Ink by Amanda Sun

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: HarlequinTeen Australia

Pages: 384pgs

The Story

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.

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher HarlequinTeen Australia for sending me a review copy of this book!

Wow, what an amazing and imaginative storyline! I kid you not. This book is definitely one of my favourite debut novels coming from this year because the story is just so beautifully-written, captivating, lush and it's almost like the story comes to life right off your own pages as you slowly begin to discover Amanda Sun's Japanese and wonderful mythology of the paper gods. Jush . . . oh so many high praises for this one! And it's about time another Japanese-like story comes my way because I've been really, really wanting to read more books such as this one right here and boy I was so in love with it!

One of the things INK had going for it was the characters and the combination they all seemed to come in. All of them, I find, were particularly and wonderfully portrayed, strong, interesting, colourful and for the majority of the book they were very conflicted with everything around them, which ticked all of the boxes for me in my books. Katie for one, our main heroine, is someone I could easily relate to, especially as she struggled between her heart and her head. It's one of the things I loved most about her actually. But what's so rare about her character is how easy she was to like and I love reading about her self-discovery as she learns to adjust to a completely new culture and a new language, and while on top of it all still work through all of the grief that came from her mother's recent death. She was a pretty amazing character if I do say so myself!

Tomohiro, on the other hand, read almost like one of my favourite mysterious anime type of characters that I love so much from anime shows. You know, the ones where you have no idea what he's all about and yet you feel so compelled to find out more and more about him. Yeah . . . Tomohiro was awesome! Apart from Katie's character, Tomohiro was my favourite part of the book and he definitely makes it onto my list of hot fictional boys this year! I mean for sure, at first glance he may come across as a complete jerk (and maybe he is) but even from then on, as you soon learn about his own personal struggles and becomes this not-so-bad person and this strange - and somewhat - well-rounded guy with a very beautiful-but-a-very-dangerous talent, Tomohiro is the one who makes reading all of this book til the end worth the wait! Just you wait yourself . . . he's amazing!

Overall, INK is everything I wanted from it. Everything. And more! With a beautiful incorporation of Japanese mythology (which was flawless mind you) and with an author paying great attention to the details and doesn't leave anything untouched, I think this book is going to become a big favourite for YA readers because I thought it was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

The Rating

5/5 stars