I’ve read most, if not all, of Holly Jackson’s books by now, so I was really eager to read this one when it came out – which I knew about thanks to my oldest nibling mentioning it.
I really enjoyed this book as a whole, although I wasn’t entirely keen on Jet as a character to begin with. For the first part of the story, she was…well, a bit annoying, if I’m honest. The catchphrase of ‘later’ became more annoying than anything else.
Once Jet was attacked and found out she only had seven days to live, I found her to be a more interesting character. However, I unfortunately didn’t like a lot of the secondary characters. I also felt like there was a bit too much information dumping at times. For instance, Jet’s prior friendship with Sophia was just mentioned when Sophia and Luke appeared, instead of being shown through dialogue and the body language of the characters.
I did feel bad for Jet after she woke up in the hospital and found out about the condition she was in. I was able to relate to the impossible choice she was left with, and it definitely felt like there was a lot of research that had gone into what Jet was going through. At the same time, the explanation was actually very easy to understand…helped along by the fact that Jet has no medical background or knowledge.
I will say that Jet was surprisingly accepting of the fact that she only had seven days to live…but I can’t really say that felt unrealistic. After all, it probably didn’t really feel real to her. At least not until she started experiencing more intense symptoms.
For everything that was going on in the book and all of the difficult relationships Jet had with other characters, one constant was Billy…who I did like. But Jet was seriously blind to the fact that Billy had feelings for her, and I’ve got to say that really didn’t strike me as realistic. At times, she was so oblivious that it was almost frustrating.
Jet choosing not to spend time with most of her family didn’t really surprise me, but it was disappointing to see that she didn’t even try to reach out to her father, given how close they seemed to be. And there were a lot of secrets that were revealed through the course of the book…but at times, there was so much going on, and so many secrets, that it was a bit confusing. Especially towards the end, when the suspects were narrowed down…and one of them, I’d completely forgotten about by the time they were considered a real suspect.
I also have to admit that the ending was a bit disappointing. Certain parts of it were good, but I was a bit disappointed by the execution.
On the whole, this book was entertaining…but I didn’t like it or the main character as much as I liked A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, or Five Survive. It took me longer to read than the other books I’ve read by this author, and despite the time limit for the main character, the book felt like it did drag at times. Still, the premise was a very unique one, and there was clearly a lot of work put into making this book as realistic as possible.
Ink of Blood 