I liked the horror story of this book with the Lord of Flies stealing the memories of unsuspecting victims and feasting on their life through their tattoos. I must admit I yelled at the book a few times, urging Monk, Crow, Mike, Patty, and Dianna to work together and connect the dots to figure out what was happening. I was satisfied with the ending too. There was too much graphic sex though and I feel the story could have been better if some of that had been cut. Then it would be excellent.

Although it's been a long time since I've read any of Maberry's books, he remains an author that I always keep an eye out for because of how much I adored his Pine Deep trilogy. The description of this one called this a standalone novel - and while you don't have to read Ghost Road Blues or the subsequent volumes to enjoy this, I think that it's best to read those first (I desperately wish that I had re-read them before falling into this one - I disliked feeling like I forgot details and the background alluded to!).

This one - revolving around a man who steals memories attached to tattoos and the victims banded together in Pine Deep to fight him - is well-written and certainly creepy! The villain- the self-proclaimed Lord of the Flies - is truly vile and the imagery around him will make the reader's skin crawl as well. The concept for the character feels totally unique and completely interesting. I really enjoyed reading this well-written return to Pine Deep. The Trouble may be behind them, but there is clearly still plenty of weird to be found there!

The modernity of this one surprised me - not only with the diversity of the cast (not always the norm for horror), but the social media, the cell phones and the genuine respect for women (again, not always the case for the genre). It's an entertaining and riveting read - great for the fall and well, I am sure to drive new readers to the first introduction of Pine Deep - either for the first time or a long overdue revisit - I know I am longing to do just that now that I have finished this one!

What a concept! Crazy and disturbing and interesting. I felt like I was missing some back story though, and was able to find out that though this is a stand alone, there are other books set before this story takes place. I think reading those first would have helped me connect with some of the characters and understand what was happening in this town.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in return for an honest review. Prefacing by saying that I really enjoy Mayberry and typically like this genre, but it was a bit darker than I wanted right now, which is why it took me a little longer to get into this book.

Pine Deep is facing a silent terror. Something or someone is stealing tattoos and the memories that go along with them. Tattooed private investigator, Monk Addison wants to help his friend and tattoo artist, Patty Cakes, when she falls victim to this terror. I found the premise of INK very interesting; the pacing felt a bit slow, but it built appropriately to a creepy crescendo. The character development was rich and fascinating; you really get to know INK’s main players, but the same can’t be said for the world building aspect. I would have liked to know more about how the “magical” aspects of the story worked, if there were rules around this magic and why it wasn’t consistent between characters. Overall, I enjoyed the premise, the characters, and the plot. 4/5. Thanks again for the opportunity to read this book.

Monk Addison is a private investigator and a skip tracer who has a background is from being in the military. His body is covered with tattoos of the faces of the dead. He is moving to Pine Deep as he is concern about his friend Patty Cakes. Patty is a tatto-artist who has the face of her dead daughter on her hand. Diana Agbala reads tarot cards. When she has Owen Minor for a customer, she is shaken by the tarot cards reading of him. Why?
When Monk parks in front of Patty Cakes home, he goes to the door and knocks. No one answers. He goes in and finds her in the bathroom drunk and naked curled up into a fetal position. Why? He realizes she needs to go to the hospital and discovers her daughter’s face is gone. It’s as if it never existed. How did that happened? At the emergency room, he overhears a man told by his wife that he is missing his tattoo. He denies it. A nurse tells him that people are losing their tattoos. It is discovered that memories that went with the tattoo are gone too.

The author has written a compelling horror story. It is mysterious yet terrifying and scary. The characters don’t understand what is happening to them. I was enthralled with the characters as the author writes them in depth that made me feel as if they were people I knew and cared about with the exception of one character. That one character is not one that I’d want for a friend. It is a standalone supernatural story. (The author has written a trilogy of The town Pine Deep. ). The novel is an excellent horror story that I won’t forget.

The thing where the visible minority are compounded minorities and just generally have the most or next to the most painful backstories. The story itself was rushed and nonsensical at times.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Patty, Monk, Dianna, Mike, and Crow’s paths cross when they find themselves embroiled in a shocking investigation regarding missing tattoos and memories. This book is twisted in the best possible way! I loved it! The characters are all well-developed and flawed, which makes the story more realistic and relatable. The plot is complex but compelling. This is easily one of my favorite books of the year!

I adore Mayberry's work. Ink is a standalone which is also loosely tied to Glimpse and the Pine Deep trilogy. This novel is dark horror at its best. A cast of complicated and damaged characters who have gravitated to Pine Deep, a town with its own history of scars. The citizens of the town are having their memories stolen and do not know know why or who. What transpires is a group of these damaged souls working to find answers and stop this terrible evil.

Very unsettling and creepy but well done nonetheless.

This has to be one of creepiest reads that I have read in 2020. I have many five star reads this year but I do not have many that are my favorites this book has made my short list. This came on my radar because of Netgalley so I want to thank everyone involved in me getting a copy of this book. While my review is late I actually did manage to finish this a day before the book came out. Again, my apologies. Now to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. This is my first book by this author but the things that stands out to me are a well-written story with characters that have depth and there is an interesting plot where the story line pulls the reader in and never looks back.

Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is moving to Pine Deep to be close to his friend tattoo-artist Patty Cakes. When tattoos start to fade on multiple people, their memories associated with those tattoos also start to fade. Who or what is causing this? Will they ever get their memories back?
Overall, this was a creepy suspenseful read. I loved the reaction it brought out in me and the uneasiness that I had during the entire read. I will for sure be looking for other reads by Jonathan Maberry. Thank you for introducing me to an awesome new author.

I have never read this author before and could not get into this book.
I stopped reading 25% in since it did nothing for me.
Thank you netgalley for this great opportunity anyways.

I’m a huge Maberry fan. He’s in my top ten auto-buy authors currently working today. Unfortunately, INK didn’t work for me. I was a huge fan of the Pine Deep trilogy. This story is set in Pine Deep, with a mix of favorite characters from that trilogy meeting up with characters from another Maberry standalone, Glimpse.

The pacing was off compared to Maberry's other work. I found myself wishing it would end. The new characters in the town were underdeveloped. I’ve forgotten all of their names, remembering only my favorites from the trilogy and Glimpse. Readers should also probably read the trilogy to appreciate any of this story, so this is less of a standalone than it seems.

The novel seemed to be building to something that never came, and had one of the lamest villains in Maberry’s bibliography.

Fortunately, one miss is not enough, for Maberry remains on my auto-buy list. I’d love to see the Pine Deep locals in other locations in a future story.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good tattoo. I especially love it when tattoos become part of a story. After all, tattoos should have significance for their owners, especially because they can take such a long time to finish and hurt more than you might think. So, Jonathan Maberry's newest story about tattoos that disappear along with their owner's memories, Ink, caught my eye not only for its intriguing premise but also because tattoos were the stars of the story.

Sadly, I finished Ink more confused than impressed. I might adore magic, but I do like it when authors provide guidelines and explanations for the magic in their world. Mr. Maberry provides none. We get no explanations for why Owen can take tattoos and memories or how he does so outside of simply touching a person. We do get some hypothesizing of energy vampires (think What We Do in the Shadows), but there is nothing definitive to help explain the phenomenon.

Plus, only a few of the characters who become Owen's victims lose their memories in their entirety. For every person we meet who has no memory of his tattoo or the story behind it, there are two others who not only remember the tattoo but also recognize that they are missing a memory. It all seems so haphazard because there is no logic to it.

To make things worse, not only do some of the characters remember their missing tattoos, some of the characters fight to keep their tattoos and memories. Again, this occurs without any explanation or understanding of this magic's limitations. While it seems silly to get upset about this lack of understanding of something that is pure fantasy, it does not hide the fact that the lack of knowledge is deeply unsettling for it means that the author can use his world's magic whenever he wants. Having trouble with the story? Throw some magic in. Can't finish a character's arc? Add magic. Good fantasy has rules when it comes to magic. I can't say that Ink is an example of good fantasy.

When I looked at Ink by Jonathan Maberry as a potential review copy, I noted the sentence that said it was a standalone novel. After reading it, I can say that this is not completely accurate. It is a standalone story in the fact that all the action occurs within the story's timeframe, but there are so many references to the Trouble and the town's past to truly say that Ink is a standalone novel. I felt like I was missing something the entire time I was reading it, Not having the knowledge of what the Trouble was or how it impacted the characters who lived through it did impact my reading and understanding of those characters as they addressed this new threat.

The one thing I will take away from Ink is an absolutely killer playlist. Mr. Maberry is kind enough to give us a list of the songs Patty Cakes has on her playlist, something mentioned throughout the novel. I recognized enough of the songs on sight to want to check out the rest. The list is fabulous and really allows you to get to know Patty through her music choices.

Outside of a new playlist, there is not much about Ink that impressed me. I do wonder if I would feel differently had I read the original Pine Deep trilogy, if only because it would mean the end to constantly wondering what the hell the Trouble was. I can't even say that Ink is all that terrifying. Yes, memories play a very strong part in our personalities, and to lose those memories would be tragic. Sadly, people lose memories every day, and sometimes those memories are significant. While Mr. Maberry's version certainly leaves an impression, it is not the one he hoped.

Despite really wanting to, I just could not stay with this one... I was surprised, because it started very strong and I was drawn in straight away. But then there just seemed to be so many characters,
several of whom popped in and out in ways that felt tangential, and I found myself having trouble keeping track of all of the relationships. I started losing my sense of where things were going as the characterizations started loosening, and once that happened I just could not find my way back in.... I understand this is a story set in an established World - I hadn't read Maberry before, so maybe that's part of the problem. If there are echoes of previous characters or story lines that may be why I felt lost. Regardless, this one just didn't work for me...

I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn't get it. I was really bored. I liked the concept of the book but I felt everything was over written when explaining things and felt that if it wasn't over written the book could have been shortened a lot. I also personally feel that books shortened to around 350 pages appeal more to an audience than books 400+ pages with over written explanations. (Please don't take that last sentence as me being rude, I am sincerely not trying to be and it is only my opinion.) I also felt the name "Patty Cakes" was a turn off :(

Thank you for allowing me to review this book for my honest feedback.

Most people get inked to mark a transition in their lives some painful and some not, but most ink is deeply personal. It can be as simple as a semi-colon recognizing that your story is not over with much more to be written or it can be as tender as the image of your dead child's face. But what if an entitity existed which could not only steal one's tattoos but the memories that accompany them we well. Piqued your interest yet, if you want to know more then pick up Ink Jonathan Maberry and find out. After reading it, I can almost guarantee that if you are tattoo enthusiast will be paranoid about hanging on to them and if don't you have one you will think twice before getting one.

Ink is an amalgamation of horror sub-genres such as supernatural, occult, dark fantasy and survival with some elements of police procedural mystery weaved it, all of these elements make for fantastic suspense fiction. Since the novel is heavily character driven the first third of the book may seem slow to some, but in my opinion that is just Maberry getting us well acquainted with this eclectic cast of characters whose back stories are traumatic, painful, sometimes captured literally and figuratively in ink. The second part of the novel , where many books often falter, but not this one, pivots toward a police procedural mystery as all of the players try to piece together this baffling conundrum of missing memories and tatoos. The final act is action packed, fans will not be disappointed that they hung around once the book reaches its thrilling conclusion. If you are a true horror lover or someone who enjoys character driven fiction, I highly suggest you read Ink by Jonathan Maberry a deep, dark, and delicious dive into the lives and psyche of the diverse residents of Pine Deep. This was my first Jonathan Maberry novel but it will not be my last I will definitely be checking out his backlist.
Pine Deep Trilogy here I come!

This is the first book I have read by Jonathan Maberry even though I have a few of his books waiting on my TBR shelf.
I truly did not imagine that I would enjoy this book as much as I did. It was hard to put down because I wanted to continue reading it to the end. The chapters were short but added to the flow of the story which isn't an easy thing to do. There is more than one narrator but the author makes it work. The story was unsettling which is exactly what you want a good horror book to do. The idea of tattoos serving as a necessary part of a person's psyche is a very novel theme to me and actually makes a lot of sense. To be honest, the feeling I had was "Thank God I don't have any tattoos" similar to the feeling of "Thank God I don't have a cell phone" (Cell - Stephen King). I liked the characters in the story. It may be a horror novel but Maberry managed to develop the characters to the point where I did have some tears bythe end of the book. This might be the first book I have read by Jonathan Maberry but it won't be the last.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for granting me access to this ARC in return for an honest review. There are some mild plot spoilers in this review.

Honestly I had high hopes I loved Maberry's YA series but I can't say I felt the same with this story. I'd give it 3.5 stars if we could give half's stars, because there were some moments I almost DNF'd it.

It's about an evil soul, the Lord of the Flies. He learns he can steal people's memories by touching their tattoos and stealing them. He can go through them only once and then they leave his body. They disappear from the host as well, along with any memories. He also has flies tattooed on his body that he can send off to spy or possess others to do his bidding.

There are some characters that comes in briefly at they have interesting sub stories. Every chapter changes with a different views but characters like Monk, Patty or Owen reappear frequently. Some deserved more time and attention. They were only included bc they appear in the plot later for minute roles.

Maberry does well with the slow development and build of the characters but there are sometimes these gross-ish moments in the story that kinda put me off. That's saying a lot since his YA series is about zombies. It's just creepy gross vibes, and very dark. Not all together pleasant. Trigger warning there's rape, child murder/rape, and suicide in multiple story points.

There are things kinda just left hanging like what happened with Gayle? What's going on with Mike? What happened in that tattoo parlor? What was the reason for Monks big fish story line, in regards to be a bounty hunter?And a very bland and unsatisfying explanation of the trouble, which it mentioned throughout the whole story plot. There are other insisted story lines bright into the story that just never get mentioned again that would've been fun to explore.

The thing I didn't super love was the unsatisfactory ending. The Lord of Does steals something that is essentially their essence of being and then the final show down is kinda anticlimactic. Owen just ends up being a incel and it kinda just gets wrapped up quickly after all that build.

I was hoping for more, but your may love it who knows?

This book was such a great read! I loved the concept of it, of someone stealing memories through the tattoos that were like a touchstone for said memories. And what we do when we lose those important memories. It was such a great read!

This book is so fast paced. The chapters are sometimes only a page or two, while others are a little bit longer, but there's over 100 chapters. So it was so quick and easy to read this book, and I thought it was a good writing choice.

The writing was a little much sometimes, for me. I don't know how to describe it really. It's like I went into a daze, or something, because I would get into this state reading this book, and the moment would written in this way, and I glossed over it. I just couldn't understand it, so I avoided it, I guess is the right way to describe it.

One thing that I loved was that we got interludes from the bad guy, in brief periods of his life, as he was growing up, as he was learning how to use his abilities. So we know how he's doing it, and watching the good guys figure it out was really great. It also made it so easy to despise him, so reading that ending was just perfect and so satisfying!

This was a really great read, I really enjoyed it!

DNF @ 30%. I have never read this author before and could not get into the story. It was just too bizarre for me.

A tattoo artist named Patty Cakes, that’s all I needed to pull me in. I love it when an author can be creative, witty, and fun all at the same time. I didn’t even need the rest of the synopsis.

I’ve read Jonathan Maberry before, I’ve enjoyed his writing, but he has a lot of series. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good series, but with my ever-growing, mountainous TBR list, it is hard to commit to starting a seven or eleven book series. So, a new standalone by Maberry, I was doubly into reading Ink.

Maberry has an innovative premise with Ink, the cast of characters are fascinating, there is nothing I love more than a group of damaged souls. But with each turn of the page I felt more and more left out. What I failed to grasp from the synopsis is that all of the characters are from other books and series. This was supposed to be a standalone; and here I was, left out in the cold not knowing all the backgrounds of the characters. As the story went on, I felt like the new guy in a group who didn’t know all of the inside jokes, the one who is standing there thinking okay so what as everyone else laughs their heads off.

The whole thing left me disappointed. Ink could have / would have been an incredible standalone if it had been a standalone. I’m sure that anyone who has read the Pine Deep series, Glimpse and the other stories featuring Monk Addison loved Ink. This standalone was written for them, there is nothing better than connecting with your favorite old characters.

While the story was exceptional, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. A little more transparency would have been nice, I was expecting something new and fresh.

*3.5 Stars