Book Review: Indelible (The Twixt 1) by Dawn Metcalf

Indelible was a book that I needed time to think about how I really felt before reviewing. This by no means is an indicator that it is a bad book or an overly flawed book, in reality it is far from either of those options. Most books become my favorite book while I am reading but lose a little luster after I finish. I think this syndrome has to do with how involved I become in the world the author has created. Indelible was one of those books that sucked me in completely and took me through the story so fast (not too fast mind you, well maybe in some spots but I will discuss those areas later) that I was so overwhelmed by its characters and the new world that I was unable to form a solid opinion about the book itself until I was able to establish a degree of separation and approach it objectively. Two thumbs up to Dawn Metcalf for creating a world that pulls you in and holds you tightly until it is ready to let you go. 

Judging by the some of the Goodreads comments, some people are not grabbed as thoroughly by the story as I was. I try not to read any other reviews of books before I right my own but once I was sure I was going to review the book today, I went in to alter my review of the book accordingly and saw a few of the comments, which led me to read a few more. It happens.

Let me tell you about Indelible...

When we enter the story, we are introduced to Joy Malone, a teenage girl who lives alone with her father. Joy only has one true friend and still seems to be wrestling with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by her mother, who after having an affair chose to leave her family to live with a much younger man in California. Joy's sense of abandonment also extends to her brother, who left for his first year of college soon after their mother moved to California.  In an effort to pull Joy out of her ever increasing shell, Monica, Joy's best and only friend, convinces her to go to the Carousel (an actual carousel that has been converting into an all age nightclub at a fair) for a night of dancing.

It is under the swirl of lights and during the twirl of the carousel that Joy first spots the boy with eyes that are completely black staring at her. Little does she know this random glance will result in an act of violence that will alter her knowledge of the world around her.

After Joy's eye is injured she begins to see strange things. Worse these strange things keep trying to give her messages to deliver to a person she does not know. Bewildered, Joy fears that she is going insane, but can insanity break your second story kitchen window from the outside while you are inside? Joy will learn very soon that the strange man who attacked her is named Indelible Ink and because he failed to to take her eye altogether, she is now permanently marked as his. And in order to save them both, she must act as if the marking was not a mistake and undertake the task of pretending to be his lehman in order to keep their secret. With the aid of Indelible, his sister, Invisible Inq, and Graus Claude, the Bailiwick, Joy learns how to navigate the weird, bizarre, and often down right horrific world that lies between myth and reality, the Twixt.

As stated earlier, I feel Metcalf did an admirable job of world building. Some people (those darn Goodreads comments) have voiced their opinion that the characters were not endearing or were in some way inaccessible to them as readers. I actually liked the aloofness of the characters when we first meet them and I appreciated that while they were drawn to each other, the relationship part of Indelible was every bit awkward and alien as a relationship between a mortal teenage girl and an immortal boy/man created in the Twixt should be. I do feel that some areas of the story were a little unbalanced such as Joy's relationships with her family members. They all seem stunted and more awkward than her beginning relationship with Indelible but this is not unusual for a teenage girl in a family that fell apart. My issues with how the family relationships were expressed lies in the abruptness of the resolutions to the relationships' tensions.

Yet despite this odd feeling of too sudden closure, I found the first book in the series enthralling. I eagerly await the second installment from Metcalf.