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verysillygoose's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
Minor: Gore and Torture
bluejayreads's review against another edition
On the whole, Ink is unspectacular and uninspiring. It coasts by on the idea of a society where tattoos are a record of your life and your soul only exists as long as your tattooed skin remains to tell your story. Which is, admittedly, a really cool idea. However, there is zero worldbuilding that isn't related to tattoos. You get all the details about how the tattoos happen, are chosen or mandated, and fit into life, death, and belief, but there's nothing else that would let the world feel fully realized. What do they eat? What is the climate like? Traditional ceremonial dress gets described, but what do people wear every day? What time period is this even based on? It has a very "generic fantasy village" vibe, with a small-town feel, a village square where people gather when the mayor has something to say, and no hint of other modes of transportation besides walking, but then there's also some very modern-sounding house interiors and tattoo guns. I couldn't even get into the interesting parts of the world because I didn't know about anything but the tattoos. On top of that, none of the characters have any personality. The protagonist is an incredibly generic YA protagonist - misses her recently-deceased dad, likes to draw, a loner at school, and nothing else. Nobody else has anything distinguishing. I kept waiting for the plot to start to see if that was interesting, but it just didn't. It's like the story wanted to spend a lot of time with the setup but it never actually set up anything. The whole story was as colorless, ill-defined, and two-dimensional as a poorly done tattoo.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Grief, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture and Gore
Needles, corpse desecration
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