Luminous

Luminous
by Dawn Metcalf

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. (description from Amazon.com)

This book has a super intriguing premise. Consuela, never really happy in her own skin, finds that she is able to slip out of her own skin and create others from organic materials, like fire, air, or even butterflies. The moments she feels most powerful, though, are when she is skinless...just bone, hence she becomes known as "Bones" in the Flow.

Metcalf has constructed a really cool and interesting place known as the Flow. It is between this life and the next. It is malleable. It is different for everyone. Following Bones through her journeys in this place (places?) were some of the best scenes in the book. Not only was it somewhat like the movie What Dreams May Come with really different dreamscapes to imagine, but it was really conceptual in that each place really meant something specific to the person that it was created for...and therefore in their relationship to Bones.

Each character was very interesting and different in this book. They were all teens brought to the Flow to help save others that might die before their time, but the ones that they connected to and the method that they used to save their lives all varied greatly. Each was really a character study and they played well off of each other.

When I finished this book, I found myself really happy with the story and where Bones/Consuela leaves off in her journey. I also realized that I had thought quite a lot while I was reading. It was sort of a subconscious philosophical journey...and I really like books like that. So, kudos to Dawn Metcalf for an excellent debut!

Full disclosure: ARC received to review for SLJ
2011 Debut Author Challenge title
2011 Shifter Challenge title