INDELIBLE by Dawn Metcalf

Indelible
Dawn Metcalf

Rating: C+
Release Date: 07/30/13
Synopsis:
Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

THE TWIXT

My thoughts on the book:
I enjoyed Indelible, I really did, but due to the lack of clear world-building and character development, I can't rate this novel any higher than a C+. The concept is extremely interesting, and the book got better as it went along, but these glaring flaws stood out too much. However, I did not get bored once, and though there are plot holes, the plot was suspenseful enough to keep me hooked. This was an okay read, and the series itself has a lot of potential. I'm anxious to see how Metcalf grows as a writer from this installment to the next. 

Joy is a character who I'd say just about everyone can relate to. She's a typical bratty teenager in many ways, but I think all of us have felt neglected, abandoned, and lonely before. She also has every reason to feel this way. She's the most well-developed character, and she grows quite a bit throughout the course of the novel. Still, she never was completely whole to me. I couldn't feel things right along with her because she was lacking something that made her seem real. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not, but that's how I feel. Ink has potential, but he's also not fully developed. That could have been on purpose, though, since he's learning to be human. Inq is slightly more developed, but still a stock character. Monica, Stefan, and the dad are also filler characters, and Joy doesn't seem interested in anyone's life but her own. Therefore, we don't get to learn much about anyone other than her. 

The world-building is extremely unclear, and I'm still not quite sure I get what Metcalf was trying to explain. Also, where the crap was this book set? I'm extremely geographically oriented, and something giving me a hint as to what the landscape was like, etc., would have been nice. The plot has a lot of holes, but that could just be Metcalf's lack of description again. The ending itself is extremely rushed (not the fight scene, but the falling action), and there is a lot of telling instead of showing. Also, the pacing is really slow in the beginning. A lot of that could have been eliminated, and the falling action could have been extended. The writing itself isn't the best, but it's also not the worst. Some of the descriptions are just vague, there's no better word for it. Still, I saw a lot of potential in this novel and this writer. I believe she'll do much better with the sequel. 

Overall, I'd say check this one out from the library before buy. It's a fun read, but it's also pretty flawed. How much you like this book depends on how many pet peeves you have. 

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