(This review may contain spoilers).
I’ve read quite a few other books by this author, but this one was in quite a different vein to the Study series.
I found Trella to be a really interesting character and it was good to see the contrast between the Scrubs and the Uppers, but also to see that both groups viewed each other with suspicion and both believed things that weren’t true about the others.
I liked seeing Trella’s relationship with Cog and also see how she interacted with Riley. However, there was quite a bit of contradiction between the scrubs at the start of the book and the scrubs later. I felt there wasn’t really enough of an explanation as to why the fellow scrubs were suddenly so eager to protect Trella, considering the vague mentions of hostility towards her.
I was able to picture the clear differences between the lower and upper levels and I felt the author did a good job of showing the cramped space of the scrubs and the larger amount of space the uppers had.
There were occasions I lost sight of what exactly it was Trella was trying to do and there wasn’t really a sense of urgency, even after what happened with Cog. The bad characters didn’t really seem to have any depth to them, even though there was one hint that Karla might have felt a bit differently about the population issues.
I would have liked a bit more detail about the care mothers and what Trella’s past had been like. Did the Scrubs ever see their care mothers again? And also some more individual characters in the scrub society would have been good to see.
I did find myself drawn easily into the world, but I felt there were a few moments of repetition, such as the constant referring to Trella as ‘Queen of the Pipes’.
I did think there were better things Trella could have done and I liked seeing the Tech Nos, Logan and his partner, even though I wasn’t entirely sure why they in particular had chosen to resist and what really drove them.
In the future, I would like to read the next book in this series. I did enjoy this book and there were some really good characters, even though I would have liked to see more of some of the secondary ones.
Ink of Blood 