Review: Ink by Alice Broadway

Publication Date: February 2nd 2017
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 366 pages

Every action, every deed, every significant moment is tattooed on your skin for ever. When Leora's father dies, she is determined to see her father remembered forever. She knows he deserves to have all his tattoos removed and made into a Skin Book to stand as a record of his good life. But when she discovers that his ink has been edited and his book is incomplete, she wonders whether she ever knew him at all. 

Oh this book. It's a prime example of a beautiful cover and blurb not truly reflecting the pages within, which was gutting, because I had been so excited about this one only to feel horribly let down.

Instead of the unique and fascinating story I was expecting, I was left with a blandly flat main character who was not only 'the chosen one' (for no particularly good reason, just because, which only made her more unbearable) but Leora had absolutely no character to speak of. This was a problem with the writing style, because even though the ideas were there they just didn't translate well onto the page. The characters were all indistinguishable from each other because there was no variation in speech, everyone spoke the same, and as a result everything just felt flat and underdeveloped and honestly, incredibly boring.

It also suffered from poor editing, where it felt like key scenes or moments had been cut out and the story and character development suffered as a result. I was left feeling confused by thoughts and decisions that should have been clearer, and as though I'd been left in the dark for pivotal moments with Leora's realisations.

All in all this was a disappointment. I wanted to love it, I was all set to, with such a vibrantly fresh concept I didn't think I could not. Yet I was left feeling disappointed, frustrated, and like I'd wasted my time.