Review of INK by Amanda Sun

I received this book for review consideration from the publisher via Netgalley. For more about my review policies, please see my full disclosure page.

After Katie's mom dies, she has to move to Japan to live with her aunt. In the midst of dealing with a new culture, new school, finding new friends and learning a new language, Katie meets the mysterious Tomohiro, a guy with awesome hair and a serious personality disorder. One second he's super-nice, then the next he's a broody jerk. Rumors swirl through the school that Tomohiro got a girl pregnant while dating someone else, almost killed his best friend, and is involved in the Yakuza. BECAUSE EVERY JAPANESE PERSON IS INVOLVED IN THE YAKUZA, apparently. Katie's friend, Yuki, warns her that Tomohiro is dangerous and she should stay away from him, not realizing that's American for, "Totally hit that, girlfriend!" But Tanaka, who's known Tomohiro since childhood, thinks he's just a misunderstood painter. A DANGEROUS ARTIST, YOU GUUUUUUUYS. Will these two crazy kids get together?

Something you should know about me is that I am a total sucker for stories set in Japan. That's why Tokyo Drift is my favorite F&F movie, and Ice Blue is my favorite Anne Stuart novel. And that's why I requested Ink even though I've been feeling burned out on YA for a while (the whining, the love triangles... sigh). I have to say, as far as the setting goes, Ink definitely delivers. You can tell Amanda Sun has lived in Japan and knows her stuff. Katie's assimilation into the culture was a little too smooth and precipitous, but I liked how Sun showed it was happening through Katie's increased use of Japanese words (there's a dictionary of Japanese phrases in the back in case you can't figure it out through context) and how she adopted different mannerisms and hobbies to fit in. That was definitely the strongest part of the novel.

Ink is basically like Twilight (in case you were thinking, "Hey, this sounds kind of like Twilight!"). Dangerous guy who's not quite human and has to keep the girl he loves at a distance, etc. etc. But it's a very inventive twist on the Twilight plot. The "living ink" element went in a direction I totally wasn't expecting. Even the Yakuza part of the story wasn't too bad, although, really. Allllllways with the Yakuza.

And I have to admit that Tomohiro was a major hottie, what with his mad kendo skillz and painting and kick-ass hair, even if he was super-confusing and high maintenance. He laughed when any normal person would be pissed off and got angry when it seemed like there was nothing setting him off. I found myself thinking being around him had to be EXHAUSTING. But that kind of dual personality characteristic seems typical for animé and manga characters, so I just went with it.

Basically, if you love Japan or manga you probably-definitely want to read Ink. Parts of the story go on for way too long, and I am kind of annoyed it's the first of a series because the story does NOT support that; but judging the book as a standalone it's enjoyable and a bit like an animé in novel form. I actually found it pretty compelling. And hooray for books set in Japan!




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Discussion: COME THE NIGHT by Susan Krinard

When Bridget from Books as Portable Pieces of Thought recommended Come the Night by Susan Krinard to me, I was a little hesitant to read it, since I don't usually go in for werewolf stories. As soon as I started Come the Night, though, I knew why Anachronist had suggested it--it had a very unusual and interesting setting, and a great premise.

Seeing as how we both read the book, we decided to have a discussion about it. Bridget is also posting her own review of Come the Night today on her blog, so be sure to check it out!

First, a bit about the book:

Gillian Delvaux, nee Maitland, a young widow with a 12-year-old son, belongs to a very exclusive pure blood British werewolf family. Noblesse oblige – she must marry an appropriate candidate even if it is the 20th century and normal people have something to say about it. She doesn’t. The problem is her father, sir Averil Maitland, still treats his children and household as if he was a medieval prince and them – his chattels. It concerns mainly Gillian but also to some extend her younger brother, Hugh. Marrying or in fact doing anything without their father’s consent is out of question. Sir Averil plans to organize a Convocation of all pure blood werewolves from Britain and abroad and he wants to choose Gillian a new husband (of course without consulting anybody, let alone his own daughter).

Still there was that Great War not so long ago (the novel is set in the Roaring Twenties) during which Gillian worked as a nurse in London and met a very nice young American soldier, Ross Kavanaugh. Ross was only ¼ of a werewolf but somehow it didn’t bother her. In spite of the fact her dad would disapprove (to put it mildly) she decided to have a child with him (and didn’t inform him about it – are you seeing a pattern?). Then she married promptly a Belgian werewolf who, very conveniently, went to war one week after his marriage ceremony and died. The boy, named Toby, has been raised at Snowfell, the manor his grandfather, and, being a bright boy, found out about his real father and decided to visit America and meet with Ross. All alone and without as much as by your leave of course. Like mother like son…

Meantime Ross Kavanaugh, a disgraced ex-police officer, is having a lot of free time as a down-at-heel unemployed without any hopes for a new career and hardly any money. What’s more, the New York police force, his former buddies, are almost sure he has been corrupted by a mafia and has killed a woman. When young Toby shows up as a stow-away and declares he is his son it seems that it is just another stroke of bad luck, especially that his mother and uncle are close behind. Who needs a son when he hardly has two dollars to rub together? Who needs a former aristocratic lover who abandoned you once for no reason at all and haven’t contacted you ever since? Who needs more problems? Or maybe it is actually a chance to start anew?

What was, in your opinion, the most important message, conveyed by this story? 

Tasha: Probably that there’s no such thing as a “pure race” of whatever you happen to be. Also that love conquers all. ;)

Bridget: Yes, ‘love conquers all’ is a very good summary of this one. I would also say: ‘never give up, no matter what circumstances’. Very uplifting.

Was Gillian, in your view, just another ‘doormat heroine’? Do you think any sensible, reasonable guy would stick by her no matter what?

Tasha: That’s a really good question. I don’t think Gillian was a doormat heroine, but she was pretty passive-aggressive. She reminded me of that blonde chick from Vertigo, only more difficult to relate to. And no, I didn’t understand why Ross and the other guys in this novel were so into her. If someone rejected me purely based on my antecedents, I’d be like, “Well, that’s the end of that relationship!”

Bridget: Personally I was surprised how repressed she remained for most of the novel. After the Great War plenty of women learned how to take their life in their own hands - it was one of the reasons behind that “Roaring Twenties’ phenomenon after all. I imagine Gillian would have loved to join their ranks, move out and start living as a ‘normal’ human being, no matter the cost. Still she didn’t. Maybe it was the ‘pack’ thing - in most stories few werewolves are able to live on their own. When it comes to her sex appeal or lack thereof...yes, she was such an ice princess I was rather surprised she was able to attract attention of so many suitors. Ross definitely deserved somebody warmer and less snobbish. Still there is no accounting for tastes - some like it hot, some like it cold.

What do you think of the “roaring twenties” background, presented here? Do werewolves fit it?

Tasha: I knew you would ask that. :) I love the Roaring Twenties in NYC as a setting, and I think I found it more plausible here than you did; but Krinard didn’t do a very good job of setting the scene. I think it’s mainly just lack of research: things like clothes, cars, buildings, etc., are hardly ever described aside from a few isolated mentions. Even Coney Freaking Island wasn’t described very well (and there was no point to that scene, either). I feel like the book could have just as easily taken place in the 1930s, ‘40s, or ‘50s, and that a later time period would have made more sense with the theme of the story.

As for werewolves, I liked how the NY werewolf packs were similar to gangs, but again that could have been set into any other time period. And the European werewolf packs were kind of Nazi-ish and didn’t really feel as if they “belonged” in the 1920s. But admittedly I don’t know much about Europe in the ‘20s outside of Berlin and Paris (and then just the artists in those cities).

Bridget: Oh, I know, I am so predictable ;) The whole conference/convocation thing reminded me a bit of “The Remains of the Day” book by Kazuo Ishiguro (and the movie based on it) so I liked that aspect of the setting. It was also a classic plot device straight from any Agatha Christie novel : gather all the interesting characters under a pretext in one place, keep them there because of a murder and show how they interact. Still I admit  the fact that there were just few  “Roaring Twenties” scenes made me disappointed.

I admit the idea of werewolves as race-obsessed Nazis won my heart - they were somehow right, with all that pure blood craze which made them even tolerate Hitler, a ‘mongrel’ if not worse, just because he promised them more power. As far as I remember Nazism started in the twenties of the 20th century so at least the timing was historically correct (it is true that Hitler consolidated his power from 1933 to 1934 but it had to start earlier). NY werewolves were too schematic to suit me, though, maybe because we saw so little of them.

What did you think of Toby?

Bridget: A precocious, intelligent child, surprisingly normal, taking into account the lack of peers’ company (or any healthy company in fact) and what household he had to endure. He also proved that ‘mixed’ parentage can be a very good thing for your gene pool -  it seems he got the best traits from both his parents. I am pretty sure Toby is the future alpha werewolf in making. ;)

His character  was used as comic relief - a typical, likeable ‘double trouble’ urchin which makes you smile whenever he appears on the page. He acted often as a catalyst - the very person able to move the plot forward, speed up the action and motivate other characters (mainly his mother and father but other people too).

Tasha: I loved Toby! He was definitely my favorite character. I agree, he’s an alpha in the making. ;) But I also think he’s possibly the only main character who embodied the zeitgeist of the 1920s. He’s the only one who used expressions from the time period and brought that energy of experiencing new things one associates with the Roaring Twenties. The kid had chutzpah, for sure. I’m not sure I’d want the entire book to be about him (not this book, anyway), but he did pull the entire novel together for me.

Why do you think Ross and Gillian were both so emotionally repressed? Did that draw a convincing connection between them as characters?

Bridget: That’s a very acute remark - they were repressed like hell, both of them but for different reasons. Gillian was most of her life under the thumb of her monster of a father - I actually was surprised he didn’t smother her or his grandson in the cradle! She had few chances to show her real self or to enjoy the luxury of free choice; she was also constantly fed lies and worthless propaganda. Ross was expelled from the police force under false accusations - it was as if he was thrown out of his family! I suppose he felt guilty even though he knew pretty well it wasn’t his fault.

You would think Ross and Gillian should sympathize with each other from the very beginning but somehow they didn’t, mainly because they lacked enough information about each other’s situation and, mostly in the case of Gillian, they were too afraid to ask pertinent questions. Have you noticed how Gillian froze almost every time she was afraid?

As a result, the connection between them was far from convincing for most of the time, at least in my view; surprisingly their loneliness and misery kept them isolated even when they kissed and had sex (proving that both those activities can’t substitute a meaningful conversation). Only their son was able to puncture their respective bubbles from time to time.

Tasha: I did notice that Gillian would freeze whenever she was afraid. It also seemed like she never expected anyone to have any emotions (probably because of her father). For example, her confusion over what Ross “wanted” with Toby--yeah, why would a guy want to spend time with his kid, for heaven’s sake? *eyeroll* She only expected people to act with the basest flight-or-fight responses.

I can kind of understand how repressed Gillian was, but it seemed over-the-top. I also thought making Ross similarly repressed just didn’t work. For one, he didn’t really have a reason to constantly suppress his emotions like Gillian did; and for another, to me it made it seem less believable that they would ever get together. Opposites attract and all that. I would think someone more outgoing and demonstrative would be a better match for either of these two.

Do you think this is a coming of age story?

Bridget: You know, initially I was rather inclined to say firmly ‘no’. It seemed to me rather a story about finding out what is the most important thing in your life - whether these are family bonds,  love, the truth about you and your parentage or support for an idea. It was somehow connected with discovering your inner core, your real self and allowing it to resurface. Then I thought how men remain children for most of their life (sometimes even their entire life) and I suppose Ross, while rediscovering his strengths, matured a lot as well. Also Gillian emerged as a much stronger person who finally knew how to arrange her priorities. So yes, to some extent it is a coming of age story. Among other things of course. ;P

Tasha: I definitely think of it as a coming of age story, although it’s certainly not framed in the usual way. After all, finding out what you stand for and who you are is part of growing up! Not only did Toby find his father and his inner wolf, but Hugh (Gillian’s brother) came into his own, as well.

I also felt like Ross’s inability to change into a wolf made him feel emasculated, especially since the woman he loved left him over it. After all, she changed RIGHT AFTER they had sex for the first time, then abandoned him as soon as she realized he couldn’t turn into a wolf. He was, in fact, a strong wolf/man, but he couldn’t see that at the beginning of the book.

Book Review: DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins

After a challenging first year at Hex Hall, Sophie Mercer is going to England to spend the summer with her father and have her powers permanently Removed. But seeing as she's staying with the rest of the Council in the same house where her grandmother was turned into a demon, chances are good that Sophie will stumble upon some dangerous secrets.

I read Hex Hall, the first book in this series, when it came out, and here's what I remembered from it: Hex Hall is a high school. For... witches? Otherwise, my recall was embarrassingly blank. I remembered liking Hex Hall but thinking it was fairly predictable. Nevertheless, I heard a lot of good stuff about Demonglass, so I decided to keep on going with the series, and I'm definitely glad I did. Demonglass develops the story in new directions and is a big improvement from the first novel.

One of the things I really liked about this book was the "love triangle" between Sophie, Cam, and Archer (don't pretend you didn't know there wouldn't be a love triangle). Sophie knows both Cam and Archer from Hex Hall, but for various reasons, Archer is extremely unsuitable as boyfriend material--so, naturally, he's the one she's attracted to. Cam is Hex Hall's adorable groundskeeper who likes taking his shirt off (*rowl*), and the guy Sophie's best friend is rooting for. Sophie should really spend more time listening to her bestie. I love Cam so hard... but Archer is pretty awesome, too. Gah! Such a difficult decision!

As for what I didn't like, Sophie's relationship with her dad didn't make a lot of sense to me. She says herself that the only contact she's ever had with him during the entire course of her life are birthday cards obviously picked out by his secretary and tersely signed, "Your Father." WOW. Given that, I would think there'd be way more tension in that relationship than there was, especially with his super-sketchy behavior and the fact that he never explains why he's ignored her existence for the last seventeen years. It also bothered me when Sophie would think something along the lines of, "Oh, I'm seventeen now, so I have to respond to this like an adult." How realistic. Yes, by all means, consciously decide to deal with something as an adult, despite the fact that by our cultural and legal standards you are not.

Aside from that, this was a very quick, fun book, on the edge of being unputdownable (unfortunately I had to put it down because I have job. Stupid job). Outside the walls of Hex Hall, the books' world of magic feels much broader and more developed, and Hawkins really ups the ante for the main characters in this volume. The last fifty pages are incredibly intense, and the ending was a cliffhanger that left me wanting the third book in the series like NOW. I also love Sophie's humor and snark, which keeps the book feeling light even with all the serious events happening around her. I definitely recommend trying this series or the second book if you haven't already!



Musical notes: "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga, mainly because Sophie mentions she was "born this way" (i.e., with demon powers) several times during the course of the novel.

The Attraction of the Paranormal in the Modern World

Paranormal normal novels.  You've seen them.  You've read them.  You've tried to ignore the fact that Twilight is taking over the world as well as the consciousness of our youth.  But have you asked yourself why?  Why here, why... now?  Why Pride & Prejudice & Zombies? 

Well, I have a little theory.  I mentioned in my review of The Immortals:  The Crossing that I found the fact that fairies used the internet to be ridiculous.  Even the fae don't need magic anymore; they just google everything!  I was also a little sad when I read The Vampire Diaries:  Nightfall that cell phones had eliminated the need for Bonnie's telepathic abilities--instead of calling someone with her mind, she could have just texted them.  In Slave to Sensation, the Psy are basically hooked up to the mind version of the internet; and in The Lost Symbol, people are raised from the seemingly dead--through simple science.

In other words, as these books demonstrate to some degree, technology is allowing people to have more "abilities" than they ever did before--abilities that could be conceived as preternatural in another context.  I think our increasing realiance on technology is taking an unexpected turn in that it is fueling a parallel fascination with the paranormal.  But is this interest based on a sense of nostalgia, a longing for mystery that we've lost?  Or is it instead built on the anticipation of what is to come, advances in science that we're building towards but have yet to make?

If I had to guess, I'd say the latter.  Do current paranormals give one the feeling of mystery or nostalgia?  Do they make your spine tingle with the fear of what's out there, in the dark and unknown depths of the world?  Unlikely.  For the most part, paranormal novels that I've encounted (particularly UF titles) treat the supernatural as a matter-of-fact part of daily life.  And I wouldn't exactly call Twilight spooky.  In fact, ever since I convinced my mom to read Twilight, she has been obsessed with vampire books.  When I ask her why, she says she wants a vampire to make her live forever.  I suspect she's only half-joking.  And you know there are scientists somewhere working on making the live-forever thing possible.

Sparkly skin.  Eternal youth.  An academy for wizards.  Zombies that want to eat your brain.  Be on the lookout; in this world, fantasy all often becomes what some people want for a reality.  And then, before you know it, it is reality.


Do you love paranormal- and supernatural-themed novels, TV shows, or movies?  What do you think is the basis of their appeal?

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The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter—a Review

I had this book hidden in my TBR for the longest time… a year, at least. Then Buckeyegirl31 reminded me that I had it when she did a review of it… um, a while ago. What can I say, I get caught up in things. Anyway, I decided I needed to dig it out and give it a try, since she and several others had told me they liked it.

The Lords of the Underworld (as they're called) are a group of warriors who used to protect Zeus. Then Zeus let Pandora take care of his most prized possession, a box made out of bones that contained all the demons meant to torment humanity. This pissed the Lords of the Underworld off because they thought they should be able to guard the box; so they hatched a half-assed plan to steal the box from Pandora and let the demons loose—just for a little bit, just so Zeus learned his lesson that he shouldn't trust anyone but them with such an important task. Predictably, this plan went horribly awry, and the demons all escaped before the Lords could capture them. To punish them, Zeus cursed them to have one of the demons trapped inside their bodies for all eternity.

Maddox, the main character of the first book the series, The Darkest Night, is doubly cursed: while under the influence of his demon, Violence, he killed Pandora. So now every night, he dies exactly as she did, with six stab wounds to his stomach, and then spends the rest of the night being tortured in hell.

Then Ashley walks into his life. Ashley is a psychic who can hear every conversation that went on in any specific spot. She's constantly bombarded by other people's words and thoughts, and she hates it. Searching for some way to stop the voices, she finds herself in Budapest, climbing up the hill up to the Lords' fortress.

The Lords are very suspicious of Ashley because they think she's Bait, a female seductress used by Hunters (human baddies who want to rid the world of all evil, re: the Lords of the Underworld) to lure the Lords out into the open and kill them. However, as soon as she and Maddox meet, she stops hearing voices. Relief at last! So she gloms onto him like a barnacle and refuses to let go. Also she thinks he's kinda cute, in a "GRR MAN ANGRY," sort of way.

Meanwhile, there's a bunch of other stuff happening. There's been a coup d'état on Mt. Olympus and the Titans have retaken control from the Olympian gods. They've ordered another one of the Lords, Aeron (possessed of the demon Wrath) to kill a young woman and her family. He doesn't want to do it (because underneath their demonic rages, they're really just nice guys, dontcha know), but he knows that the Titans are going to force it on him. Of course, one of the other Lords starts crushing on one of Aeron's future victims; and with Hunters running about Budapest like it's the party capital of Europe, the Lords are moving from one crisis to the next.

But who really cares about that. We care about Maddox (whom I keep wanting to call Maddie, for some reason) and Ashley! How will they ever have a future if Maddox can't control the beasty inside him that wants to smash things, like people's faces? Will Ashley be able to tame the beast?? OH I THINK SHE WILL.

In all honesty, I didn't like this book as much as buckeyegirl31 did, although it was really fun and a quick read. The beginning was sort of slow because it was inundated with a lot of back story that could (and should) have been revealed gradually over the course of the opening scene. The beginning also felt really derivative to me, of both the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, and the "Dark" series by Christine Feehan, although the book went in its own direction early on.

There are also some inconsistencies in the narrative and world-building. In one scene, for example, Maddox says he won't die if he touches Tornin (possessed by Disease), but that the next human he touched would die. Then later he says he can touch a human who's been infected by Disease, but if he touches Tornin he'll die. Okay?

But now I'm getting nitpicky. Overall, this book is just fun and silly. It's obviously derived from the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (even Maddox calls Ashley "Beauty"), and there are a lot of references to fairy tales in the book, which is always fun. I like Beauty and the Beast stories. The romance between Maddox and Ashley is very sweet, even though it's one of those Romancelandia relationships where he looks at her once and immediately wants to bang her. All the other Lords look like promising subjects for torture-by-womankind in their own books as the series progresses, and the non-romantic part of the plotline was pretty much non-stop action.

In all honesty, I'm confused as to why I didn't like this book moar. It's exactly the type of book I usually really enjoy, but for some reason I wasn't really feeling it. At some point (3 AM last night), a part of me concluded that I pretty much knew what was going to happen. Actually, that part of me was proved wrong, but I still feel kind of borderline about the book. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or something.

Anyway, I guess my point is, if you like these kinds of books, you should try the Lords of the Underworld. You'll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did.