Book Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Ink is the first book in the Paper Gods series by Amanda Sun. Along with being a paranormal tale that delves into the Japanese mythology of the Kami, the novel is also a fish out of water tale. Katie Greene is a teenage girl whose entire life was ripped out by the roots after her mother's death and replanted in Japanese soil. She must navigate daily life in a land where the only thing more foreign to her than the language and culture is her aunt, with whom she now resides. Each day she harbors the hope that her grandfather's cancer will go into remission so she can move to Canada and live on familiar soil once again. Begrudgingly, Katie attempts to learn the language and fit in at school. She finds a little solace in her friendship with Yuki and Tanaka, the only two people at school to befriend the gaijin (outsider).  However, cultural gaps still trip her up.

One such social gaffe landed her in a sticky situation when she had to run back into the classroom to exchange her slippers for her outside shoes. She is caught up in an ugly breakup between a popular girl named Myu and Yuu Tomohiro, hunk extraordinaire and the star of the school's kendo team. As Katie tries to hide from the embattled couple her hand comes in contact with some of Tomohiro's sketches and the drawing comes to life under her touch. Intrigued and scared Katie follows and challenges Tomohiro in order to unravel the air of mystery with which he surrounds himself. Determined to find out which persona is the real Yuu Tomohiro, the handsome kendo star, the heartless womanizer, the arrogant loner, the secretive artist, the all around dangerous bad boy or as Katie suspects, the boy who is just as lonely and scared as herself, Katie pries at the ink darkened corners of Tomohiro's life.

However, Katie does not realize others are just as interested at uncovering Tomohiro's secrets. Powers far more dangerous than mythology and legend hint at are hunting Yuu Tomohiro and they are not afraid to use Katie to get to him.

 

One of the things I really enjoyed about this particular book was the use of unfamiliar landscape, culture, and mythology (at least unfamiliar to me). Often I stick to my comfortable wheelhouse of mythology and legends born of European ancestry, and so does the paranormal YA genre in general. I liked reading about a mythology tradition for which I had no preexisting ideas to conflict with the author's  version. I also enjoyed feeling like I was expanding my vocabulary with the Japanese words and phrases peppered throughout the text. Another thing I liked about this story was the way Katie's journey through her grief at the loss of her old life is echoed in the landscape.

The cherry blossoms bloom just as Katie begins to hope that she is really making friends and a life for herself in the new land. The spring blooms give way to summer foliage as her relationship with Tomohiro deepens and Katie begins to see life beyond her loss. Sun uses weather to also illustrate the emotional landscape of her characters. The humidity of a Japanese summer highlights the difficulty Katie and Tomohiro experience coming to grips with their feelings and fears and storms seem to brew up at every turmoil filled scene. Of course the story does have more than its fair share of angst. No self respecting YA novel would be complete without angst filled scenes cluttering its landscape and Ink seems very eager to exceed its quota in this department. In all fairness, Ink does not allow its story to be swallowed by the angst, unlike other novels in this genre, but there were a few moments where I rolled my eyes and thought "didn't she outgrow this yet?"

Ink's ending left me feeling a little unfulfilled. I realize the author needs to set the readers up for the sequel and got over it quickly. Overall I was very glad to have the chance to read this novel. I feel it is worth mentioning all of the extras at the end of this book. There is a glossary of Japanese terms used in the book, a Q&A with the author, some additional artwork, and a preview of chapter one from the as yet named sequel (which really helped me come to terms with that unsatisfied feeling at the end of book one). For more information on Amanda Sun's Paper Gods series check out her colorful website.