(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Being a big fan of horror (especially supernatural horror), I was quite intrigued by the idea of this book. Although I thought the first part of the book was very graphic and disturbing in parts, I did find the legend a really interesting one and it was good to see how it all sprang up.
I have to say, I did have mixed feelings by the time I reached the end of this book. Although there was a lot that was good about it, I was confused about what exactly was going on. By the end of the book, I still didn’t have all of the answers to the questions the book raised.
I did get a bit confused by the fact that the book kept switching between present day, the past and somewhere in between. Since the book wasn’t split up into chapters and there was nothing about the passage of time, it took me a while to realise that some of the events had happened before.
I found it difficult to connect emotionally with many of the characters. Some of them were easy to follow and understand, but it was harder to like or care about others. Although there seemed to be a fairly large cast of characters, I felt that only some of them were developed enough to be easy to empathise with… and even the ones who were developed weren’t actually shown in a sympathetic light.
I think this book could have done with being expanded a bit more. There were lots of unanswered questions by the end and although there were some quite graphic, horrible scenes, I didn’t feel that they added much to the story. Pasi, for instance, was a character I found nearly impossible to be concerned about.
I did find parts of this book to be disjointed as well. It was a shame, because I really did like the blurb of this book… I just really didn’t think it lived up to its potential. And the cliffhanger ending didn’t really work, in my opinion.
I did find this book readable, but I don’t think I’ll be reading any more books by this author in the future unless there’s more ‘meat’ to the story.
Ink of Blood 