Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’m not really sure I liked this book even by the end. Mattie was a character who was interesting, but I did feel like she was weak and easily led. While I could sense the almost hypnotising draw Jolene had to her, I didn’t really like or trust her even when it seemed like she and Mattie might be on their way to repairing their relationship.

I liked the friendship between Mattie and Kris and I thought that, despite certain things revealed later on, Kris really did care about Mattie. I would have liked to see more of her during the book, but the interactions she did have with Mattie were interesting and it was nice to see that she did have an end goal.

I really wasn’t sure what Jolene’s end game was. There was part of me that wondered if she even was a person… since when she appeared, the writing seemed to take on an almost dreamlike quality. The parallels between her relationship with Mattie and her relationship with Hudson were interesting to see, such as the fact that both of them seemed to be obsessed with Jolene the moment they allowed her into their lives.

I did like seeing Mattie’s relationship with her parents and brother, though it did get a bit confusing with the constant switching between the present day and what had happened in the past. I also thought it was good to see how all of them did have problems with their families and personal lives… even Jolene.

It was interesting to see the way Mattie almost slipped down to rock bottom and how she was affected as a result. The first person POV allowed me to understand her and I found it really easy to understand how she was feeling most of the time. There was a lot of tension in this book and I was drawn in and able to keep on reading, despite the negative feelings I had while reading.

I don’t think I’d read a sequel to this book, even though it would be good to see Mattie grow into her own person. I would be willing to check out other books by this author in the future, though.