So, this book was one that I decided to get (when I had an Amazon gift voucher) due to various people I knew online enjoying the book and telling me it was good.
I’m very glad I decided to give this book a chance. It was really easy to read, and Juliette was a character who was easy to empathise with. I thought the use of the strikethroughs to show how her thoughts were so chaotic was really unique…and while it did throw me a bit to have numbers written as numbers and not in words (2 instead of two, for instance), it didn’t take long for me to accept that as part of her character.
I wasn’t especially sold on the love triangle that was going on between Juliette, Adam and Werner. All three characters were interesting in their own right, even if Werner came across as a really sadistic, cruel person after trying to force Juliette to use her powers on a toddler. There were hints of more depth to him than how he immediately came across…though I really hope that if he becomes a good guy in later books, his refusal to accept the word ‘No’ is dealt with. Too many books have male characters forcing themselves on female characters and it’s not only treated as normal, but the woman suddenly realises it’s what she wanted all along (I’m looking at you, Carpathian series).
I really liked the fact that, while it was clear Juliette couldn’t actually touch anyone (or be touched by them), it wasn’t immediately clear just what her ability was until later in the book. And learning gradually about her history, not only with Adam but also with her parents and the other schoolchildren when she went to school, was a really good way of introducing her past…even if she did fall into a huge amount of cliches I’ve noticed with many heroines in young adult books.
I really liked Kenji’s character, and I would have liked to see a bit more of him rather than him appearing more towards the end. I really enjoyed his banter with Adam…but was far less sold on the apparent obsession he too developed with Juliette, constantly trying to flirt with her and hit on her. Yeah, he backed off once it was clear that Adam and Juliette was involved, but his refusal to take ‘I’m not interested,’ gracefully really soured my opinion of him as a character…and my view of this book as a whole, if I’m honest. I’m not a big fan of the overpowered woman who becomes the whole centre of every single character’s universe. I’m interested in seeing the world through a character’s eyes, not seeing every other character tell her what an amazing, powerful, ‘We need you so much!’ person she is. Conflicts make characters interesting. Not everyone has to love her and obsess mindlessly over her.
Wow, sorry. That went a bit more ranty than I was planning. Basically, if it wasn’t for everyone becoming so obsessed with Juliette, this book would be a solid four out of five stars. But making pretty much every person only think about her and want to get her, despite there being other people with abilities? Yeah, that’s dropped down the star rating.
I might give the next book in this series a try, but not if I’m going to be only reading about how much everyone wants to get their hands on her…both figuratively and literally. Unfortunately, this book just hit too many of those negative cliches for me by the end…and I’m so annoyed, because I would have enjoyed this so much otherwise.
Ink of Blood 