Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Ink
by Amanda Sun

Available as: paperback, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 369
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication date: June 25, 2013
Suggested tags: young adult, paranormal, mythology



First in the Paper Gods series. From Goodreads:

"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 received this as an ebook ARC from NetGalley. }


For me, Ink's strengths are its dedication to sharing Japanese culture and its use of such an intriguing mythology. First, the detail that Sun put into bringing Shizuoka to life was so great. I've been fascinated with Japanese culture for quite some time, so I really enjoyed seeing Japan through Katie's eyes, a gaijin learning her way around a new school in a new city with a completely different way of life.

Second, the mythology. Paper gods? That's pretty awesome. I loved the scenes where ink dripped and drawings came to life. I haven't read a book with a paranormal aspect quite like this one before, which made it really interesting and exciting.

But I hate to say I kind of lost interest in Ink towards the end when Katie and Tomo got mixed up in two different groups fighting for Tomo's powers. Which is weird, because I feel like this is where the book was really picking up and I should have been really into it. But I kept wanting to just flip back and sit with Tomo and his drawings again.

From the synopsis for the next book in the series, Rain (due out in June 2014), it sounds like the attention is back on Tomo and his connection to the gods (and Katie's connection too), so I feel like I might like Rain more than Ink. Not that Ink was bad - I just didn't really like the direction it took at the end. I know it needed conflict and I'm sure plenty of readers found the run-in with a notorious Japanese group really exciting, but it just didn't do it for me. But I am looking forward to reading Rain and seeing where things go from here.


Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

{ Ink book trailer }

{ More about Amanda Sun }

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{ Paper Gods series }

Book 1: Ink 








Book 2: Rain 
Expected release date: June 24, 2014