Indelible (The Twixt # 1) by Dawn Metcalf Review

Name: Indelible (The Twixt # 1)

Author: Dawn Metcalf

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: July 30th, 2013

Format: Arc copy
Buy the book on Amazon
384 pages

Summary:
Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

THE TWIXT

Goodreads

My Review:

What a great read!  I was quickly swept into the magical and unique world that Dawn Metcalf created, eagerly following Joy as she was thrust into this new and exciting, yet highly dangerous world hidden just beyond our sight.

The best part about this book was how utterly uncommon it was.  I was expecting a typical YA paranormal romance, but Indelible surprised me from the first meeting, wherein Ink took a knife to Joy's eye in an attempt to blind her.  Ink, not entirely human, fascinated me almost as much as he was fascinated by Joy.  He and Joy had an immediate connection, even if neither of them recognized it at first.  Ink changed throughout the novel, growing to act more and more human as he spent time with Joy, and immersed himself in her.  Joy, on the other hand, also changed, coming out of her shell both in the real world and in her relationship with Ink, who was completely and utterly inexperienced, and sometimes not even certain as to how to comprehend his feelings.

I really enjoyed how Metcalf was able to balance both the magical with the usual.  In many YA books, the only interaction a protagonist has with the real world after being sucked into a paranormal one is when he or she is trying to hide her new world from her friends and/or family, and at that inevitable moment when the two worlds collide.  While the second did not occur at all (yet, at least; though I must admit that, as predictable as it is, I am still hoping this happens), Joy does not really focus on hiding her new life from her family.  Even though she is the only one of those around her who has the Sight (that she knows of), and so nobody would be able to see Ink or his sister Inq even if they tried, Joy's main interactions with her family and friends are not about trying to hide her new friends or the changes and pivotal moments that she is facing.  Instead, she has real human problems as well, like the aftereffects of her parents' devastating divorce, a secret that her brother has been keeping, her best friend who has a new serious boyfriend, her father dating a new woman, and several other things as well.  Metcalf did a great job at mixing both the normal and the non-normal, which made me love this book even more!

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book at BEA, as well as get it signed by Dawn Metcalf, and even have a quick minute or two chat with her before she moved on to speak with others.  I just wanted to thank her for her time, and for writing this delightful book.  I hope that everyone gets a chance to grab hold of a copy of the wonderful Indelible when it goes on sale late July for another great summer read!

My Rating: