Friday Book Review!

Transcript for those who don't want to watch the video:)

Hi everyone!

Today I have another book review for you, and if you couldn’t tell by my lovely penmanship, the book is called Ink, by Bob Garick.

Let’s get right to it.

Tracy is an artist.  Or at least, she would be, if she didn’t need to pay rent on her crappy sublet with her creepy landlord Leon.

Instead, she works at an advertising agency, creating ads and whatnot for her crazy customers.

And that was her plan for the day, until she runs into a smooth stranger at her normal coffee shop detour.  He manages to get on Tracy’s bad side almost immediately by unintentionally blocking the door closed, forcing her to be breathed on by the neighborhood hobo, which makes her pass out.

Yes, she is a bit of a drama queen…and control freak…but we’ll get to that in a bit.

He writes his phone number on her hand, and it changes everything.

Ok, not right away, but after she zings off a quick text of ‘jrk,’ she heads to work.

We meet her crazy coworkers, a slacker named Dave and a creeper named Deacon, along with her boss, Mr. Richards.

She then notices that the number on her hand has changed…tres strange, but she doesn’t think much of it until she notices it change again…and again.  It was counting down to something, and she didn’t know what. 

When it finally hit 0, Tracy had managed to find herself outside, and of course, a mugging occurred mere steps from her.  She stopped the bad guy by pushing a newspaper machine in front of him, and then the coffee shop guy called her back.

She agreed to meet him in the same coffee shop, mostly to ream him out, but before much could happen between them, two men come in, and the guy, who we later learn is named Quincy, is forcibly, but quietly, taken, though he does leave his blackberry with Tracy.

Tracy runs after them, and makes a note of the vehicle on her hand, and points an arrow in the direction it went.  The arrow doesn’t stay stationary, though.  It follows the vehicle, pointing toward it constantly.

So all that, and we are still only 10% of the way into the book.  It’s massive, is what I’m saying.  I don’t want to go too much more into detail, so as to avoid spoilers, but needless to say, there is enough  action, adventure, espionage, and workplace politics to satiate even the most adventure hungry person.

So, this book is called Ink because whenever Tracy draws on herself, the inking comes to life.  She drew a danger lightbulb on her wrist that lights up when danger is near, and she used the words amplify to increase her hearing, among other uses.

It’s actually a pretty cool concept, and the author weaves it in very nicely throughout the story.

The characters, on the other hand, were not quite as well drawn.  Tracy can get grating at times.  Her overbearing personality comes across as one-note for much of the book, and by the time she becomes more sympathetic, you kind of don’t like her very much.  It’s unfortunate, because with the first-person storytelling, we are hearing the words coming out of her mouth, and hearing her thoughts, and sometimes it’s enough to make me want to punch her.

The supporting characters are similarly one note, with one minor exception, and I didn’t really care about any of them at all, except in the most superficial way possible.

However, the story was really strong.  All the elements tie together nicely, and the action, adventure and suspense were great for a vast majority of the book.  There were incredibly fast paced sections, but then the story slowed down, let you catch your breath before blasting off to the next set piece. 

There are twists and turns, and unexpected developments, all which led to a good conclusion that only felt a little forced.

All in all, this is a strong book.  Apparently, it’s a nanowrimo book, and while it does show in the stream-of-consciousness type writing in some areas, I wouldn’t have guessed it until the author mentioned it in the afterward.

 
I give it: 4/5 tattoos