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Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Ink by Amanda Sun Review
Ink
by Amanda Sun
Published: June 25, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: Paperback
Pages: 326
Source: Netgalley & Giveaway Win
Buy It Now: Book Depository | Amazon
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.
Royal Commentary
Ink by Amanda Sun was actually quite a disappointing read for me. It wasn't terrible, the writing wasn't bad, but the story was just plain disappointing. The story had amazing potential but alas Ink just fell flat for me. I didn't enjoy it as much as others, but it could have also been because of my high expectations.
Katie Greene has recently moved to her Aunty's home in Japan when her Mother passed away. In a strange land, with no friends and no knowledge of the language…can life get any worse for teenager Katie Greene? Tomo is the school's Kendo team star, local unobtainable bad boy with attitude but an artist behind the scenes. Something tragic and scary stopped him from drawing in public. Can Katie break through Tomo's barriers?
After reading the above paragraph can we all guess where this story is going? If you can't, then you mustn't have read YA novels lately because this seems to be the recipe that Authors are following lately. An outcasted good girl, and the local bad boy and then their forbidden love. I'm really baffled that Amanda Sun went the route that she did with this story. The surrounding elements behind Ink is just brilliant, and so I'm not quite sure why Amanda Sun wrote the story how she did. The strong elements of set in Japan, moving sketches that come to life and become dangerous with Japanese mythology thrown into the mix, how can you seriously go wrong, but Amanda took the elements she created and then went back to the normal recipe of YA novels, so despite having interesting and original elements, the story of Ink went back to just being another YA book with unoriginal story lines and characters.
However, I still liked some parts of Ink, most especially Amanda Sun's description of Japanese life, explaining the connections to Japanese mythology, although I had wished she had touched on this a bit more, and she may very well do in the sequel. Amanda Sun's knowledge of Japan and the lifestyle in Japan is astounding and I really enjoyed getting lost in the surrounding that she created.
Ink by Amanda Sun is a well loved idea, but the story itself and the characters fell disappointingly flat for me. I was looking forward to reading Ink and maybe my high expectation was to blame for my disappointment but after reading the book description, what I expected from Ink is totally what I didn't get out of it, not even close. However, Amanda's writing is good, beautiful even, but the plot line was just bland considering the elements she had to work with, she could have done so much more with this story. I will still be picking up the novella and sequel, just to give this series another chance, because like I said, I love the idea behind this novel, and I am hoping that the execution and story itself gets better.
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9 comments:
Well, I'm disappointed you didn't like this one much. Though I can completely understand. I still need to read it, but I hate that the amazing idea is boiled down to the same standard formula as other YA novels right now. =/ Thanks for sharing your review!
I agree about this one. Amazing potential, but bogged down by the romance and predictability. I did love the setting, though, and hope the next book focuses more on the drawing aspect.
-Readers in Wonderland
Sorry you were disappointed. I haven't heard of this one. Enjoyed your review. It sucks when something has potential but you just can't get into it.
On one hand I really want to read this book, because of the other reviews I've read of it and it does sound a bit interesting. On the other hand, I have feared that what you stated would happen, that it was like every other YA book. (Plus the whole "Caucasian American is thrown into a different culture" already peeves me.) I think this is one I'll have to leave be.
Jessie you should read it anyway because you really want to read it. Like me, I wanted to really read it because quite a lot of people loved it, but it just wasn't for me. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible, but considering the concept it could have been a lot better.
Laureen I was terribly disappointed, like I kept saying in my review…it had so much potential!
Erin, can you think of any other books that have so much potential but didn't meet up to it?
Alise you worded it so much better than I did LOL Like you, I love the setting and I'm still looking forward to the other books.
I am sorry that the book was disappointing. I hate when I can predict the plot from the book blurb.
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