(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I’m a bit torn about what to think of this book. While it was short and quick to read (even if not exactly easy), I wasn’t sure I really understood what was going on for most of the book.
It would have been good to know whether the man referred to in each of the stories was the same one or different. I couldn’t see much of a connection between the different chapters… except for maybe the first chapter and the penultimate one.
There was a lot of violence in this book and I didn’t have much trouble picturing what was going on in my mind. I would have liked to see more of the world that the main character/s inhabited. There were some details during the course of the book, but not enough to allow me to fully get to know the area.
There were some really intriguing aspects to this book, such as the implications of more supernatural creatures. I would have liked to see more details about those, at least.
I found some of the descriptions to read a little similar… though whether that was because of the character being the same, I couldn’t say.
I felt that the book could have been expanded a bit. While I did find it a fast read, I couldn’t properly understand the main character or the plot of the story. Not using names is a good style choice… but there was little in the way of personal detail to allow me to get to know the character, at least at first. And while I did see the evidence of grief in the way he saw the woman who had been hung, I found it difficult to guess at what kind of relationship he had with her.
I was a bit disappointed in this book. I felt it could have been worked into a longer book, with more details about the plot and the characters. For me, the most important thing about a book (or movie/television series/etc.) is my ability to connect emotionally with the main character/s, whether good or bad. Unfortunately, I didn’t find that here.
I probably wouldn’t read a sequel to this book right now… maybe if it was made longer and the world was expanded on.
Ink of Blood 