Small Review: Amanda Sun

DNF Explanation

Read: 100 of 368

Received: ARC from publisher

I seriously tried to stick with this book. I kept making little bargains with myself like, "Just read until you discover what the mythology is all about and if you still don't like it then you can quit" or "Just read an hour a day and you'll be finished in no time!"

I even started skimming in the hopes that I could hurry up through the boring stuff and get to the meat of the story. I did that for about two pages before I realized this is ridiculous and by gosh I am a shameless DNF-er and I've championed the idea of not wasting any time with books I'm not feeling when there are a bizillion books I could be reading instead and I just needed to stick to my guns and DNF already. So I did.

Is there a pre-req Manga course I was supposed to take?

First, the feeling that I was missing something. The main character Katie is an American girl suddenly thrown into living in Japan and she totally feels like a fish out of water. And I got that feeling. Amanda Sun did a great job of making me feel like I was dropped into something completely foreign and disorienting and not at all something I can relate to. Hey, just like Katie!

Except I HATE that feeling. I like order and planning and knowing exactly what I'm getting into. I don't even like changing plans at the last minute.

And, ok, I love reading historical fiction and mentally traveling to all these different places that are just as foreign to me as modern day Japan, but at least I feel grounded in those stories. Amanda Sun bombarded me with all sorts of random cultural things like naming conventions and stuff like that, but she didn't provide me with a coherent framework at all.

I felt like I was at a social gathering with a blindfold and a bunch of people animatedly talking about all these tiny details about a movie I've never watched and no one will stop discussing for one second to just clue me in on a basic plot summary.

The fact that Amanda Sun used Japanese terms to describe half the stuff didn't help AT ALL, either.

And a pre-req Japanese course?

Which leads to my second reason for DNF-ing. Ok, look, I get it, we're in Japan. And you know what language people speak in Japan? Japanese. Totally understand that. And I totally get that the dialogue I'm reading is actually being spoken by the characters in Japanese without the author interjecting Japanese words into the narrative every fifth word.

Which also doesn't make any sense because if the assumption is that everyone is speaking Japanese, then why am I reading a mix of mostly English with a few random Japanese words thrown in? I loathe it when authors do this (it is also far too common in historical fiction).

And, also, guess what language this reader speaks? Yeah, not Japanese. I'm irritated all over again just thinking about this.

Shunning in the cafeteria level hate

But fine. Maybe I could have put up with all that (I've certainly put up with the stupid random foreign language interjections thing before). I'm a character girl, plus I was looking forward to this nifty new mythology I kept hearing about.

So, characters. These characters were the same exact characters in every other cookie-cutter YA paranormal. Katie is blindingly dumb, abrasive, perfect (though she's the first to deny it!), and, oh yes, a stalker.

See, she meets this guy who is totally Bad News (so says everyone, including himself in a very cryptic Edward-ish "It's better if we're not friends because I'm dangerous" kinda way) and of course she immediately starts stalking and falling in love with him.

And if that wasn't pathetic enough (girl, get a life) Amanda Sun has totally convinced me that this guy is a grade A jerkface and I want nothing to do with him. Though he's also inexplicably drawn to Katie! But he needs to push he away. Except then he takes her out to dinner. And then pushes her away again. But then tells her he likes being near her. So, yeah.

I read 100 pages, and most of that was filled with Katie acting like a psycho stalker. The rest was spent on her vehemently denying the possibility of paranormal happenings (she starts seeing drawings move) while also screaming at Jerkface that SHE KNOWS HE KNOWS SOMETHING WEIRD IS GOING ON WITH HIS PICTURES!

There's more, like bland place-holder friends and a mysterious-but-nice guy who will probably become the losing side of the inevitable love triangle, but does it even matter?

Oh, right, the mythology

WHAT mythology? Drawings move. Ink...drips? A lot? I'm sure there will be more, but at almost a third of the way in, I need a little more than that. Given the quality and lack of originality in the rest of the story, I don't have high hopes for the mythology. Maybe I'm wrong, but at this point I don't care.

Bottom line

Not for me. Then again, I had pretty similar things to say about Die For Me, so readers who liked that series would probably like Ink.

Do you want to read Ink? Because I'm totally willing to trade my copy! Email me at smallreview at yahoo dot com if you have something on my wishlist, ARC wishlist, or something you think I'd like!

Do you have any questions about Ink that I haven't addressed?
Feel free to ask in the comments!

Have you read Ink? What did you think about it?

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