Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have a few mixed feelings about this book, so ideally, I would have given it 3.5 stars.

The blurb of this book sounded really intriguing. Unfortunately, when I started reading it? I came quite close to stopping reading the book at the love at first sight in eight and a half seconds comment. That doesn’t exist and always makes me roll my eyes.

I have to say, however, that once I got past that comment, I actually quite enjoyed reading this book. It did take a while for me to get behind the characters. The dreams were good, but I felt the book would have benefited from being expanded.

The first person perspective didn’t really irritate me, but I didn’t feel it was necessary to switch to another character’s point of view for one chapter alone. That was kind of awkward and did throw me out of the story a bit. Also, I noticed that Andy kept talking as if she knew exactly how one of the other characters felt.

I did think there was a bit too much telling rather than showing at times. The characters did come across as more three-dimensional later on in the book.

The book was more or less well-written, despite the earlier issues I mentioned. I’d probably be interested in reading a sequel to this book to find out what happens to the characters and if they truly learned anything.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I was reading this book, I had the strangest sense that I was moving through a dream.

The idea of people getting sick all around the world isn’t a really unique idea, but the zombie-like twist added a kind of cool dimension to it. I have to be honest, though – I struggled a bit to relate to the characters. Part of it was the very surreal feel to this book, but I also felt that the book came across as if it was being written like a movie.

There were a lot of cringeworthy scenes in this book. One in particular came quite close to making me gag.

It was interesting to see the different ways the sickness affected people. I did feel that there were some questions that I had by the end. Some of the things weren’t explained to my satisfaction.

At times, I felt that the book did jump ahead a bit. For instance, it went from the start of the sickness to the whole society having collapsed. I would have liked to see a bit more of how society collapsed.

It was interesting to see how Lee and Park each saw the sickness and how it affected them. The author did do a good job of showing the progression that each of them went through.

I think this book could have been extended a bit and I would have liked to have my questions answered by the end, which I felt was left very open-ended. It was really quick and easy to read, though that was probably more because the writing format meant it was much shorter than it appeared to be.

I’m not sure if I’d read a sequel to this book. I’d have to wait and see and judge it on the book itself.

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I don’t really know much about the group that this book is a tribute to, but I’ve always been a fan of manga and all kinds of art. I can’t draw or paint myself, but I really like looking at other people’s fan work.

I really liked all of the different kinds of drawings there were in this book. There were some really cute and adorable ones, but also a lot of more serious drawings. Through both of those types, I felt that I had some idea of the characters and storylines, though I’m still not sure what the point of the Vocaloids are.

It was nice that there were so many different artists included in this collection. It was a good showcasing of the different art and a good introduction to the world of the Vocaloid.

I liked learning about the Vocaloids, too. I did like the comic strips that were included. The first one in particular was really effective. Using drawings without any speech bubbles is a really effective way of showing a story when it’s done well – and I felt that it was done particularly well here.

The second comic strip was really sweet, but I was really confused by how it fit in; whether it was an alternate universe, or the origin of Miku… I would have liked a bit more background and information about the characters’ histories.

All in all, though, this was a creative selection of work. I’m curious enough to check out more of Vocaloids, so in that sense, I suppose this work has done one of its jobs.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having reached the end of this book, I’m still left with some questions about it, but I still found it really well-written and a good read.

I liked Flora as a character and I also liked the relationship she had with Ailsa. Flora was someone I could really relate to and I saw a lot of myself in her.

I really liked the interspersing of the Selkie myths with the story. It was interesting to see the contrast of the vicious myths with the more gentle ones.

The use of first person worked really well in this book. I could picture a lot of the events happening inside my mind.

The mystery came across really well in this book and there were a few things I didn’t see coming.

I don’t normally like ambiguous things in books, but in this case, I do think it worked. I really liked this book and I would definitely be interested in looking at more books by this author in the future. It’s sad in parts, but is well-written.

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have a few mixed feelings about this book. I did enjoy reading it and it was an interesting idea, but I couldn’t quite get behind the characters.

When I was reading this book, there were parts of it that made me think of books I enjoyed reading as a child. I was a bit confused, because I thought there was quite a big age difference between Mary and the Floating Boy, so when she was developing a crush on him, it took me a while to realise they’re actually quite close to each other in age.

Flying is something that’s always really intriguing to see. I was hoping to see something a bit out of the ordinary with this book, but I felt it tried too hard to be multi-genre. I didn’t quite understand the zombie slant on things.

The idea about how all the kids were flying was quite a good one. I also felt that the relationship between Mary and Liv came across really well.

The twist at the end worked, too. I think there was a lot in this book that was left unanswered, but it was an entertaining read anyway.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found this book to be a really easy book to read. The idea of a black fairy was a really interesting one and I felt sorry for the black fairy throughout most of the book. It was nice to see that she was able to make friends with the dragonflies.

I really liked the little black fairy and I also quite liked the way the dragonflies talked. I really liked the idea of all the creatures having their own language.

The language in the book made it really easy to read and the plot of the book was a really believable one. I did notice some errors in the writing, but nothing that was really major.

The poems/songs in the book were quite unique as well. It was a good set-up to the start of the series. The ending is quite intriguing and makes me interested enough to want to read the next book that follows on from this one.

I really liked the illustrations in the books, too. Even in black and white, they were really nicely done.

I’m going to pass this book on to my niece. I think she’ll really like it.