review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Ink ~ Amanda Sun

3 of 5 stars

DRC provided by NetGalley

"I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.  Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.  A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.  And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine."

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. (Thanks to GoodReads for the summary)

My Thoughts -

I really liked the idea behind this story. I though it was unique and very interesting.  Japanese mythology, Asian culture and young love...great combo.

I'm not sure if I really liked Katie or not. She wasn't really that interesting to me. Her story was compelling, but she wasn't written in a way that I really cared about her. Tomohiro was the one I really liked. I almost wished the story was from his point of view - or maybe they could have flip-flopped chapters. I would have liked more of the Kimi story to have more of an idea of how powerful these beings were.

I enjoyed reading about a different culture. I'm into Korean stuff but do watch a few Japanese shows, so nothing was a big shock/change for me - but I still liked seeing it. I liked the Japanese words throughout the story and appreciated the reference in the back - but I think the Kanji would have been cool to see for those words, too.

Overall I liked the story; it had good and rough spots.  It was a bit slow at times, but I think it's a great read for someone open to new experiences.