

He lifts the flap, and turns to look at her.

Freezes.

And then drops the curtain and walks silently back inside.

Selene turns to Alaris, who is still watching the interaction and makes a 'See???' motion towards the space her father just exited. But he just makes a shooing motion and mouths to her to go inside.

She shakes her head no, but Alaris pulls his cell phone out, hitting the home button to light up the screen threateningly.

She groans again, louder this time, and mopes her way up the stairs and into her old home.

Elrogathe is working away at his desk on tonics and potions, and for a moment she feels like she never left. Like she still lives here, and nothing has changed, and the last few years have been some sort of vivid fever dream. Braid still heavy on her head, the smells of elfroot and embrium thick in the air and the halla bleating loudly outside her wooden walls.

“What?” Elrogathe finally says.

Selene blinks herself out of her reverie, and manages “What? Nothing. I-Alaris told me to say hi. So I'm...saying hi.”

Elrogathe nods. “You've been gone a long time.”

“I was planning on being gone a lot longer.” she admits.

“Your callouses are gone.”

“Ah, yeah. I don't-I don't really work with my hands as much.”

“You've gotten lazy.”

Selene lets out a breath of air. “I just do a different sort of work.”

“What?”

“I...” Selene hesitates. She doesn't, technically, have a job. “I work with numbers a lot. And I write.”

“Stories?”

“Instructions and informative textbooks, mostly.”

Elrogathe just gives a soft 'harrumph' at that.

“...children?” he asks quietly.

“No.”

He nods. “Good.”

“...'good'?”

“Motherhood would be a poor fit for you.”

Selenes shoulders tense “I would be a great parent. Better than you were, by any means.”

He snorts.

Actually snorts.

“You can not walk away from a child when they frustrate you, or expect someone else to clean up their mess.”

“No, you just ignored them unless you had some insult to make or instruction to give.”

“Your mother was the warm one in the family. If you wanted affection, you should have sought her out instead.”

“I did. And then when she was gone, you shut me out entirely.”

Elrogathe slows in his work. His eyes carefully raise to look at his daughter. “Dhaveira passed because her heart was soft. She burned like the sun, and when she left there was nothing to sustain us. That was not my fault.”

“So now it's Mamaes fault that you turned into a cold bastard?” Selene snaps “You think Mamae would have insisted I bond to a rapist? Or stay trapped in a life that I hated?”

“She would have insisted you survive!” he yells back, standing suddenly “Not run away to live some half-life like a flat ear! Running around with your guns and drugs and forsaking everything the creators left to us! You had a responsibility, Sulvuna, and you ran away from it! The day you left this camp, you died!”

“And I see you mourned that loss the way you mourned everything else; silently, and without any real emotion.”

The slap he lands is hard enough it makes stars blink in her eyes.

Her hearing goes for a moment, all sounds replaced with a sharp ringing in her ears as she stares down at the floor. She looks back up at him, her eyes meet his, and another slap follows the first, this one hard enough to knock her to the ground.

“Get out of my home,” he says lowly, returning to his work bench. “If I see you again, I will notch an arrow and Andruil as my guide, I will not miss.”

Selene hesitates. Then stands, brushing the dirt and dust from the floor off of her clothing, and strides out of the aravel.

Her face still stings, and Alaris's jaw goes slack as she approaches him again.

“Did he-Sulvuna, did he strike you?”

“Thank you for having me, Alaris,” She says softly, ignoring his question. “I think it's time for me to head back home.”

Alaris doesn't stop her this time. Just hands her back her things, and escorts her out of camp.

It takes only a day and a half to make it to the airport, with Selene barely stopping as she tries to escape the memories of clan life.

She shouldn't have gone alone. She shouldn't have gone back.

Stupid, she berates herself.

She sends her flight information back to the group text once she's purchased her ticket. It's a late night take off, but it's the closest one available.

She sleeps for most of the flight, dozing in and out as plains and mountains pass by beneath her feet.

She still feels exhausted, when she finally steps out, and back into what has become her hometown and silently prays the buses are still running.

Not that it matters, it turns out.

Dirthamen, Deceit, Fear, and Des are all standing near the baggage claim, Des practically jumping up and down with a large, hand scrawled sign that reads “SELENE” on it.

She laughs, and feels a weight fall off of her shoulders when she spies them. Something warm and welcoming settles in the pit of her stomach, and for the first time in two days she doesn't feel a sting on her cheek.

“Welcome home!” Yells Deceit across the airport, before Fear gently nudges their arm for drawing attention from strangers. Deceit just shrugs it off as Selene skips towards the group.

“Thank you,” She smiles “I missed you all. So much.”

“We missed you as well,” Dirthamen agrees, reaching over to place a kiss to her lips. Soft at first, before becoming more pressing, more urgent as she responds positively to his advances.

Fear clears their throat pointedly, and Dirthamen finally pulls back. The tips of his ears red.

“We can go home now, right?” Des asks, linking his arm through hers.

“I have to get a bag, actually.”

He frowns. “Did you leave with two?”

“No, Alaris sent one back.”

Des groans, until Selene points out that he packed some foods for them.

“Our old robes are in there, too.”

Des makes a face.

“You don't have to wear them,” Selene sighs “But it would mean a lot to Alaris if you just held onto them. He wanted you to have them.”

Des relents at that, as they snag up her bag and pile into Deceits car, Selene pressed into the backseat between Dirthamen and Des.

Dirthamen links his fingers with hers, thumb idly rubbing at the back of her hand as they drive, and Fear asks a litany of questions about her trip, insisting that she shower when they arrive back to the house. Selene doesn't argue, and is thankful for it as she watches the dirt run down the drain, her braid coming undone as she washes out her hair.

She slips into a pair of sleep shorts, and one of Deceits old shirts before heading back downstairs. There's a late night dinner prepared, followed up by a group cuddle session.

Selene sighs, relaxing into the embrace of her lovers as an old sci fi movie plays over the TV.

She falls asleep there, never more thankful to have finally found a home of her own.

#Concert AU #Dirthalene #Selene Lavellan #Des #Mind the warnings #I've been going back and forth about whether or not to post this because it's #well it's angsty for this AU (again) and Im sorry for that #but it wouldn't leave me alone #Alaris #Elrogathe Lavellan

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danithebookaholic-blog · 7 years

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A Book You Picked Solely Because of the Cover

The Fallen: The Fallen and Leviathan

by Thomas E. Sniegoski

This week’s suggestion on the Pinterest Reading Challenge is to pick a book solely based on its cover. So, I looked through my collection of books that I’ve gathered up through the years and thought to myself, “Hum… what looks good?”

With this week’s suggestion, I didn’t have the full pleasure of “judging a book based on its cover”—because I am trying to go through the hundreds of books that I already have—I’ve read all the synopses on their covers before. But I did make myself pick through a selection of books based on a few guidelines: the book couldn’t be a movie or TV show, it couldn’t be a classic that everyone knows the gist of the story line, and it couldn’t be one that I’ve been itching to get my hands on. I made myself look through the ones that I haven’t looked at for a while, the ones that were bought on a whim, written by someone I’ve never heard of before, or given to me from someone who reads genres that I’m not that into. This week I was going to make sure it was something different for me… Or so I thought.

Looking solely at the covers of the books I had collected—a couple fantasy, several YA and children’s chapter books (I don’t know why I gravitate to these so much!), a mystery, and a memoir—I kept coming back to the same one over and over. A black and white photograph of a lone figure with the title written in red. The lighting in the photograph had the lone figure highlighted in all the right places—the contours of his face and muscular arm—this alone will have you thinking to yourself that this must be some kind of romance novel, a spinoff of a harlequin perhaps and this will catch the females of the audience and make them want to pick it up. But romance novels are not my thing, so that is not what caught my attention. It was the dark angelic wing protruding from his back, and with a title of The Fallen, I couldn’t help myself but to pick it.

Some History:

The Fallen: The Fallen and Leviathan is a Young Adult read. It was originally published in 2003 and reprinted in 2010 with the new above picture on the cover. It is book one of five in The Fallen series, and it turns out it was also made into an ABC Family movie, Fallen, in 2006. (Oops! So much for those guidelines I made for myself!)

The Synopsis:

***SPOILER ALERT***

I wrote this review a little different than usual. I’m not sure why, other than this is how it came out, and I apologize that it 1) reads a bit like a school book report, and 2) does give away some of the ending.

Aaron Corbet is a child of the foster care system and has finally found a foster family who he regards as his mom, dad and his brother, Stevie. On his eighteenth birthday he can suddenly understand and speak languages of all kinds even though he’s had no education in them. On top of that, he comes across a “homeless” man who begins following Aaron, telling him about his troubled past and the future that is to come: Aaron is Nephilim—the son of a mortal and an angel—and he has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.

The angel Verchiel is the master of the Powers and a Messenger of God. His duty is to cleanse the earth of the filth that the Fallen have produced upon the earth: Nephilim. Using his human hounds and divine senses he tracks down Nephilim and purges them from the earth. The Nephilim he’s currently hunting is Aaron Corbet.

With the help of Zeke, the Grigori, Camael of the Fallen, and his best friend Gabriel, Aaron transforms into the Nephilim he is, and not a minute too late: Verchiel has finally found him and is ready to purge his filth from the earth. A battle ensues and Aaron turns out to be more powerful than Verchiel originally thought. Aaron injures Verchiel, who flees, taking Stevie with him. Now Aaron must not only fulfil the prophecy, but find his brother before Verchiel turns him into one of his human hounds.

Aaron and his posse begin a road trip in search of Stevie, with a powerful pull toward Blythe, Maine. Along the way they encounter a group of Orishas, another product the Fallen have created. However, the Orishas are ruled by Verchiel, who has bestowed the mission of killing Aaron upon them, but they don’t succeed. Only one Orishas remains, and before fleeing it gets a small revenge and bites Gabriel.

Arriving in Blythe, they find Gabriel a doctor to treat the infected Orishas bite, but the townsfolk here are a little strange: they look suspicious of everyone and act as if they’re being controlled. That is everyone but Dr. Katie McGovern, who later tells Aaron that she, too, is an outsider, new to town. She came to town because her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Kevin Wessell, had e-mailed her with a strange request that she visit, but when she got to town he was missing and hadn’t been in to see his patients for days.

Katie enlists the help of Aaron around the office until Kevin hopefully returns, but after finding several strangely mutated animals in Kevin’s freezer, she begins to think that Kevin may have dug up some dirt on the town that someone didn’t want him finding out. Katie and Aaron agree that they need to find out what’s going on around the town and try to find Kevin, but the mission is doomed from the beginning when Katie turns up missing herself. Aaron begins the mission alone, only to find himself in the lair of Leviathan, “that spark of uncertainty in the Creator’s thoughts as He forged the world—that brief moment of chaos—before Genesis.”

Leviathan, a great sea monster, entraps its victims by making their mind’s eye see whatever paradise it wishes to see, then swallows them whole and lives off the life force stored inside them. Aaron finds that both Camael and Gabriel are in Leviathan’s stomachs, and knows that in order to save them he must overcome his fear of letting the Nephilim power within him out and do the one thing the Archangel Gabriel could not: destroy Leviathan.

Aaron defeats Leviathan and frees all those within Leviathan’s stomachs including his friends and the Archangel Gabriel. Aaron then fulfills the prophecy and forgives the Fallen who are found within Leviathan’s many stomachs and sends them to their Heavenly home. But before The Archangel Gabriel ascends he gives Aaron another hint about the prophecy he is fulfilling and a wink of information about who his real father is.

The Fallen concludes with the townspeople of Blythe, Maine being released from their captor’s control, Katie and Kevin reunited, and Aaron with a lot of questions: Who is his real father? What does his father have to do with the prophecy? And where is Stevie?

The Review:

The Pros:

Of course, I liked The Fallen, it’s right up my alley (so much for breaking out of my habits and trying something new!) First, it’s a YA read, so you know I’m hooked there.

Second, it’s a present-day mythology just like the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan or The Mortal Instruments and Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare, both of which I’m a big fan of. To take a myth—and I use this word to group together the whole, so please you Christians out there don’t hate on me for using this word, I’m a Christian, too! —but to take a myth such as angels or Greek gods and to create a new story for them is awesome! You’re taking those classics that a lot of people don’t read any more because they find them boring or too difficult to understand and are making them readily available to today’s societies so that Genesis, Matthew, Luke, Homer and Sophocles are getting a new—and usually younger—generation to ignite and share their stories again.

Third, something that I found that set The Fallen apart from most YA books was the language. I, myself, don’t have the best vocabulary by any means (I should have listened to my mother and studied for those vocabulary tests!), but I have grown my knowledge and understanding over the years, and this book still had me looking up words in the dictionary (or rather dictionary.com, yay technology!) I like that about a book! I like that while I’m reading for pleasure I’m still learning things. I don’t think that everything should be dumbed down so everyone in the general population can understand it. I think you should always be learning something and improving on yourself, and if that means you must get a dictionary out to understand what’s happening in the storyline then that’s great! You learned something in the process; you made yourself better and had a better experience because of it!

The Cons:

Aaron Corbet is a little fake. He’s too good and not moody enough to be a teenage boy and a child of the foster system who has just found out that he’s this mythological creature. In the beginning, you’re told that he has a troubled past, that he was moved from foster home to foster home, but the person sitting in front of you is polite, never causes a stir, and when he does have an emotional outbreak of some kind its abbreviated and almost void of emotion. Almost like his outburst were an afterthought, like Thomas Sniegoski’s editor said, “Hey, don’t you think he would be a little upset that this is happening?” The lack of emotion he shows when someone he loves is hurt or killed is the biggest one for me. He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t get angry and yell, he just tells himself that he can’t believe that they are hurt or dead. I understand shellshock, but I think this is a bit more than just that. Aaron is not fleshed out enough to be a real person, but then again, I guess he really isn’t, after all he is Nephilim.

My other qualm with The Fallen is defeat is too easy. With each battle scene—if you can really call them that—the fight was ended really before it began. These are some big monsters he’s going up against, and yet I saw how the end of each battle was going to play out from the moment they started. There was no adrenaline rush of “is he going to make it?” in any of the battle scenes. From the beginning, you knew he was going to be just fine and good would prevail over evil once again.

The Wrap-Up:

Overall, I enjoyed The Fallen. I thought it was a great storyline with a good mystery: I want to know who Aaron’s father is myself! Who is this—as Camael puts it— “angel of formidable power to have sired one like [Aaron]?" ? And does he ever find Stevie? All the questions Aaron has at the end of the book are questions I have too, which is a sign of a good story. The author has you hooked to make you want to pick up that next book. Which I plan on doing just that!

From one wine-loving bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix. —Dani

Love this book? Check out The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare or one of her many other Shadowhunter series.

Pair it with: Lost Angel’s 2016 Mischief—Fruit-forward and jammy, with hints of cocoa.

Not all good wines are expensive, and this one is just that: good, easy on the wallet and fits with the trouble that Aaron gets himself into.

Start a conversation: What book have you chosen based solely on its cover and why? Was it worth the gamble?

Have a book you’d like to suggest or one you’d like me to review? Please feel free to leave your comments down below.

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