Luminous by Dawn Metcalf
pages: 371
released: July 2011
publisher: Dutton
cover love: ♥♥♥♥♥
As reality slips and time stands still, Consuela finds herself thrust into the world of the Flow. Removed from all she loves into this shifting world overlapping our own, Consuela quickly discovers she has the power to step out of her earthly skin and cloak herself in new ones-skins made from the world around her, crafted from water, fire, air. She is joined by other teens with extraordinary abilities, bound together to safeguard a world they can affect, but where they no longer belong. When murder threatens to undo the Flow, the Watcher charges Consuela and elusive, attractive V to stop the killer. But the psychopath who threatens her new world may also hold the only key to Consuela’s way home. (from Goodreads)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 12/8/2011 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET
Review:
Luminous gets most of its praise from me because of its originality, the beautiful descriptions and imagery when Consuela is in and out of the Flow and the diversity that the author plays within her characters.
After a heavy case of vertigo inside a clothing store dressing room, Consuela goes home and realizes a lump at the back of her head. As she presses down on this lump, her fingers slip through and she’s able to break through her skin and peel it off (all of it) leaving her only dressed in her skeletal remains. From that point on, she’s able to access the Flow, an alternate reality parallel to Earth.
The Flow. It’s the most confusing aspect of the entire book. You never get a clear explanation as to what it is or how it works. It kind of struck me as a limbo stop. But the Flow itself is an individual and diverse character. Very multidimensional. It can be beautiful. It can be scary. Sometimes dangerous. Depending on which part of it you’re standing in.
Other than the Flow leaving you dumbstruck, the novel is lovely! Before the accident in the dressing room, Consuela seems uncomfortable with who is she and doesn’t necessarily know herself very well. But in the Flow, she can wear different skins: skins of air, water, fire or butterflies (ahhh, gorgeous) and become a stronger person, someone more confident and bold. With her skins, she’s able to find Earth again to save the lives of people who are doubting faith. But she’s also trying to understand what happened to her, why she ended up in the Flow and how to get back to her real body.
The author did a great job with all the characters. None of them are one-dimensional stick figures just filling up space. V can walk through the Mirror Realm and only needs a reflective source to travel from place to place. Sissy can detached body parts; Joseph can become a bird; Wish can grant wishes with his teeth and Tender is a psychological villain who can “convince” people to do his bidding. They, like the Flow, are parallel to who they really are somewhere in the real world. Kind of reminds you of the Matrix, doesn’t it? It was also nice to read about characters that have different ethnic and religious backgrounds in a sci-fi/fantasy book which is a rare find. Oh, and this book is a standalone sci-fi/fantasy…which is even rarer to find. My favorite characters were Consuela and V. They had such a weird, forceful chemistry and I wanted them to work things out so they could end up together somehow. I liked Tender too, even though he is the bad guy. But when it’s revealed who he really is, my heart kind of went out to him.
All-in-all Luminous is beautiful-crazy. And confusing. But it was a joy to read and the characters are amazing. I’m looking forward to Dawn Metcalf’s next release. If you want to leave your reading comfort zone for a bit, this would be a great choice.
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