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tatianab's review against another edition
3.0
Although this book was a fairly good read, I felt that it followed the mold of many other books. I also felt it lacked a little detail of how Megan actually made friends. Its a typical fantasy romance where the girl falls for a 'darkly handsome guy' who has a hidden secret. I finished it quickly as it didn't really capture me. I think it's a little too much like other books for me to actually enjoy the writers style.
someonetookit's review
3.0
After forcing myself to push through the lovey-dovey, Twilight-wannabe, clichéd teen romance crap at the beginning, this book turned out to be OK. Not exceptional, nor was it as bad as other Meyer-inspired drivel i have read before. Due to this, i will stay the passing of judgement on this series until i have read the next book. Could potentially go either way...
synergysel's review against another edition
1.0
I might have to come back to this book....its just not doing it for me...
staceyhust88's review against another edition
3.0
I was kind of iffy about this until almost the middle of the book, then things picked up and I couldn't put it down. I'm also happy to report no huge cliff hanger, still I can't wait to read the next book to learn more about the four elements journey.
waclements7's review against another edition
2.0
***Spoilers***
If I were smart I would probably not even review this book. I think I'm more puzzled than anything else. I should probably also state at this point that I did read the Twilight series: I didn't gag and groan about it as many people did, complaining about how pathetic Bella Swan was as a main character, nor am I a "Twi-Hard." I do think it set an unfortunate trend in Young Adult literature that I thought we were starting to pull out of.
Maybe I should back up a little further. Maybe six months ago, I watched the DVDs of The Vampire Diaries, and I thought, boy, they are really copying Twilight. Then I looked up the dates and found out The Vampire Diaries had been written years before Twilight. It was simply that Twilight made vampires all cool and popular and sparkly. But new? Hardly.
Varney the Vampire was written in the 1840's, almost fifty years before Dracula. I'm sure there are earlier stories than that, Varney is just the first one I thought of (one of the only good things about specializing in Gothic Fiction for my MA. I did have to check the date, though. I don't remember the important things, but that's a hard title to forget).
Anyway, my point is that vampires were suddenly "in" and the new thing, when really they've been around for hundreds of years in literature. Stephanie Meyer just made them popular again. To death. (Sorry, no pun intended).
Publishers, as always, pay attention to the covers of their books. Goodreads has lists of some of the categorizations some of these covers fall into, such as my favorite, "Girl running in dress in the forest." There are a lot of books on that list. Some of them are more tastefully done than others. One of them, Entwined, I happened to like quite a bit and own a copy myself now. I also think it was one of the better done of the covers.
Carrier of the Mark has one of those interesting, pretty covers that made me want to check it out. I liked the abstract blue swipes? feathers? I'm not a graphic artist, I don't know what you call those swoopy things on the bottom of the cover. Incidentally, the same sort of swoopy things also grace the cover of Everneath, which I am also interested in reading, also partially because of the cover. I really like the swoopy things.
The book also takes place in Ireland, which is a sure thing to suck me in. As I was reading, though, the story began to feel very, very familiar. An Amazon reviewer summed it up better than I did because she actually went through Twilight and matched all the similarities situation for situation. I am too lazy to do that--if you want to see how similar they really are, go to Amazon and check out the reviews there. Actually, it's because I have other things I'd rather be doing, but I'm glad someone spent the time to do what the reviewer did, because I thought I was possibly losing it a little.
Basically, it has exactly the same plot line as Twilight, with some exceptions that did make it interesting. Instead of vampires, they are elementals. If things get messed up, it could mean the end of the world in some obscure fashion. The "family" (e.g. the Cullens) consist of a set of twins, a boy and a girl, and a cranky older brother who is very hostile toward the new girl in town that his younger twin brother has fallen head over heels in love with, and vice versa, and the man who is their guardian. Oh, and their rook. I did like the rook, Randel (I think I spelled that right--I've already turned the book back in to the library). But it's too dangerous for them to be together, they might create some sort of monster that could mean the end of the world, or, absolutely nothing. The translations of the histories are a little scrambled. Those crazy monks. Who knows what trouble they get up to down in those catacombs.
Wait, that sounds a little like some past current events--the end of the world is nigh: oh, well, wait, maybe we just read that wrong. We'll try that again another time. Nope. Another year, maybe? We'll get back to you on that. But don't hold your breath.
One difference is the main character, Megan, does actually have some power and uses it at the end, unlike Bella Swan, who, well, doesn't really change very much other than going from human to vampire. Maybe Megan and Bella aren't all that different after all.
This book was "found" on inkpop. For those who don't know, inkpop was a Harper Collins site sold very recently to another company. It is a place for young adults and people who write for young adults to post their manuscripts and from then on it is a mad popularity contest to see if you can get your manuscript to the top five and keep it there for a month. It consists of a lot of spamming other inkpop members, etc. I know this because I did post a manuscript on inkpop, and also on authonomy, which is the adult version of inkpop. I ended up so disgusted by the whole thing (and worse, somewhat obsessed by it, wondering what number my manuscript was at--it's a little nerve-wracking) I pulled my manuscripts from both sites and deleting my accounts. As far as I know, Carrier of the Mark may be the only book, or one of the very few, to actually have been published from the hundreds, if not thousands, of manuscripts that get posted to those sites. I was wondering if I may have read an earlier version of the book on inkpop, because the names were very familiar, the plot was familiar, etc. Then I was left wondering if it was just the Twilight similarities.
It's extremely unfortunate. The book had the potential to be good, instead of a knockoff of an already extremely popular set of books. You can dress a duck up in a dress and call it your Aunt Martha, but it's still a duck. Unless you happen to be a duck, in which case it very well could be your Aunt Martha.
Similarities happen. I believe in the collective unconscious, and am so frustrated when I read something in a book that's already in mine that I started fifteen years ago but am still working on. It's maddening. Will I change it? If it's something big, I might have to. If it's something small, I may just leave it alone. There are a limited set of stories out there--there are theories on that, I'm not just tossing things out there as I sometimes tend to do. (Who told you that? Um. They did?) The point is to tell those same stories in different ways--the challenge. Carrier of the Mark isn't just a case of getting some of the same ideas from the collective unconscious, it's an all out collision with all of the flashing lights.
Carrier of the Mark is supposed to be the first book of either a series or a trilogy. I don't make fun of those people anymore since I've become one of them and people in glass houses... (what? need curtains?) I may read them anyway, just to see if Fallon can pull the books out of the Twilight trap, take the pieces off the ground, and make them into something beautiful and new. (And who would have guessed I could have fit a reference to... now I'm curious to see how many people actually know what that reference is from. I'll give one hint. I like to sing it at the top of my lungs in my car, which is the only place I really sing. By myself. So now you know it's a musical.)
I feel badly, to an extent, about this review. I get on my younger sister's case about being professional in reviews online because you never knew who will read them. I'm not trying to offend anyone. I think it's just my extreme disappointment that the book wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and my fear that now that the Twilight furor is dying down, depending on the popularity of Carrier of the Mark, it might start up again, when there are truly good novels coming out.
Froi of the Exiles is coming out the 13th of this month. It's excellent. I'm actually considering spending the forty dollars or whatever it will be to order the third book from Australia when it comes out in October (not coming out here until next March). Melissa Marr's new book of short stories is out. Some I've already read from when they were posted online. I read one, on the Wicked Lovely timeline, that comes after Ink Exchange. It looks like a really good collection. I should write up a list of Young Adult books that I really liked, which means only that I really liked them, not that I am queen of the world and my taste dictates that everyone else must like them as well.
On the other hand, if you liked Twilight, I think you will really like Carrier of the Mark. I didn't dislike it--I read the whole thing. Pretty quickly. It was just a disappointment. And a frustration. Why won't publishing companies be a little more courageous and publish new things instead of sticking to what they are sure will sell? That's another whole post in itself, not a review. Enough said.
If I were smart I would probably not even review this book. I think I'm more puzzled than anything else. I should probably also state at this point that I did read the Twilight series: I didn't gag and groan about it as many people did, complaining about how pathetic Bella Swan was as a main character, nor am I a "Twi-Hard." I do think it set an unfortunate trend in Young Adult literature that I thought we were starting to pull out of.
Maybe I should back up a little further. Maybe six months ago, I watched the DVDs of The Vampire Diaries, and I thought, boy, they are really copying Twilight. Then I looked up the dates and found out The Vampire Diaries had been written years before Twilight. It was simply that Twilight made vampires all cool and popular and sparkly. But new? Hardly.
Varney the Vampire was written in the 1840's, almost fifty years before Dracula. I'm sure there are earlier stories than that, Varney is just the first one I thought of (one of the only good things about specializing in Gothic Fiction for my MA. I did have to check the date, though. I don't remember the important things, but that's a hard title to forget).
Anyway, my point is that vampires were suddenly "in" and the new thing, when really they've been around for hundreds of years in literature. Stephanie Meyer just made them popular again. To death. (Sorry, no pun intended).
Publishers, as always, pay attention to the covers of their books. Goodreads has lists of some of the categorizations some of these covers fall into, such as my favorite, "Girl running in dress in the forest." There are a lot of books on that list. Some of them are more tastefully done than others. One of them, Entwined, I happened to like quite a bit and own a copy myself now. I also think it was one of the better done of the covers.
Carrier of the Mark has one of those interesting, pretty covers that made me want to check it out. I liked the abstract blue swipes? feathers? I'm not a graphic artist, I don't know what you call those swoopy things on the bottom of the cover. Incidentally, the same sort of swoopy things also grace the cover of Everneath, which I am also interested in reading, also partially because of the cover. I really like the swoopy things.
The book also takes place in Ireland, which is a sure thing to suck me in. As I was reading, though, the story began to feel very, very familiar. An Amazon reviewer summed it up better than I did because she actually went through Twilight and matched all the similarities situation for situation. I am too lazy to do that--if you want to see how similar they really are, go to Amazon and check out the reviews there. Actually, it's because I have other things I'd rather be doing, but I'm glad someone spent the time to do what the reviewer did, because I thought I was possibly losing it a little.
Basically, it has exactly the same plot line as Twilight, with some exceptions that did make it interesting. Instead of vampires, they are elementals. If things get messed up, it could mean the end of the world in some obscure fashion. The "family" (e.g. the Cullens) consist of a set of twins, a boy and a girl, and a cranky older brother who is very hostile toward the new girl in town that his younger twin brother has fallen head over heels in love with, and vice versa, and the man who is their guardian. Oh, and their rook. I did like the rook, Randel (I think I spelled that right--I've already turned the book back in to the library). But it's too dangerous for them to be together, they might create some sort of monster that could mean the end of the world, or, absolutely nothing. The translations of the histories are a little scrambled. Those crazy monks. Who knows what trouble they get up to down in those catacombs.
Wait, that sounds a little like some past current events--the end of the world is nigh: oh, well, wait, maybe we just read that wrong. We'll try that again another time. Nope. Another year, maybe? We'll get back to you on that. But don't hold your breath.
One difference is the main character, Megan, does actually have some power and uses it at the end, unlike Bella Swan, who, well, doesn't really change very much other than going from human to vampire. Maybe Megan and Bella aren't all that different after all.
This book was "found" on inkpop. For those who don't know, inkpop was a Harper Collins site sold very recently to another company. It is a place for young adults and people who write for young adults to post their manuscripts and from then on it is a mad popularity contest to see if you can get your manuscript to the top five and keep it there for a month. It consists of a lot of spamming other inkpop members, etc. I know this because I did post a manuscript on inkpop, and also on authonomy, which is the adult version of inkpop. I ended up so disgusted by the whole thing (and worse, somewhat obsessed by it, wondering what number my manuscript was at--it's a little nerve-wracking) I pulled my manuscripts from both sites and deleting my accounts. As far as I know, Carrier of the Mark may be the only book, or one of the very few, to actually have been published from the hundreds, if not thousands, of manuscripts that get posted to those sites. I was wondering if I may have read an earlier version of the book on inkpop, because the names were very familiar, the plot was familiar, etc. Then I was left wondering if it was just the Twilight similarities.
It's extremely unfortunate. The book had the potential to be good, instead of a knockoff of an already extremely popular set of books. You can dress a duck up in a dress and call it your Aunt Martha, but it's still a duck. Unless you happen to be a duck, in which case it very well could be your Aunt Martha.
Similarities happen. I believe in the collective unconscious, and am so frustrated when I read something in a book that's already in mine that I started fifteen years ago but am still working on. It's maddening. Will I change it? If it's something big, I might have to. If it's something small, I may just leave it alone. There are a limited set of stories out there--there are theories on that, I'm not just tossing things out there as I sometimes tend to do. (Who told you that? Um. They did?) The point is to tell those same stories in different ways--the challenge. Carrier of the Mark isn't just a case of getting some of the same ideas from the collective unconscious, it's an all out collision with all of the flashing lights.
Carrier of the Mark is supposed to be the first book of either a series or a trilogy. I don't make fun of those people anymore since I've become one of them and people in glass houses... (what? need curtains?) I may read them anyway, just to see if Fallon can pull the books out of the Twilight trap, take the pieces off the ground, and make them into something beautiful and new. (And who would have guessed I could have fit a reference to... now I'm curious to see how many people actually know what that reference is from. I'll give one hint. I like to sing it at the top of my lungs in my car, which is the only place I really sing. By myself. So now you know it's a musical.)
I feel badly, to an extent, about this review. I get on my younger sister's case about being professional in reviews online because you never knew who will read them. I'm not trying to offend anyone. I think it's just my extreme disappointment that the book wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and my fear that now that the Twilight furor is dying down, depending on the popularity of Carrier of the Mark, it might start up again, when there are truly good novels coming out.
Froi of the Exiles is coming out the 13th of this month. It's excellent. I'm actually considering spending the forty dollars or whatever it will be to order the third book from Australia when it comes out in October (not coming out here until next March). Melissa Marr's new book of short stories is out. Some I've already read from when they were posted online. I read one, on the Wicked Lovely timeline, that comes after Ink Exchange. It looks like a really good collection. I should write up a list of Young Adult books that I really liked, which means only that I really liked them, not that I am queen of the world and my taste dictates that everyone else must like them as well.
On the other hand, if you liked Twilight, I think you will really like Carrier of the Mark. I didn't dislike it--I read the whole thing. Pretty quickly. It was just a disappointment. And a frustration. Why won't publishing companies be a little more courageous and publish new things instead of sticking to what they are sure will sell? That's another whole post in itself, not a review. Enough said.
xofelf's review against another edition
5.0
My only complaint is: the last few pages were too summary like and told rather than showed what was going on. Other than that i really liked it. It seemed like it could have ended up like Twilight or one of those terrible star-crossed love stories taking place in high school, but it didn't so it was wonderful.
fallen_for_books30's review against another edition
3.0
I like the cover first of all.
This book starts with Megan transfered to new place ,new school due to her mother's death her father likes to keep moving but what she discovers there its life changing. She starts getting attracted to Adam and then starts noticing very weird things about DeRis family. She feels tingling on her neck. Then there is a secret reveal which just makes her life go upside down.
She discovers she is Carrier of the mark...means she is one of the elements f earth ie Air. She being from Royal blood and Carrying a mark makes her special and that's what Knox whats from her.
I overall liked the story but the story seemed going to fast . The love story which started with Adam and Megan was kinda like forced and very quickly developed. I couldn't connect with there story. Its somehow they met,he ignored and then he told he couldn't control his feeling started talking to the girl and that's it. So yes the starting romance was not well developed.
The concept of Air water fire and earth was good and the thing of balance
After that the story did take a interesting way. There were many things ,many secrets,many concepts revealed which just shocks everyone.
I loved everything...The characters were well developed, i loved the concept. Just the book being fast paced was a disappointment. It killed the spark. that's why it took me long to finish it.
But all twilight lovers will love this book.
This book starts with Megan transfered to new place ,new school due to her mother's death her father likes to keep moving but what she discovers there its life changing. She starts getting attracted to Adam and then starts noticing very weird things about DeRis family. She feels tingling on her neck. Then there is a secret reveal which just makes her life go upside down.
She discovers she is Carrier of the mark...means she is one of the elements f earth ie Air. She being from Royal blood and Carrying a mark makes her special and that's what Knox whats from her.
I overall liked the story but the story seemed going to fast . The love story which started with Adam and Megan was kinda like forced and very quickly developed. I couldn't connect with there story. Its somehow they met,he ignored and then he told he couldn't control his feeling started talking to the girl and that's it. So yes the starting romance was not well developed.
The concept of Air water fire and earth was good and the thing of balance
After that the story did take a interesting way. There were many things ,many secrets,many concepts revealed which just shocks everyone.
I loved everything...The characters were well developed, i loved the concept. Just the book being fast paced was a disappointment. It killed the spark. that's why it took me long to finish it.
But all twilight lovers will love this book.
wisteriamuse's review against another edition
1.0
This story is basically Twilight set in Ireland - but without the vampires. And instead of borrowing the aspects of Twilight that I loved and presenting them in a fresh way, the author drew upon its flaws and set out to enhance them.
The worst aspect of the book, however, has to be the convoluted mythology behind it and how much of the book is spent explaining it. Even after re-reading some of the pages, I still couldn't make heads or tails out of it.
I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
The worst aspect of the book, however, has to be the convoluted mythology behind it and how much of the book is spent explaining it. Even after re-reading some of the pages, I still couldn't make heads or tails out of it.
I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
poorashleu's review against another edition
2.0
THIS BOOK CAUSES ME RAGE. AND TWO STARS IS PUSHING IT.
Originally posted at Nose in a Book
The only reason this is getting two stars is because I cannot give it a half star. And to be honest, it’s barely 1.5 stars. First off, this is a book I should like. There is a pretty cover and the blurb sounds like me. To be honest, sometimes that is all I ask for. But there is so much wrong with this book that the pretty cover cannot save it. Plus this is going to be a series, and you know I have problems with YA series.
Where to start with this book. First of all, it is Twilight, take out vampires, insert magic, and set it in Ireland. Twilight was bad enough itself, but to read pretty much the same book set in another country? No thanks. Second, my friend tried to read it and couldn’t get through it, that alone should have been a sign I would have issues with it. Plus, Fallon’s writing isn’t amazing. I believe if the writing would have been better the book could have been better. Megan is new to the small town and makes a BFF no questions asked, when she blows her off the BFF, she is forgiven right away. Not even a little grudge! It just got to the point in this novel that I stopped caring about the people, the place, the drama, the MOMENT. I almost got to the skimming point in this novel, which is never a good sign.
I really can’t recommend this book to any certain type of reader because it was just..blah. And the fact that it is going to be a series could excite me even less.
Originally posted at Nose in a Book
The only reason this is getting two stars is because I cannot give it a half star. And to be honest, it’s barely 1.5 stars. First off, this is a book I should like. There is a pretty cover and the blurb sounds like me. To be honest, sometimes that is all I ask for. But there is so much wrong with this book that the pretty cover cannot save it. Plus this is going to be a series, and you know I have problems with YA series.
Where to start with this book. First of all, it is Twilight, take out vampires, insert magic, and set it in Ireland. Twilight was bad enough itself, but to read pretty much the same book set in another country? No thanks. Second, my friend tried to read it and couldn’t get through it, that alone should have been a sign I would have issues with it. Plus, Fallon’s writing isn’t amazing. I believe if the writing would have been better the book could have been better. Megan is new to the small town and makes a BFF no questions asked, when she blows her off the BFF, she is forgiven right away. Not even a little grudge! It just got to the point in this novel that I stopped caring about the people, the place, the drama, the MOMENT. I almost got to the skimming point in this novel, which is never a good sign.
I really can’t recommend this book to any certain type of reader because it was just..blah. And the fact that it is going to be a series could excite me even less.