Ink of Blood

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I though the concept of this book was a particularly interesting one. The idea of having a society entirely comprised of women, many of whom were forced to live in a swamp, was a really intriguing one. Even though I was a bit confused by exactly why so many of them were outside the Wall, I was easily pulled into the atmosphere of the story.

I was disappointed by the fact that the book switched between first and third person. In my opinion, that switching actually detracted from experiencing the events through Regina’s eyes.

I liked seeing Regina’s relationship with her sister and the other girls. The title fits particularly well with her character and I felt Regina comes across as a really strong individual. The idea of having a bartering system was a fairly interesting one… though I felt a lot of ‘normal’ human kindness fell by the wayside.

I would have liked to know more about the different castes in the society. Although there were hints dropped about elements of the society and those in authority, I didn’t feel those were explored as fully as they could have been.

It was hard to be sympathetic towards some of the characters. I had the impression that many of the youngsters didn’t really understand the danger they could be in. And there were a couple of characters I really disliked.

I enjoyed seeing Regina’s interactions with Wendy, though I did feel that too much of their friendship was glossed over and summarised. I did like how Regina cared about and empathised with the other girls affected, even those she didn’t know.

I did find it a little difficult to picture what it was like under the surface of the swamp. Above wasn’t so much of a problem, but it was disappointing not to have more of the world described. I had no idea what society was like on the other side of the wall.

I did find this book easy to read and in the future, I’d be interested to see where Regina’s journey takes her next. It was good to see she had clear goals that she didn’t drop by the wayside… and I liked the fact she did have to struggle and work hard.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Being a big fan of horror (especially supernatural horror), I was quite intrigued by the idea of this book. Although I thought the first part of the book was very graphic and disturbing in parts, I did find the legend a really interesting one and it was good to see how it all sprang up.

I have to say, I did have mixed feelings by the time I reached the end of this book. Although there was a lot that was good about it, I was confused about what exactly was going on. By the end of the book, I still didn’t have all of the answers to the questions the book raised.

I did get a bit confused by the fact that the book kept switching between present day, the past and somewhere in between. Since the book wasn’t split up into chapters and there was nothing about the passage of time, it took me a while to realise that some of the events had happened before.

I found it difficult to connect emotionally with many of the characters. Some of them were easy to follow and understand, but it was harder to like or care about others. Although there seemed to be a fairly large cast of characters, I felt that only some of them were developed enough to be easy to empathise with… and even the ones who were developed weren’t actually shown in a sympathetic light.

I think this book could have done with being expanded a bit more. There were lots of unanswered questions by the end and although there were some quite graphic, horrible scenes, I didn’t feel that they added much to the story. Pasi, for instance, was a character I found nearly impossible to be concerned about.

I did find parts of this book to be disjointed as well. It was a shame, because I really did like the blurb of this book… I just really didn’t think it lived up to its potential. And the cliffhanger ending didn’t really work, in my opinion.

I did find this book readable, but I don’t think I’ll be reading any more books by this author in the future unless there’s more ‘meat’ to the story.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I thought this book had a really interesting plot. It was fairly short and easy to read and I found Ellen to be a really intriguing character. I was a bit confused about what her job actually was for a while, I have to say. I got confused when it mentioned she was working in the lab.

I liked seeing Ellen’s relationship with her father, though I would have liked to see more of how she interacted with other members of her colleagues. There were certain elements I felt weren’t foreshadowed correctly, since there wasn’t enough time spent detailing certain characters.

I did think that there was a bit too much personal drama included. While the characters were well-rounded to an extent, I didn’t see anything past Sanchez being violent towards Ellen. I didn’t know what their working relationship was like before then… and although it was nice to see Ellen was attracted to her fellow police officer, I was left wondering why that didn’t crop up before, when she presumably has worked with him in the past.

The scenes with the murderers started off really well, but by the time I was seeing Joannie, I felt that their motivations were lost. I liked seeing Joannie as a character who was struggling to survive and how she tried to say what she thought was needed in order to escape. While I couldn’t help feeling a small amount of sympathy for Donovan, I found it very difficult to understand the motivations… and it would have been good to see more foreshadowing throughout the book.

There wasn’t a lot in the way of graphic scenes in this book, which I think worked better. I did find myself drawn really easily into this book and felt able to connect emotionally with Ellen in particular. It would have been good to see some of the characters expanded upon and more interactions on a whole. I had no idea who Big Harv was reaming out, for instance.

While I probably won’t read a sequel to this book as it stands, if the characters are expanded upon and the twists make sense, I’d be happy to give it a try in the future.