The writing is good, and the main characters are interesting. It unfortunately relies a little too heavily on the tropes associated with the genre, and most of the novel is easily extrapolated from the society as first presented. Ink is a perfectly serviceable teen dystopia novel. Overall, Ink is very easily readable, and it goes by quite quickly. It is strong and central, and it is nice to read about fictional friends who actually have each others’ backs and don’t pointlessly keep secrets from each other. I really like Verity and Leora’s friendship. There are things that are done well, though. Even the central crow-as-rebellion image invokes The Hunger Games’ mockingjay. Her best friend Verity is put on important government cases on literally her second day of work there. Leora is fast-tracked through her inking apprenticeship and is eventually singled out by government officials. Mel, the renowned storyteller, is only twenty-something, but based on the descriptions of her fame and reputation I’d assumed she was at least sixty or seventy before I was told otherwise. ![]() Everyone is a little too young and immediately successful. Leora meets a random guy and basically falls in love with him immediately. The novel also follows most of the other conventions of teen dystopia. It’s frustrating, because the setup is so creative at first look, but it falls apart and into common tropes when you study it more closely. I could even correctly guess what Leora’s long-contemplated first personal mark was going to be a few hundred pages before she settled upon it. I predicted the truth about the blanks about ten pages into the novel. There’s supposed to be a separation between church and state for a reason. And any society with a compulsory religion that dictates everything from policy to clothing is dangerous. Also, it’s obvious from the start that the government is corrupt. There’s no such thing as “blank blood” because nothing real separates the blanks from the markeds. Since the marks are tattooed rather than showing up naturally, the dividing line between blanks and markeds is completely arbitrary. There is nothing to stop someone from not getting a mark that would damn them. The problem is that someone who did not grow up in the society-like the reader-can see the cracks easily. There is something appealing and comforting about the idea that people are open enough to display all their accomplishments and mistakes where anyone might see them, and it is absolutely logical that someone raised in that system would automatically distrust anyone who did not display everything openly. The marking system cleverly combines politics, religious rhetoric, and even fairy tale retellings. The society Broadway has created in Ink is incredibly inventive. When Leora witnesses a public marking, she learns about the crow mark that signifies crimes that warrant being forgotten, and she realizes that her beloved father bore the mark. Fearful of violence and war from the blanks-unmarked people-young Mayor Longsight increases punishment on anyone helping the blanks, editing marks, or otherwise resisting the dominant ideology. The government is snapping down on crime. ![]() ![]() At around the time when Leora comes of age, her father dies, leaving behind secrets that Leora had no idea of. When a person dies, the skin is flayed and bound into a skin book, judged for worthiness, and then either kept for remembrance or burned for damnation. People believe that marking the skin takes weight off the soul, and as a result bodies tell the story of lives and souls. Tattoos are an integral part of her society and her religion. I mostly picked it up because of the cover, which is atypical and beautiful. Ink by Alice Broadway is a teen dystopian novel that is somehow both incredibly creative and painfully predictable.
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