(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I thought the concept of this story was one that sounded really intriguing. I liked the idea of a group of people being drawn together and was eager to see how it would be pulled off. Although the book did warn for very graphic sexual scenes, I don’t tend to have a problem with that… but I did think that a lot of those scenes were gratuitous; they didn’t really add to the storyline and just seemed to be included for the shock value. Plus, I couldn’t figure out what the end game was with those visions/dreams. Seduction? Warning? Complete and utter disgust?
I thought that Richard was probably the most intriguing character, though I went off him quite a bit later on in the story. At first, I thought he was a very well-developed character… and I did have similar feelings about Sophia. They both had more depth to them and I felt they were allowed a chance to grow through the story.
I was actually very ambivalent towards Dennis and Amy. I found it very hard to care about them as characters. There were times they did seem over the top and like they didn’t really belong.
I thought the concept of the black spots was a really intriguing one and it was good how they linked together with the previous people who had sealed the Beast away. I did think that the descriptions of Patrick’s mangled form towards the beginning came across really well, causing me to cringe while reading.
There was very little mystery in this book. Because the POV character kept changing, it was quickly clear what was real and what was in the characters’ heads… as well as who the bad guy was. And why. I didn’t really find many of the scenes surprising… and to be honest, I spent a lot of the book waiting for the characters to play catch up with what I knew already.
On the whole, there was a lot of potential in this book… but I felt it fell short. There was little time for friendships to develop between the characters and everything was kind of revealed straight away. I’m not sure I’d read more books by this author in the future; not unless more is held back.
Ink of Blood 