On Carriers: A Review of Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

I'm going to be honest right from the start: I hate this book. Quite a bit. And while I don't usually write ranting reviews, sometimes one is called for...I'm trying not to go over board. But I really hate this book.

First off, whats the plot? Bella Megan is a teenage girl who lives with her single father, Charlie Caleb. The two have just moved to Forks Kinsale. Megan makes instant, close friendships on her first day of school, despite having a fairly bland personality. More importantly, she finds herself helplessly drawn to Edward Adam, a mysterious boy from a mysterious family. There are a lot of rumors surrounding Adam's family, rumors that suggest he's a vampire werewolf magic user. Adam seems to have influence over water. His sister, Alice Aine has earth powers and can sense the future, but not at any point where it becomes useful. Their older brother, Rian, mostly broods and smolders. Anyway, it seems that Megan is their missing link--the final member in their magic team, which is destined to complete the alignment and bring balance to...something. But first, Megan has to accept her power, and a destiny that might prevent her from being with Adam romantically.

Positive Comments:

The use of magic approached interesting on one or two occasions. And I like that this book was set in Ireland. And...the cover is nice.

Critical Comments:

In case I didn't make it clear above, this book has very strong parallels to Twilight. And, remember, I skimmed through Twilight only once a few years ago, and I've seen the movie twice, so I'm far from an expert, but even I could not stop spotting the similarities. This strikes me as lazy and unoriginal. Though, I guess if you are a big Twilight fan this would probably be a plus for you.

Megan is unlikeable. She's the blank slate, average girl character that author's write because they want every reader to be able to relate to her directly. I don't like that trope, because I think it makes the characters boring. But that's not even the worst of it. As described above, Megan has powers that she needs to evoke, an action that by all accounts would be good for the whole world. The catch is, if she evokes them, she might not get to be with Adam romantically. She decides she doesn't want her powers, because she can't bear not being with Adam. She's willing to sacrifice the power that is hers by right, thereby potentially endangering or screwing over the world, all so that she can keep her boyfriend. Our heroine, ladies and gentlemen!

Now, I could have gotten in Megan's corner about the whole "Love is more important than anything" idea, if I actually believed for one second that Adam and Megan were in love. But I just didn't buy it. It's insta-love, which is irritating enough by itself. There's no relationship development. There's no real "meet cute" or "getting to know each other" phase. There's no chemistry. The author tells us they're in love, but fails utterly at actually showing us.

This brings me to my final complaint, which is all of the telling and info-dumping that goes on in this book. The exposition goes on and on. The action is sparse and uncreative. The author feeds us all of the world building in character dialogue, instead of finding an exciting way of showing us the world. It's very bland and very boring.

Recommendation:

I'd recommend this book to those who really love Twilight and want more of the same, and those who like the insta-love trope. Personally, I despised this book. 1 star.

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