Take a Look at This Book #1: INK REVIEW

Take a Look at This Book #1:

 

Title: Ink

Author: Amanda Sun

Rating: 3/5 stars

Series: Paper Gods, #1

Summary: 

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.

 My Review (CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS):

This book broke my heart.... but not in a good way.

Not in the way that Looking for Alaska or The Fault in Our Stars broke my heart, but in the sense that I put SO MUCH FAITH into this novel, and it let me down. 

I mean, a YA novel set in JAPAN. There was SO much potential for this novel, and the author just wasted it. 

I've become pretty familiar with the certain formulas that cliche YA novels use pretty often nowadays: usually an exciting and fast moving plot line with interesting ideas and a beautiful setting. But unfortunately they also include...

-A "quirky", boring, mundane heroine, who may or may not have special powers (spoiler alert: they always do).

-A hot, moody, bad boy hero with a mysterious secret and a tortured past who is always pushing the lead character away because he's too "dangerous".

-"Friends" that are as thin as paper, with absolutely no character development. They basically do nothing to forward the plot.

-A nice guy who creates a painfully forced love triangle, even though you know that the heroine will always (ALWAYS!) pick the douchebag

-"Love at first sight" *cough* More like obsession at first sight...

-Forbidden love

I have a strong belief that Twilight is to blame for most of these overused plot ideas.

And Ink? It contains ALL OF THESE. (and more)

I literally am devastated at how much of a let down this story was. 

Japanese culture + Japanese mythology + surely gorgeous Japanese setting = awesome book, right? Not right, apparently.

I originally picked up this book because of the pretty cover and the endearing summary. 

I mean, just look at it:

 
  I gave this three stars because although there were cliches everywhere, at least the cliches were moderately well-written. The "romance" was borderline stalking at the beginning of the novel, with Katie following Tomohiro around constantly. 

I mean, I get that you have a crush on him, but seriously?? Do you really need to know where he is 24/7? 

It also earned a star for originality of the plot idea, but lost one for the overall plot being one giant clusterfuck of cliche. 

This book was extremely predictable. Would I recommend it? Probably not. 

I did tell my friend that she might enjoy it because she's super into anime and anything Japanese related, but other than that, I wouldn't ask anyone else to read it. It's not worth it.

I'm not sure if I'll check out the second book when it is released. Maybe, but probably not. I don't need my heart broken a second time by a book, at least in this way.




sincèrement, emilie