Book Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Ink
Amanda Sun
YA Contemporary
Published: 2013

 

Image: Goodreads

Ink is like a gateway book to Japanese culture, as told through the eyes of American Katie Greene, who has just moved to Japan to live with her aunt after losing her mother. Her grandparents in Canada are trying to get custody, but her grandfather is too sick to care for her. So, Katie has some baggage. She's struggling to learn the language, deal with loss, and all that aside, she still has to go to school and face all the stuff normal high school students do--cliques, bullying, crushes.

When Katie overhears a tense conversation between Tomohiro and another student, and in a fit of anger, papers are thrown all over, with one landing near Katie. The drawings on the page appear to move.

Katie is curious about Tomohiro despite her friends' warnings--he is known to be violent, and possibly got his ex-girlfriend pregnant. Bad boy alert! Katie and Tomohiro's paths cross, and she is increasingly inquisitive of his drawings and the strange things occurring around him. Ink blends Japanese mythology, this idea of drawings coming to life, as a sort of paranormal plot within the romance. There are a ton of Japanese words and phrases that can make for slower reading, but it's a great "outsider's" look at Japanese culture.

And lest Katie be just another fangirl of a hot, brooding boy, she actively puruses Kendo (a martial arts) and may have an ability of her own.... This is the first in a three-book series.