Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I liked the blurb of this book… and the cover was suitably creepy, one that I felt fit in really well with the plot of the story.

I found the world really easy to follow and although apocalyptic scenarios are quite a common theme, I thought this was a fairly unique idea. The Reaper was a really awful creature. Or being. Whatever it was. Its ability to absorb its prey was something that was really creepy during the course of the book. It was pretty awful when it used the forms of those it absorbed to talk to the people who knew its victims.

I really liked Lily as a character, though her personality seemed at odds with the way she acted at her first appearance. I also liked the fact that she bonded so quickly with a cat at the library she’d taken shelter in. I could definitely identify with her need to escape into an imaginary world, due to how awful her reality had become. There were times I felt a lot of sympathy for her in the book.

I did really like Kimi as a character as well. While there was a bit too much telling rather than showing, and a lot of information dumps (her attraction to Derek really didn’t seem to come across as very realistic), I did like her as a character. And her friendship that formed with Lily was particularly sweet.

I thought it was interesting that the soldiers trained dogs to sniff out the infected, though I would have liked a bit more detail about how they knew dogs were able to do that. I did feel like the dogs, especially Kerchak and Spook, were really good characters in their own right. I loved the fast bond Spook formed with Lily.

I really hated Cooper and Kyle in this book. They were characters who didn’t really seem to have any redeeming qualities to them. I did really like Jason and Innie, though. I thought it was sweet to see them together… and they both proved themselves to be resourceful and intelligent.

I did very much enjoy reading this book. I would read more books by this author in the future.