OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Ink Soul - Trials Of Tattaow" by Walter Cromartie Jr.]

Ink Soul: Trials of Tattaow is a graphic novel written by Walter Cromartie, Jr. and illustrated by Yacu Malik. This is the first episode of the series, which gives us a brief introduction into this world of fantasy and action. The comic is very short, at a mere 28 pages long, but seems to be suitable for children through young adults who would enjoy a quick read.

To be quite honest, I read this book twice before I even understood what happened in the story; it was over almost as soon as it began to get interesting. Trying to summarize the story for this review proves to be quite a difficult task, as I'm certain my summary could easily be longer than the dialogue contained within the book.

At the beginning of the book, there is one page with some background information about the setting that is useful to refer back to while reading. Ink Soul takes place in the fictional world of Tattaow, where everyone has a birthmark, called an Irezumial, that can be summoned to assist its owner. Judging from the illustrations, when summoned, this birthmark materializes as some kind of powerful beast. Warriors of each of the seven tribes compete with their Irezumial in the games of Tattaow to prove themselves the strongest.

This particular story begins when Akshay, a strong young fighter, comes to the rescue of a little old lady from his village, who is being assaulted by an outsider who is looking for the local champion. Though Akshay manages to fight off the intruder, he also tells a big lie in the process, in attempts to intimidate his opponent. Claiming that he is the champion of their village, Akshay will later regret making such a statement.

The illustrations of this comic are amazing. I only wish that I could have seen them in color. My out-of-date Kindle displays images in only black and white, so I'm sure some of the original quality was lost. Some images become so dark and slightly blurry that I'm not even sure what I am looking at. I stared at one particular image for several minutes, trying to figure out the relevance to the story; I originally thought it was a bolt of lightning striking a man, but I think it's actually supposed to be a man standing in front of a tree. That's not the fault of the illustrator, I'm sure, but other older-version Kindle users might want to be aware of this.

While the concept behind the story seems very interesting, I found this book too short to hold my interest. Additionally, there were a few word choice errors in the writing (e.g. your/you're, fourth/forth, its/it's) that really shouldn't have been overlooked, given how few words this book contains. Due to these reasons and the statements mentioned above, I give this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars.

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Ink Soul - Trials Of Tattaow
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Great review. Weird story. But I want a birthmark-turns-into-a-monster. Mine would probably end up just being a fruit bat or something, though.

PashaRu wrote:Great review. Weird story. But I want a birthmark-turns-into-a-monster. Mine would probably end up just being a fruit bat or something, though.

Mine would be a french fry.

It is a shame you weren't able to view the illustrations properly. Is that why you had to read it twice to understand? Or is the wording confusing?

Rachaelamb1 wrote:It is a shame you weren't able to view the illustrations properly. Is that why you had to read it twice to understand? Or is the wording confusing?

It wasn't so much the wording or the illustrations. It was more just the overall pace of the story, I think. During my first read, I didn't make the connection that the beast things in the pictures were the same as the birthmarks.

I see...I tend to disregard illustrations when I read. Makes it hard to enjoy comic books though! I always rush through the words without giving the pictures more than a glance and often miss a key point.

Rachaelamb1 wrote:I see...I tend to disregard illustrations when I read. Makes it hard to enjoy comic books though! I always rush through the words without giving the pictures more than a glance and often miss a key point.

I am actually kind of the same way... but just last month, I challenged myself to read a series of manga in its original Japanese. I had read it before in English, but reading it in Japanese was a whole new experience. I found myself looking at the pictures a lot more to try and work out the meaning before I turned to my dictionary.

This particular book doesn't have that much dialogue in it. Maybe 200 words or something? My guess only; I didn't actually count. You really have to look at the pictures to understand.