(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Having read a book by this author in the past, I was quite interested in reading this collection of stories in the horror genre when offered the opportunity to do so, even though it took me a little while to actually get round to reading it.
There was a nice variety of different stories and I really liked that, in some of them, what happened was left to the reader’s imagination. The one with the Caribbean meat was one of those… but unfortunately, it also suffered from multiple POVs. While many of the other stories did keep switching POVs without warning, it was particularly obvious with the Caribbean story. While I enjoyed reading about the relationship between the two main characters, I was left with more questions than answers by the end.
One thing I thought was good about this collection was that there wasn’t any supernatural element. While one of the stories did have some science fiction aspects to it, I liked the fact that they were all about horrible things ordinary humans can do to each other.
I thought that the two stories about the second World War were particularly difficult to read, though the second was more moving. The first one afforded a glimpse into the horrors a bit closer to home, which I thought was particularly effective.
There were actually quite a few central characters who I found to be really unlikable. The main characters in the story about the former careworkers was one that springs to mind. However, in the absence of any sympathetic characters, I did end up wanting to see the survival of the person who was the ‘lesser evil’.
I particularly liked being able to see a couple of stories where the tables were turned and what I thought was going to happen wasn’t what ended up happening. It was nice to get a few surprise twists.
I liked the story with the diary, though by the end of that one, I had some questions. That was another instance where I felt the changing of POVs didn’t really work, as rather than there being a twist, there wasn’t much that seemed logical.
A lot of the short stories did contain some really good elements of tension and I was kept reading throughout. I was able to picture a lot of the events and characters in my head.
The first story in particular had some good elements of foreshadowing and I figured out what was going to happen fairly early on. Still, the journey to the end of the story was an interesting one.
Despite the fact there were some minor issues, such as the switching between different POVs and not a lot of background always provided, I did find this collection of stories entertaining to read and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.
Ink of Blood 