Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I would probably have given this book 4 stars. Unfortunately, the constant switching between third and first person, with no warning, made this book very hard to read at times.

I thought that the new take on the zombie theme was a really unique one, especially given the link-ins to Brer Rabbit, though I could definitely agree that the name (and title) carried racist connotations, so I was very hesitant to use the actual name.

While it was good to have the opportunity to see the effects on a smaller area of something like that, I did struggle with my suspension of disbelief when it came to the police officer handling things. To be honest, the first several chapters had me assuming it was a satire. While there were more serious aspects later on, I found it very hard to take a bus driver’s refusal to abandon their route, when instructed to by a police officer, seriously.

I really did like the descriptions of the tarbabies, though it was hard to picture how they could have moved around at all, given how sticky they were described as being. One thing I found quite interesting was the fact that, although the majority of them seemed to be driven to ‘go forth and multiply’, there were a few that seemed more harmless. I did, however, feel that a trick was missed when no one attempted to communicate with the creatures through those in the process of being infected.

I did especially like the relationship between Josh and Libby. While I did think Libby was quite physical (even if it was meant to be in a playful, non-threatening way), I enjoyed their interactions and felt they really did care about each other.

One thing I particularly liked was seeing how different people saw the tarbabies. It was good to see that, when faced with the prospect of their own mortality, some people chose to make the transformation… and I couldn’t blame them.

I probably felt the most sympathy for Brandon as a character. While he and his brother seemed to be somewhat lacking in the common sense department, it did seem they really wanted to try to help; and it was pretty awful to see that Brandon was hurt so badly by trying to do the right thing.

I thought it was good to see Libby and Josh have to figure out how to get to her parents, given the roads were blocked. I thought it was good to learn a bit more about the creatures, but I found their supposed weakness to be quite confusing.

I thought it was good to see some semblance of society try to keep going, but I would have liked to see it on a bit of a wider scale. While the ending of the book was a little confusing, it was good and I did find the plot held my attention throughout. I would be interested in reading the next book/s in this series in the future.