Book #27

Ink Exchange
by Melissa Marr


I read this one because Jaime, my friendly school librarian gave it to me to read for her when I took out another girl-oriented YA fantasy that Toni wanted. This was a pre-publication edition that Jaime was supposed to review, but she said her stack of such books was too high, and asked if I'd review it for her.

Hmm . . . read a YA fantasy novel, before it is published, and write up my thoughts on it?

Nah, that doesn't sound like me.

Anyway, here's my review. Two paragraphs, she limited me to -- can you believe that?





It's an interesting concept, unusual even for a fantasy novel: a certain type of Faery feeds on the emotions of others, particularly the darker emotions, anger, fear, lust, envy. In order to make as much of these emotions available for consumption as possible, these Faeries foment unrest amongst their kind; but of late, the long-standing war between the Winter Court and the Summer Court of the Fae has ended, and the resultant peace has left these poor dark Faeries starving. As it turns out, they need an intermediary in order to feed upon the emotions of humans; there must be a human focus for the emotions, which can then be funneled magically to all of the Faeries through their king. The means by which this human's emotions can be focused and channeled? A tattoo, using for ink the Faery king's blood and tears. The Faery's magic allows the tattooed human to sense the emotions of others, and the Faery king to absorb those emotions through her, and then dole them out to his subjects, like a mother bird with a craw full of worm. This is the Ink Exchange: Faery blood for human fear.

Unfortunately, that concept is the best thing about the book. The plot, if diagrammed, would look somewhat like a topographic map of the US: a great Adirondack peak of interest in the beginning, followed by an absolutely flat plain lasting for far too long to permit a traveler to maintain sanity, let alone interest, and ending with a soaring and majestic peak tailing off into a forgettable lump of an epilogue that should have broken off in an earthquake long ago. (I don't really hate California.) Actually, the book would have been far more interesting if it had begun where it ends: when the heroine, a teenaged girl named Leslie, becomes the wet nurse, if you will, for the dark Faeries, and falls under the magical sway of their king, Irial. The last quarter of the book is an absorbing depiction of the temptation of emptiness, and examines the morality of sacrificing others to protect or please yourself. It would have been much more enjoyable to explore the aftermath of that sequence than the lead up. As it is, the characters are flat or stock, the descriptions of the Fae are confusing and incomplete, and the prose leans heavily toward the improbably purple ("The wraith's voice drifted over the air, as refreshing as a sip of the moon, as heavy as churchyard soil on his tongue."). Overall I'd give it a C-.


(Side note: The review met with approval, and I'm going to do another one. w00t! I feel like I got a gold star.)