Book Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Release Date: June 25th, 2013

Read: April 29th- May 4th, 2014

Publishing: Harlequin Teen

Series: The Paper Gods

Format: Paperback, 369 pages

Source: Bought

Description 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.

Review:

It's worth my life, but it isn't worth yours.
   Three things stood out for me when I first heard of Ink, it was published from Harlequin Teen, the FABULOUS cover and finally the book was set in Japan. As you guys know I tend to love all things Harlequin Teen, they are practically my favourite publishing. The books they published always and I mean always spark a interest for me and I can never put there books down, that wasn't any different with Ink.
   My goodness the cover! Inks' has a totally different look than any of the other covers I've ever seen, it's so unique with it's water-colour picture. I don't think I've seen anything involving watercolour in forever, it was a nice change especially with the beautiful cover design by Petra Dufkova, and to make the water-colour more life like the covers texture actually feels like water-colour paper. The blossoms on the cover were my favourite<3
   Over the years I've read many and I mean MANY different books with different places that the book was set in, most of the time they would occur somewhere in the United States but everyone in a while I would get to experience a new place I'd never heard of before or been to in real life. Some like India, England, Prague, and Canada. But this was my first time reading/being in Japan! I was totally like Katie was when she first came to Japan. A gaijin. The language and the culture were new to me. When Amanda first put a Japanese word in a paragraph I kind of panicked, how would I understand what the characters were saying? Thankfully every time a new word was introduced Amanda would then have Katie translate it for us in her head, but she would only translate it for us maybe once or twice then it would be up to us to remember what it meant. I am not the best when it comes to remembering what words are in different languages so the fact that the back of the book had a glossary of the Japanese words and phrases saved my life. I can't wait to see what other new words and new things I'll learn in Rain Japanese wise. Canada was also mentioned as couple times through out the book, Katie's grandparents lived there. I know it was only mentioned a few times, but it made me few better knowing it was mentioned more then New York was.( Katie's old home) Most of the time Canada doesn't get a into a lot of YA book related things, so it being mentioned in the book and where the author lives made me like the book just a little bit more. ( Sorry I am a little biased that way.)
   The dark mysterious dangerous boy, Yuu Tomohiro was all of it. Even in Japan those types of boys attract the girls, it's like they just can't help it. Well I know I wouldn't if Tomo was the case aha. With teenagers now a days creativity comes in different forms, normally they only with electronics forms now. Calligraphy is sort of rare now, not many people find it interesting. Well I can only speak for North America. Either way it touched my heart to see a boy that loved art, most of the time boys will only focus on sports. Tomo had a healthy balance of both. The only thing that bothered me about Tomo was the way he would try to protect people. Pushing people away while being as rude as you possibly can is not the way to go.
   I see Katie as one of the strongest people in Ink, to loose your mother and have to a completely different continent in a sort span of time takes courage which not everyone has. And to have yourself not a wreak after a few months is even more of a big deal. If something were to happen to my mother and I was put in the same situation as Katie I don't think I'd ever be able to put myself back together.
   The art was phenomenal. The way Amanda would just describe the artwork created the most beautiful images in my head, and to have it come to life? It was magical. Sketches are my favourite, so in the case of the pictures in the book, the pictures Tomo would draw were black and white which made the pictures much more lifelike to me. Then to make the book more realistic artist Ross Siu would recreate the drawings that Tomo would "draw" in the book, so we got to really see what the pictures looked like.
   The Kami intrigue me, I've always been fascinated by mythology. Mythology is one of my favourite things to learn and read about. Greek, Egyptian and Hindi being some of my favourites. So I hope to be able to learn more about the Kami in Amanda's next novel because at this point we don't know a whole lot about them yet.
   I honestly can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Rain, the sequel to Ink which releases June 24th, 2014. But before you do, don't forget to check out the e-novella Shadow that takes place before the events in Ink and learn more about Tomo and Katie.


Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"He wasn't going to... I mean, he wouldn't try to kiss me, would he?

I didn't want him to.

I wanted him to." ~ Katie 

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Cultural, Japan