A review by marajoy
Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

this was stunning. i don't have the right words for it, but the book as a whole was true artwork, and vourvoulias's prose is very precise. the character development & relationships were the defining strength of this in my opinion, but i do not say that to overlook the power of the plot. some parts felt very weird to me, like abbie as a highschooler having a relationship with 25 year old toño, and everything with john? i also wish more was from mari's perspective, and that we got to hear from toño and especially meche, since the narration was imbalanced oddly. i think it focused way too much on the unrelated outside life of abbie in her parts.  mari's perspective & character was by far my favorite. the other perspectives i liked were finn & del but i never came around to liking abbie. another issue i had was with the romances, all felt lacking in compelling chemistry or reason which may just be my perception but it seemed to crowd out where more important plot or character development could've fit. i didn't like the way the white characters like finn & abbie viewed their latinx partners either, it seemed almost exoticised. overall, i think this is an amazing book, but it certainly has its flaws.