Publisher: Macmillan/Imprint
Series: Ink, Iron, and Glass #1
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Source: Library
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Can she write a world gone wrong?
A certain pen, a certain book, and a certain person can craft entirely new worlds through a branch of science called scriptology. Elsa comes from one such world that was written into creation, where her mother―a noted scriptologist―constantly alters and expands their reality.
But when her home is attacked and her mother kidnapped, Elsa is forced to cross into the real world and use her own scriptology gifts to find her. In an alternative Victorian Italy, Elsa finds a secret society of young scientists with a gift for mechanics, alchemy, or scriptology―and meets Leo, a gorgeous mechanist with a smart mouth and tragic past. She recruits the help of these fellow geniuses just as an assassin arrives on their doorstep.
In this thrilling debut, worlds collide as Elsa unveils a deep political conspiracy seeking to unlock the most dangerous weapon ever created―and only she can stop it.
The synopsis of Ink, Iron, and Glass sounded really amazing, so I was expecting something great. Unfortunately it wasn't great for me. Sadly it was only ok, but I still enjoyed parts of it.
The concept of Scriptology was really interesting and got my attention right away with the crafted worlds that had been brought to life by merely writing them into existence. Veldana is such a world where Elsa and her mother, Jumi, live. They were also created into existence by a male Scriptologist. Elsa and Jumi's world is rocked when Jumi is kidnapped and Elsa goes to Earth to find her through a portal.
The setting for most of the story is an alternative Victorian Europe. It is also labeled as a steampunk type world because there exist Machinsts who create steampunk type inventions, but I would not say that it is Steampunk. There just aren't enough elements to classify it as such. There is a lot of info dumping in the beginning of the story, which made it really hard for me to focus. I had to put it down a few times before I got into it because I got bored after awhile. But Clare does a great job of describing the places and items in the story.
As far as the characters go, I couldn't really get into any of them except for Porzia and Skander, the octopus like creature. Elsa was annoying throughout most of the book because she had so much contempt for Earth people because she said they thought they were better than the Veldanese people. It got very repetitive with her constantly saying and thinking it. Elsa's love interest was not that interesting. He has a sad past like most characters do and he used it as an excuse to mope around and drink a lot. I just wasn't feeling their "relationship." That being said, it wasn't on the frontburner but Elsa was definitely thinking about it way too much when she should have been thinking about ways to save her mother.
The end betrayal wasn't really shocking because as the reader, I had this thought throughout the entire book that something like it was going to happen based on that certain character's emotional moments.
I don't really see myself picking up the sequel because this one just did not interest me like I thought it would.
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