Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Title: Ink (Paper Gods #1)
Author: Amanda Sun
Published: June 25th 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
*An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review*

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

I absolutely adored Memoirs of a Geisha by A. Golden and of course I requested for Ink – hello?!? Japan? Drawings? Ancient Gods? Mythology? Uh-uh!! That’s what I’m talking about. I couldn’t resist requesting and ARC. I was expecting a unique story filled with adventures and a blossoming romance and the book had it plenty.

And then the sketched girl on the bench turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.

The story. Katie Greene is an orphan who, under the circumstances, had to move in with her aunt Diane.  Only.. She lives in Japan. Katie quickly befriends fellow-students Yuki and Tanaka, but there’s one boy that catches her eye with his cruel, distant behavior and dark eyes. Soon simple drawings seem to have a life of their own and since no one seems to have answers, all there’s left for Katy is to seek the answers by herself.

My thoughts. I bet it’s a heavy burden moving to a country where even the alphabet is different, not to mention having just lost one’s Mom. Under these circumstances, I believe Katie did a great job adjusting to the local culture and the new environment. What bothered me about her character was that she accused one of the characters in having stalker-ish behavior when she basically stalked Tomohiro herself at the beginning of the novel. Also, I like people who don’t put their nose into other’s business and Katie was definitely a little too nosy.

The romance took time to evolve, but in my opinion, we didn’t get enough evolving in the very sense of that word. The few make out scenes were well-written though. I liked the idea of the fantasy-mythology spin in this story – drawings coming to life – but maybe it’s that I’m not a native English speaker so it was hard for me to navigate between descriptive ink scenes and having lots of Japanese words as well. I wasn’t aware that the words were translated in the back of the book (found them when I had finished reading), otherwise it would have been a smoother read for me. I think. There were a few revelations that had me somewhat taken aback since I didn’t see them coming exactly that way which was good.

Overall, I enjoyed this read and I will definitely continue with the series. Some of my favorite series have gotten three stars for the first book and have become absolutely enjoyable further on. I do think the potential in this book is there, it’s just that some of the ideas were hard for me to digest I guess and the romance wasn’t that well-developed. Other than that, I advise you to check it out. Japan as a cultural experience is so awesome and since I can’t afford to travel there in the near future, I appreciate every chance I get to travel there via fiction.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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