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.
Ink is Amanda Sun's debut YA, Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance novel. I read this for the Debut-A-Thon ages ago and am finally getting to doing a review. I'm pretty sure that I'm the one blogger that is most behind on book reviews. Oh well. I loved Ink! Okay well I didn't love love it but I did enjoy it a lot. I personally had a few problems with it which is why I ended up giving it a 3.5 STARS or 4 STARS on Goodreads. It's quite a different novel. American girl in Japanese world. Read more to see the full review.
Characters:
The characters to me seemed a bit fake. They're personalities weren't delved into. I feel as though to really bring a character to life, you have to have more character development. The main character, Katie, was nice but then again, that's the problem. She wasn't a strong protagonist. Tomo was meant to be the main love interest but you find out almost nothing about his personality. Then there's Jun which I think is the coolest character. As expected, he's the other love interest and he's the only one that has any layers in his personality. At first, Jun and Tomo kind of reminded me of Will and Jem with the bad guy and good guy thing. Even though it's still true, the good guy and the bad guy aren't so black and white.
Pros:
The storyline hooked me in at the beginning. I was quite interested to see what would happen. Then when I found out there were amazing illustrations, I got even more excited. There were lots of funny parts that were relatable and fun. I also really loved the paranormal aspect. If I didn't know that the book was in that genre, it would've been a complete surprise to me. The uniqueness of the concept is really fascinating.The story can totally be an anime or a manga.
Cons:
From there, it kind of goes downhill. Well some may totally hate me for this but I've never really read any manga. The idea of it isn't super appealing to me. After awhile, the book got more and more boring. I had to really force myself to read it which is a bad sign. I was lucky I was reading this during a read-a-thon or I might've taken forever to read it. The romantic factor was probably the worst part. It was what felt the most unrealistic which may be a reason why I feel as though the characters are fake.
Summary:
I think most people would love the setting. If you love anime, mangas or J-dramas, I think you'd really like this story. Though there are a few cliche aspects, the uniqueness of the setting and themes probably outweighs them. I'm not telling you to run out and grab a copy but I do definitely recommend this.
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