Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 326
Source: Chapters
Links: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Chapters
Rating: 5/5
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.Plot/Setting:
After the death of her mom Katie Greene moves to Japan to live with her Aunt Diane who is a English teacher. All Katie wants is to go live with her Grandparents in Canada and escape Japan. However, all chances of returning to normalcy vanishes when she witnesses Yuuto Tomohiro break up with his girlfriend and sees one of his drawings moves.
Ink is Amanda Sun's debut novel and a start to a new series called the 'Paper Gods'. It was an amazing book and I highly recommend it. The author steps out of a North American/or fictional setting and takes reader to a whole new country, writes about it culture, foods and the hardship Katie faces with language barriers and cultural differences. Readers are able to leave there comfort zone and embrace something new. I cannot think of one other book that focuses on someone from North America going to Japan.
This paranormal-romance debut is unlike others in that Amanda Sun has skipped the norm (vampires, werewolves etc;) and brought to light Japanese mythology which I haven't seen present before in recent YA novels. This makes Ink stand out from others recently released in that genre.
The book is fast paste and easy to understand. There is a Japanese glossary in the back to translate the Japanese words.
The plot is well done and flows nicely throughout the book. However, I felt that there could of been more action involved.
Characters:
YA needs more asian boys :D Man...Tohomohiro is so sexy. Ever since I found out this novel was being released, thanks to Goodreads, I had been patiently awaiting it release date because a) I am moving to Japan this fall for University and b) sexy asian boy as the main love interest ^_^
Katie: Katie is very much a brave, determined, curious and headstrong character. She is the type that runs towards danger without thinking it through. Also given with all her hardships (mother death, moving to foreign country, learning a new language) she does pretty well and does not give up. I did not find myself, as a reader, annoyed with Katie at all. I personally envied her and found her quite enjoyable as a protagonist. However, during the Love Hotel scene I wanted to shake her and say "connect the dots".
Tomohiro: ^_^ He has got the whole "I'm in pain", bad-boy, confident and modest thing going on and I liked it. I really felt a lot of sympathy towards his character and there were times when I wanted to hug him, shake him and say 'your awesome' and then there were moments when I wanted to beat the crap out of him. However, Tomohiro always puts others above himself and that is enviable quality. However, I think he needs to be a bit more selfish and realize he is super awesome.
Also bonus...my best friend (she is japanese) is in a relationship with a guy and for the life of me I could never remember his name. However, thanks to Ink I can since the first part of his, first name, is Tomo :D
Jun: I am conflicted at who I like more...Jun or Tomohiro.
Yuki, Tanaka, Diane: the side characters were the best. Yuki and Tanaka cracked me up. Diane tries so hard to make Katie fit into her life in Japan. She also pushes Katie to cross new boundaries (learn a new language) and helps Katie develop into a better person :D
Yakuza: I hope we learn more about them in the next book ^_^
Artwork:
This a paperback book...and it has the most awesome artwork both on the cover and inside the book. Readers will be delighted to find flip art ^_^ I really wanted there to be more of that and hope the second book will have it as well.
I am actually excited to see what the second book will look like.
Also the book contains Q&A with the artists, the author , discussion questions and a sneak peak at Book #2. BTW when is book #2 coming out. I do not think I can wait a whole year haha !!
Overall:
This is definitely a book that everyone should be on the lookout for. I finished this a week ago and I am still replaying it in my head.
The Author gets points for bringing something new to the paranormal romance genre, stepping outside of YA normal boundaries and making the readers starve to death as they read about all the delicious foods they are missing out on.
Things I did not like: could of been more action, a little more physical descriptions of the characters and some of the places around them
Thing I loved: all the characters, flip art, storyline, the japanese glossary, cover and the japanese mythology.
This book definitely deserves 5 stars :D
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