Review: Ink

Book: Ink by Amanda Sun
Publication Date: June 25, 2013
Series: Paper Gods (#1)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: 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.


Overall Review:
I'll be quite honest, this was a hard book to read and it's a hard book to review. I wasn't super excited about reading it, but I did have some high hopes and I was very disappointed. I've been a big fan of manga and anime for awhile, and just by the Japanese culture, so when I found out there was going to be a YA set in Japan all about Japanese mythology I immediately added Ink to my TBR list. The premise behind Ink is truly fascinating and I loved reading and learning more about the Japanese way of life and their culture, but sadly Ink is more about the romance between Katie and Tomohiro than anything else. I guess it wouldn't be a huge problem if it weren't for the fact that their relationship was down right creepy and wrong. I'm not sure what Sun was trying to go for when she wrote Katie and Tomohiro's relationship the way she did, but whatever she tried to portray failed. Epically. It wasn't sweet and romantic between them, it was creepy, annoying, and once again creepy. I try not to base my opinion on a book solely on whether or not I enjoyed the romance in it, but since the romance consumed this story and was just so wrong, I couldn't help myself. As much as I enjoyed the concept of the Paper Gods, I couldn't look past the romance and just Katie as a main character in general and it got to the point where I had to force myself to finish. I wanted to DNF almost right away but kept going because I kept hoping to learn more about these Paper Gods and actually get to the actual story, but alas it didn't happen. Amanda Sun has gorgeous writing, such a unique plot, a great ability to get you into the story, and I love the artwork she included in the story but sadly I couldn't look past what she had done with Ink. She had something great and she didn't even attempt to go with it.

Katie was so awful. I'm sorry to say it but it's true. She was not at all a likable character, nor did she have many traits that made her an interesting character. I can't even say she had issues she had to work through (she seriously does) and she spent Ink trying to get over them because she didn't. She was exactly the same the whole way through. She was clingy to an extreme, in your face about everything, constantly butting in where she didn't belong but felt she had the right to, got mad about everything, and always had to have an excuse to get annoyed with people. Especially Tomohiro. I just don't get it. She claims she's in love with him but is constantly mad at him, not trusting him, doubting him. and going against him. I don't get why he sticks around. In fact, he shouldn't. She's mean, creepy, stuck up, and so dang full of herself. She's lucky I enjoyed Amanda Sun's writing as much as I did, because otherwise I would've been, "Screw you bitch (i.e. Katie), nobody likes you and nobody should. *drops book and walks away*" I seriously hope in the sequel Rain, she changes in a good way and finally gets over herself but I don't think I could handle another book with her like that.

The romance between Katie and Tomohiro was so inappropriate and wrong, I couldn't stand it. Katie spent a good portion of the book stalking Tomohiro. Like seriously stalking him. She got herself a bike so she could follow him in the mornings and after school, she'd get on the same trains as him to see where he's going, she joined the same kendo class so she could watch him, she watched for him everywhere she went. It wasn't even like she was shy and kept trying to get the nerve to talk to him, she was just down right following him. She asked about him to everyone so she could learn everything about him. If he wasn't at school or in the school yard, she'd leave and look for him. I don't know how Japan deals with something like that, but in America? She'd be arrested for stalking. It was that bad. And it wasn't like once they got together she stopped, she still did it. She tried to look at his phone, got mad when he wouldn't let her, whenever he had to leave one of their dates she'd follow him. The worst thing about it was, she thought she could just do that. She thought she had a right to stalk him just because, and if Tomohiro messed up on the littlest of things she'd get pissed at him. She felt the world revolved around her and it showed. I don't get why Tomohiro got together with her, especially since he found out she was indeed stalking him, but it was a bad move on his part and I just couldn't support that relationship. And it bugs me that some people find that sort of thing cute and romantic. It's not. I can promise you that if roles were reversed and Tomohiro stalked Katie that way, she'd be scared out of her mind and all the readers would be freaked out too.

I felt the pace was pretty slow, but that could be because it seemed like the same stuff kept happening over and over and over again. I was downright sickened by the amount of time Katie spent just stalking and obsessing over Tomohiro for no reason at all. We did catch a glimpse of the Japanese culture, mythology, how the Japanese lived, and sort of the layout in terms of buildings and nature in Japan which I loved reading about, wish there was more of it in there, and Amanda Sun did an excellent job portraying the story in Japan and making it seem like we were actually there in Japan right along with Katie. If Sun focused more on all that in Ink, I would have loved the book instead of being creeped out by it like I am. Sun decides to focus the story instead of on the Paper Gods, but the romance between Katie and Tomohiro, and since their relationship is so unhealthy and gross I just couldn't get into the story like I hoped to. I had to force myself to continue reading. Katie is such a mean, self absorbed girl who thinks the world revolves around her and everyone should know it. She seems to think she can say or do whatever she wants and get away with it, and for the most part that's what happens. She can legit stalk someone and obsess over someone like a creepy, serial killer might and it's totally okay. In fact, the guy she's stalking decides to get together with her and be her boyfriend! It's so bad, it's not even funny. I can't stress enough that their relationship is wrong and sick. She can't just go around stalking him the way she does and not get punished, in fact she actually gets rewarded for it! That just isn't right. I'm so disappointed with how Ink turned out. It had so much potential, and I saw so much of it while reading, but Sun just didn't work with the greatness she had beneath her fingertips and instead decided to go a completely different route that did not work out for her. I'm so saddened to see that. I almost dread to see what Rain will be like. But dang do I love that cover! It's gorgeous yet simplistic and the physical cover is textured in such a great way. I love it.



Overall Rating:
I give Ink a 2.5 out of 5 star rating. While I didn't have super high expectations for Ink, I did have some but sadly all my expectations were shattered. I had high hopes for where this could go and what we could learn from it, but instead of focusing on the more interesting bits Sun decided to go towards the romance. To make it even worse, the romance it where she simply failed at, and I couldn't like the story the way I wanted to because of that. I'm sorry but I wouldn't recommend Ink. If you decide to read it, then go right ahead, but I can't warn you strongly enough about the darn romance and stalking. It's so bad. I'm not sure if I'll read Rain, the sequel. I'm leaning more towards no but I'll wait to see when it comes out and read reviews. Maybe it'll be so much better than the first? A girl can hope! Thanks for reading!

2.5/5 stars

~Kayla~