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A review by booksong
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
3.0
I'm not sure why authors always do this in series; make deviation novels that suddenly switch focus to a new storyline and characters. Not that it was a bad idea...I just don't understand it.
Leslie, a friend of Aislinn's from "Wicked Lovely," is about to begin her own encounters with the faery world. It all begins with her longing for a tattoo. Her horrible home life and scarring events in her past make Leslie long for something she can control, a mark that will change her life. And she has no idea that she will get just what she's wishing for.
Because the tattoo she chooses is the mark of the Dark Court's king, Irial. It will bind her and her emotions, and the emotions of all mortals, to the frighteningly alluring dark faery. It will trap her in a world between mortality and inhuman darkness, deprived of free will. And Leslie will have to overcome that if she is to retain herself.
There are brief appearances by "Wicked Lovely" characters, some playing bigger roles than others. It was interesting getting to know Niall, who has a leading role here as opposed to his secondary appearances in the first book. I still was very approving of Seth, who manages to really shine in his few appearances. This book, curiously similar in a way to Holly Black's bridge novel "Valiant", was much darker and more psychologically twisted that the first. All the characters are very ambiguous, and almost all of them are both kind and cruel. There are some pretty scary ideas going on...it kind of turned me off in the same way "Valiant" did, with the utter loss of self to the twisted machinations of the faery world. But its hopeful ending made up for some of that, and the ambiguity was an interesting change from many novels.
Leslie, a friend of Aislinn's from "Wicked Lovely," is about to begin her own encounters with the faery world. It all begins with her longing for a tattoo. Her horrible home life and scarring events in her past make Leslie long for something she can control, a mark that will change her life. And she has no idea that she will get just what she's wishing for.
Because the tattoo she chooses is the mark of the Dark Court's king, Irial. It will bind her and her emotions, and the emotions of all mortals, to the frighteningly alluring dark faery. It will trap her in a world between mortality and inhuman darkness, deprived of free will. And Leslie will have to overcome that if she is to retain herself.
There are brief appearances by "Wicked Lovely" characters, some playing bigger roles than others. It was interesting getting to know Niall, who has a leading role here as opposed to his secondary appearances in the first book. I still was very approving of Seth, who manages to really shine in his few appearances. This book, curiously similar in a way to Holly Black's bridge novel "Valiant", was much darker and more psychologically twisted that the first. All the characters are very ambiguous, and almost all of them are both kind and cruel. There are some pretty scary ideas going on...it kind of turned me off in the same way "Valiant" did, with the utter loss of self to the twisted machinations of the faery world. But its hopeful ending made up for some of that, and the ambiguity was an interesting change from many novels.