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Melissa Marr introduced us to her dark and slick world of faerie in Wicked Lovely. Now, with her sophomore novel, Ink Exchange, we delve further into her beautiful and dangerous realm.

Not exactly a sequel, Ink Exchange focuses around Aislinn’s friend, Leslie. Since the close of Wicked Lovely, Leslie has fallen on hard times. Virtually abandoned by her father and repeatedly abused, in more than one way, by her brother. She presents an interesting contrast from her appearances in Wicked Lovely, where she came off as a vapid slut. In Ink Exchange, we get to listen in on her internal monologue and motivations, yet still occasionally, she pops off with the same useless tripe she did in book one. That’s not to say she’s unsympathetic – quite the opposite. Her plight, though a dark one, is intriguing.

In the wake of Aislinn’s ascension to the Summer throne, more and more faerie are seeping into the lives of Aislinn’s “normal” friends. Keenan’s companion and confidant from the first novel, Niall, has grown fond of Leslie, and she has become fascinated with him.

A complication arises: Irial, King of the Dark Court (faerie who nourish themselves on pain and suffering of others, both human and faerie), has grown weak under the truce between the Summer and Winter Courts. In an attempt to find a new source of strength, Irial has come up with a plan – an Ink Exchange, wherein a link is placed between the Dark King and a mortal through a tattoo, allowing him to feed on the human’s pain. Leslie, desperate for some sense of identity, unknowingly gets Irial’s mark, linking her to him.

The book details the struggle of the Summer court to keep Leslie safe and the machinations of the Dark court to stat strong, in which Les is designated to be a pawn but becomes something else. It also goes into Niall’s constant journey to discover his place in the world of faerie. In this sense, the books become a parallel to Marr’s own burgeoning career as a major player in the teen literary market – if Wicked Lovely was about breaking into a new world, Ink Exchange is about finding an identity in that world. 

My main problem with the book lies in the Dark Court. Marr describes the court as being cruel, inflicting endless pain on unnumbered, innocent humans. It is a point talked about over and over again, but, very carefully, never shown. Generally, it’s not a widely accepted practice to tell the audience what can be shown. Marr wrote about the cruelties enough that they became cannon, but it was nothing more than exposition. Whether she was toning down the violence to appease her teen market or not, it weakened the dramatic impact of the novel.

For me, the ending was wholly unexpected and a bit of a let down. The story did not so much resolve as it did stop. I found myself as I was at the end of Wicked Lovely - wanting more. Then, it was from a desire for more of a good thing. There is some of that in Ink Exchange, but the book also leaves you with a sense of restlessness, a lack of closure. One can only hope that there is more to come.

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