Book Review for 10.11.24: Between Ink and Shadows

Title: Between Ink and Shadows 

Author: Melissa Wright

Date: 2020

Quote: "Nimona Weston...was an unwilling thief, bound to do the bidding of the very organization that had seen her shunned."

And how is she bound? Her father left her enslaved by debt to a magical organization that is, under the law of their country, nothing but a criminal gang with super-powers. But how does their magic get its power over her? Is it possible for Nim to reclaim her own magical powers in her own right? The nice but limited king is growing old. The queen is wicked, but she's not getting any younger either. The king has two illegitimate sons who use Nim to steal magical objects from each other...but is that an exercise of her powers that will make clear whose partner she is best suited to be? And what adventures await them in the next two volumes of the trilogy?

This novel is a little too steamy for me, not explicitly sexual but explicitly sadomasochistic. I knew an addict who was writing a novel just like this, once. I'm tempted to wonder whether "Melissa Wright" is her pseudonym. Addiction and sobriety are like two lovers, one evil and one benign. I don't relate to the idea of being "torn between two lovers" when one is a solid friend and one is an abuser; it's one thing to be "torn between" the serious one and the goofball, the rich one and the cute one, etc. etc., quite another thing not to have enough sense to walk away from abuse when you can; but I liked the turning point when Nim claims her power. 

For people who feel like slaves or prisoners, literally to drugs or emotionally to bad habits, this novel may be an empowering mood booster. I hope so. What I didn't enjoy about it was that it captured the emotions my addicted friend used to write out, more compulsively than with any literary ambitions, all too well. I didn't enjoy seeing her in that emotional place. I didn't enjoy seeing the fictional Nim there, either. It's worth looking if Nim's fictional example inspires people to grab the reins and bind what has bound them.