Review: Luminous by Dawn Metcalf

Title: Luminous
Author: Dawn Metcalf
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 978-0525422471

Premise: After experiencing a strange fall in a dressing room, Consuela finds a strange scar on her neck. Upon closer inspection, she learns she can remove her skin using this scar, and adopt new skins of air, fire, water, etc. These new skins allow her to leave the normal world and travel to a strange place called the Flow where she and other teenagers find themselves helping to save the lives of others. But there is something evil in the flow that has begun killing off the inhabitants.

Initially I was attracted to this book because the cover was gorgeous. But as they say, you should never judge a book by its cover, and this book is no exception. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. The idea, though strange at first, would have grown on me had it not been for the characters, the plot, and pretty much the entire story. The characters had no believability. The author created no sympathy for them, so when they began to get killed off, I really couldn't find it in myself to care. The main character is so beset with her self-consciousness that she doesn't seem to really comprehend just how strange her circumstances are, she just takes it all in stride. The only character with any depth is the evil antagonist. The love interest is very much a Edward-esque (Twilight) character. His attraction to Consuela seems to have no ground other than she is the protagonist.  His words and actions are so cliche there were actually times I had to stop reading just to look at the book and think, are you freaking serious? How corny. My suspension of disbelief was nonexistent. I was constantly aware that I was reading a work of fiction, and a very poorly written one at that. It really seemed that the author was trying to live vicariously through her characters, and I hate that. The story itself was just really confusing. I never felt like I knew what was going on, what the Flow actually was, or why the hell it mattered. Though I understand this adds to the mystery of the story, it was so unclear that it took away from the very few positives the book offered. As if that wasn't bad enough, the ending was abrupt and felt unfinished. I would not recommend this book to anyone.