Ink (2017) Spark (2018) Scar (2019) | |
Author | Alice Broadway |
---|---|
Cover artist | Jamie Gregory (illustrator), Andrew Biscomb (designer) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Fantasy Young adult fiction Dystopian fiction |
Publisher | Scholastic UK |
Published | 2017 – 2019 |
Media type | Print (hardback and paperback), audiobook, e-book |
No. of books | 3 novels |
TheSkin Books (or INK) trilogy is a series of young adult fantasy/dystopian novels written by Alice Broadway. Ink, the first book in the trilogy, was her debut novel. The publication rights were acquired by Scholastic UK for a three-book deal in early 2016. [1]
The books follow main protagonist, Leora Flint, who lives in a society where every significant moment, good or bad, is tattooed onto your skin and then preserved in a 'skin book' once you die. However, the blank community do not follow this practice, leaving their skin free of ink, which has caused a divide between the people of Saintstone and the blanks of Featherstone, and has resulted in a continued feud. When Leora uncovers secrets about her father, the blanks, and her true origin, the uneasy truce between the two societies is broken as the truths from both sides are unveiled. Leora and her allies wish for peace between Saintstone and Featherstone, while others within both communities wish for war and the destruction of the other.
Broadway began writing the book in order to process her "crisis of faith" after leaving the evangelical community she and her family had been a part of due to feeling bullied and manipulated. [2] She shares her sense of loss and idea of no longer belonging within a community after a lifetime of living by their rules with her main protagonist, Leora.
The first book in the trilogy, Ink, was published in the UK in paperback and ebook on February 2, 2017 [3] and published in the US in hardcover on January 2, 2018. The sequel Spark was published on April 5, 2018, in the UK [4] and is due to published in July 2019 in the US. The final book in the trilogy, Scar, was published on April 4, 2019, in the UK [5] and currently has no estimated release date in the US.
In the first installment of the series, main protagonist Leora Flint lives in the town of Saintstone, where the residents mark their skin with important life events through the medium of tattoos. When a person dies, their skin is flayed and then, should the deceased be found worthy, preserved in a 'skin book' for remembrance. A tradition which has been passed down through generations, the marked community are taught that the purpose of inking their skin is to unburden their lives of secrets and deception, and after death they are flayed so they may live freely in the afterlife.
Leora aspires to become an 'inker'; a professional tattoo artist. When Leora's father dies, she finds comfort thinking that his skin book will be kept and remembered, believing he had led a good life. But when she discovers that his book has been tampered with and a mark removed, she begins to question his legacy and seeks to learn the truth. With the help of her friends, Verity and Oscar, and her mentor Obel, Leora sets out to solve the mystery behind her father's edited skin book and clear his name. However, her investigations uncovers connections between her father, her own past, and the 'blanks'.
The blanks live beyond the borders of Saintstone – those who do not ink their skin and were banished from Saintstone's marked society. Their differences and 'otherness' have led to the belief that they are secretive and dangerous; a belief that has been encouraged by their government to inspire fear and disdain towards those who do not adhere to the marked way of life. Leora learns that the government are keeping her father's book, and with her friend's help she steals the page displaying the mark of the crow; a sign that indicating that a person should be Forgotten.
However, Leora is betrayed and at the ceremonial weighing of her father's book she is told of her heritage; her father was disgraced and was inked with the crow for his connection with the blanks, and her mother was a blank woman. This shocks Leora so much she condemns her father's book to be burned, but later regrets her rash decision, and by Obel's hand she has herself marked with a crow.
After her defiance against the teachings of Saintstone and its government, Leora is presented with an opportunity only possible because of her mixed heritage. The government want to use her to infiltrate Featherstone, home to the blanks, so that they can be forever rid of them. However, Leora wishes to learn more about herself and her parents, and now no longer welcome among her own people and the mayor, Longsight, threatening her loved ones should she not comply with his demands, she is sent to earn the trust of the blanks.
Her arrival at the blank settlement sparks a debate over her trustworthiness, and despite the promises she made to the mayor, she yearns for acceptance and the truth about her past. It is agreed that she may stay and, so long as she abides by their ways, and she stays with the Whitworth's — whom she learns are Obel's family — and befriends the daughter, Gull. As she spends time with the impoverished residents of Featherstone, she begins to see that they are not so different from the people back home; their stories are the same, but read from a different perspective. They hold the belief that sin can be washed away with a ceremonial baptism on the birthday of the younger inhabitants, and think that those who mark their skin are sinful. Distrust of one another's societies runs deep on both sides, with the blanks blaming the marked community for their misfortune. Leora learns how they were attacked and exiled, forced to live in poverty, and must send out parties in order to steal supplies from Saintstone in order to survive.
Leora sneaks out for the first meeting with the mayor's contact, who turns out to be Verity — her best friend who believes she was betrayed by Leora in the first book — but after they argue decides to end any further communications. However the information that she did pass on leads to an unsuccessful raid, and Featherstone is left without enough food or medical supplies, sparking rage against the Saintstone. After the party have returned, Leora is introduced to Sana, unofficial leader of Featherstone and her late mother's best friend; Sana tells her a little about her mother and the past of Featherstone.
Later, the arrival of her friend Oscar and his news of Obel's arrest trigger unrest, and Leora sets out to Saintstone with Sana and her crew to free Obel. However, when Leora returns she is intercepted by government official and Mayor Longsight's right-hand man, Jack Minnow, and escorted to the mayor. A town meeting is called in which Leora is to renounce the blanks, but before she takes the stage a hooded figure stabs Mayor Longsight, and in the confusion Leora escapes back to Featherstone.
Upon her return, Leora confesses he previous agreement with Longsight, and is shunned by the majority of the blank community. She attends Gull's birthday ceremony from the outskirts, uninvited, but when Gull does not return to the surface of the lake, Leora pulls her out of the water to safety. After Gull has recovered a little, they return to find the water supply has been poisoned, with the marked being labelled as the culprits. Later, Leora and her friends make their way to Featherstone's elderhouse on a hunch, and Leora discovers the bloody knife used to stab Longsight. Sana arrives and confesses to the act, as well as starving the people, poisoning the water and more, to provoke the people of Featherstone into action against Saintstone. This leads to Leora and Gull leaving for Saintstone, but upon their arrival, they find Mayor Longsight alive and they are captured.
In the final installment of the series, Leora finds herself prisoner of the corrupt mayor of Saintstone, and must convince both sides of her honesty and intentions to unite the two communities, whilst exposing the truth and also trying to protect her loved ones, even when she doesn't know where they are, or if they would count her as friend or foe. The mayor appears to have performed miracles — cheating death and tattoos disappearing from his skin — but she and her mentor, Mel, set out to find the truth behind these acts with help from the stories of both communities.
Leora, accompanied by Mel, travel to Featherstone in an attempt to broker peace between the two societies, but find that Sana has planned an attack on the marked. When they return to Saintstone the hall of remembrance — where the marked community go to speak the names of those who have died — is destroyed, and after Mel leaves for her home she is captured. Leora seeks out Jack Minnow for information and safety regarding her friends, but she is instead rejected by them. As she leaves, a crowd is forming in the square and the mayor brings Gull forward who has now been marked. The people of Saintstone do not perceive this as the act of unity it was intended to be, and Leora intercepts the mob and the guards to protect Gull.
Leora is imprisoned and then later brought in front of the people, where Mayor Longsight intends to flay her alive; he removes one piece of her skin before he is stopped. Minnow then claims on the part of the mayor, and takes control over Saintstone, while Leora heals at home.
After some time, a few members of Featherstone travel Leora's home for safety from Sana. After waking from a seemingly prophetic dream, Leora leaves her home for the museum — now filled with the communities skin books after the attack on the hall of remembrance — and finds a confrontation between Sana and Minnow. Sana hits Minnow with a lantern which in turn sets the museum on fire. Minnow attacks Leora and in the ensuing fight falls over a barrier and into the fire. Leora attempts to save the books and in her search for them finds Mel, who saves herself and Leora by jumping from a window.
At the end of the book Mel is in charge of Saintstone and Leora is beginning to heal from her burns, as is the relationship between the blank and marked communities.
Religious Themes: One of the major themes of the books is the concept of faith and its effect on people's lives, after the author's own religious experiences. They also focus on the understanding of death and a sense of loss that changes between different beliefs, Broadway having taken inspiration from evangelical Christianity and ancient Egypt. [2] The concepts of judgment, afterlife, and preservation are often presented with the marked's ceremonial weighing of the skin books and the blank's baptismal birthday ceremony.
Social Themes: Another main focus of the books is the fear of 'otherness' and the unknown; [6] [7] the people of Saintstone have been taught to fear the blanks since childhood, while Featherstone have been taught to hate marked people. However, as Leora spends time with both societies, she learns they share many similarities and that it is the stories and lies told on both sides that keep them divided. Within both communities, there are those who see the views of the other, and who strive for acceptance and peace between the two people. [8]
Coming-of-age Themes: The book looks at two different issues within the coming-of-age bracket; challenging authority and self-expression. [9] Throughout the series not everything is as it seems and characters must challenge their leaders, their teachings, and their own preconceptions to find the truth. [7] There is also a focus on society's expectations on the looks and behaviour of the younger generation, from children to teens to young adults. This is most obviously demonstrated through the use of tattoos; Saintstone require all residents to mark their skin with important life events, while Featherstone was founded by those who refused to tattoo themselves and were banished.
Fairytales and myths: Throughout the books there are references to myths and fairytales, [10] such as Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. In an interview Broadway mentions how these well-known tales can be used and interpreted in different ways depending on the teller or the receiver, and she uses this idea of multiple interpretation — the different societies' stories steming from the same place, the sisters Moriah and Belia, but manipulated to illustrate the ideals of those who are in charge — to demonstrate the similarities between the two communities. [11]
Initial response to the series was generally positive, with the first book in the series, Ink, being shortlisted for several awards, including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2018, [12] the Books Are My Bag Award, [13] the Leeds Book Awards, [14] the Trinity Schools Book Award, [15] and within the top ten shortlist for the 2018 Federation of Children's Book Groups Children's Book Award. [16] It was also longlisted for the 2018 CILIP Carnegie Medal, [17] and within top twenty longlist for 2018 Branford Boase Award. [18] It also achieved best-seller status for a debut novel in 2017.[ citation needed ]
Elizabeth Finlayson with The School Librarian praises the author's use of "formal, reflective language" and the "moving" tone when addressing sensitive topics, though they also comments that it is a "longish read", with a suggested age range of between 16 and 19. [19] Publishers Weekly comments on how the story explores loss and grief, and how Broadway shows power becoming "manipulative, controlling, and deceptive", although they express confusion about why the tattooing and flaying are they only way to remember someone. Their suggested reading age is 14+. [7] An interview with The Guardian suggests some divided opinion over the books' use of flaying; the action making some readers "squeamish" and consider it to be too much for a YA novel, while others commend the edgy ideas and inclusion of tattoos. [20] Kirkus Reviews praises Ink for introducing an intriguing and original dystopian premise, and "dramatic climax", though criticizes the ambiguous definitions regarding the two communities, and Leora's "vacillating" narrative voice. [10] Their review of Spark again comments on the tone of narration and "inconsistent worldbuilding", but approves of the authors prosaic language for the in-world stories, "taut and suspenseful" pace, and again a dramatic ending. [6] Goodreads figures show Ink to have an overall rating of 3.66 out of 5 stars, Spark having and overall average of 3.92, and Scar reaching an average of 4.01 stars. [21]
Sales figures according to Nielsen BookScan indicate UK sales of over 29,000 between February 2017 and August 2018. [22] Sales for the second and third books in the series are lower, Spark reaching 6,875 sales between April 2018 – 2019, [23] and Scar totalling 1,722 between its publication date in April and May 2019. [24]
In advance of Ink's UK publication, Scholastic sold the rights to the first book in the series in Australia, France, Italy, Latin America, The Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and the US. [25] Further translations have been made since, with more alternative book covers being produced for Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Mexico. [26]
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes and techniques, including hand-tapped traditional tattoos and modern tattoo machines. The history of tattooing goes back to Neolithic times, practiced across the globe by many cultures, and the symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures.
Criminal tattoos are a type of tattoos associated with criminals to show gang membership and record the wearer's personal history—such as their skills, specialties, accomplishments, incarceration, world view and/or means of personal expression. Tattoos are strongly empirically associated with deviance, personality disorders, and criminality.
Ann Philippa Pearce OBE was an English author of children's books. Best known of them is the time-slip novel Tom's Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. Pearce was a commended runner-up for the Medal a further four times.
Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution is a book written by Stephen Knight first published in 1976. It proposed a solution to five murders in Victorian London that were blamed on an unidentified serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".
The Tattooed Man is the name of two of Green Lantern's enemies, as well as of one related character.
Suzanne Collins is an American television writer and author. She is known as the author of the book series The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games.
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Tattooing has been practiced across the globe since at least Neolithic times, as evidenced by mummified preserved skin, ancient art and the archaeological record. Both ancient art and archaeological finds of possible tattoo tools suggest tattooing was practiced by the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe. However, direct evidence for tattooing on mummified human skin extends only to the 4th millennium BC. The oldest discovery of tattooed human skin to date is found on the body of Ötzi the Iceman, dating to between 3370 and 3100 BC. Other tattooed mummies have been recovered from at least 49 archaeological sites, including locations in Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Mongolia, western China, Egypt, Sudan, the Philippines and the Andes. These include Amunet, Priestess of the Goddess Hathor from ancient Egypt, multiple mummies from Siberia including the Pazyryk culture of Russia and from several cultures throughout Pre-Columbian South America.
Katherine von Drachenberg, known as Kat Von D, is an American tattoo artist, model, entrepreneur and recording artist. She is best known for her work as a tattoo artist on the TLC reality television show LA Ink, which premiered in the United States on August 7, 2007, and ran for four seasons. She is also known for being the former head of Kat Von D Beauty. In May 2021, Kat Von D released her first single "Exorcism" from her album Love Made Me Do It.
Vyvyn Lazonga is a tattoo artist who began her career in Seattle in the early 1970s and was trained by Danny Danzl. She was the first woman to work for herself in the industry, not her husband or another male shop owner. She worked in San Francisco and was tattooed by Ed Hardy in the 70s. She won the award for Best Tattooed Female in 1978 for his work. Later she was fortunate enough to meet Horiyoshi II at one of Lyle Tuttle's parties before returning in 1989 to open her studio in Seattle.
Tattoo inks consist of pigments combined with a carrier, used in tattooing.
Suzanne Weyn is an American author. She primarily writes children's and young adult science fiction and fantasy novels and has written over fifty novels and short stories. She is best known for The Bar Code Tattoo, The Bar Code Rebellion and The Bar Code Prophecy. The Bar Code Tattoo has been translated into German, and in 2007 was nominated for the Jugendliteraturpreis for youth literature given by the German government. It was a 2007 Nevada Library nominee for Young Adult literature and American Library Association 2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.
Ink is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. As a member of the Young X-Men, he is depicted as a non-superpowered human who gained superpowers after being tattooed by a mutant, and each of his tattoos gives him a different power.
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The process or technique of tattooing, creating a tattoo, involves the insertion of pigment into the skin's dermis. Traditionally, tattooing often involved rubbing pigment into cuts. Modern tattooing almost always requires the use of a tattoo machine and often procedures and accessories to reduce the risk to human health.
Tattooed ladies were working class women who acquired tattoos and performed in circuses, sideshows, and dime show museums as means for earning a substantial living. At the height of their popularity during the turn of the 20th century, tattooed ladies transgressed Victorian gender norms by showcasing their bodies in scantily clad clothing and earned a salary considerably larger than their male counterparts. Tattooed ladies often used captivity narratives as a means for excusing their appearance, and to tantalize the audience. The popularity of tattooed ladies waned with the onset of television.
Ryan Ashley DiCristina, known as Ryan Ashley, is an American tattoo artist known for her appearances on the television shows Ink Master and its spin-offs. Her signature style reflects her training and experience as a fashion designer: Ashley specializes in black-and-gray designs with beadwork, lace detail, and ornamental jewels. Ashley won Ink Master's season eight competition in 2016 and in the following years returned to host a spin-off show (Angels), judge another spin-off, and judge in the main series. Malarkey also owns two oddities and antiques shops in Pennsylvania.
Leora Tanenbaum is an American feminist author and editor known for her writing about girls' and women's lives. She is credited with coining the term "slut-bashing" in her 1999 book Slut!: Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation; the concept has since been mostly known as "slut-shaming."
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