The Sky is Falling

It's been a while but I have an excuse.  I was deeply involved in a book series that I couldn't put down, the Fallen Star Series, by Jessica Sorensen.  Well, I mean I could put it down; I had to sleep after all, but be assured that I didn't want to.  What strikes me the funniest about this whole series is that I kind of think it's funny that I liked it so much to begin with, especially considering the content.  

So the big thing among YA books lately has been anything dealing with vampires, angels, werewolves, etc.  This series not only had the vamps, but it also included witches, time travel, Death Walkers, star power, ghosts, soul stealers...and probably another couple of weird things that I'm forgetting.  It's like the author took every unworldly thing and just said, "Ah hell, let's throw 'em all in here!"  Strangely enough, I still really enjoyed the series, despite it's obvious flaws, mostly being the editing that made me want to stab my eyeballs out at times.

The series starts with Gemma, a strange 
girl that  nobody pays attention to (except for her violet eye color) and who is raised by her grandparents in a very non-feeling kind of family.  I mean literally she has no feelings or emotions.  No happiness, no sadness, no anger, no joy, no nothing.  Then suddenly she can "feel."  She's having a hard time dealing with all of the new emotions she's experiencing and trying to get control of them.

She meets two new students, Aislin and 
Alex and there's something about Alex that she just can't shake.  They have this electricity between them, again literally, an electric current that seems to spark each time they're near each other.  Alex seems to hate her (typical YA story line) and Gemma can't figure out why.  Then he takes her to a special place of his and tells her a story about a falling star.  Cut to the chase:  the falling star is actually inside of Gemma.

Gemma must come to terms with the 
boring life she's always known is not what she thought it was, nor is the world in which she lives.  She believes she is the secret to keeping the world from falling apart, thus the adventure begins.  She finds out that vampires are real, that witches exist, Death Walkers are ready to freeze her and the world, and that bad bad bad people are out to get her...all of this among the growing feelings of desire for Alex and the undisputed connection that they have with each other.

This series isn't great.  It's not deep, nor 
thought provoking.  It's definitely not award winning, yet there was something about it that I really enjoyed.  Part of that is, I'm sure, because I've turned into a bit of a sci-fi geek lately so all of the otherworldly stuff peaks my interest.  Though, truth be told, I'm not sure I think throwing it all in together is the best idea either.  I kept reading the series because I liked Gemma's character.  Others have described her as "boring" or "whiny" but I just thought she didn't know better because of her upbringing.  I mean, can you imagine living your life with no emotion and then one day it all hits you and you're bombarded with feelings you're unfamiliar with?  Not me!  

If you like the paranormal and so forth, you 
will likely enjoy these books.  There are several twists and turns and you keep wondering what the heck is going to happen next.  The relationship between Gemma and Alex is a bit bland despite their electricity, so I would've loved to have seen that spiced up a little bit, but oh well!

 I would love to see how this could be played out on the big screen, or if that would even be possible with such complex characters and location changes and such.