Quite honestly, it’s been days since I closed this book, and I still don’t know what to think.
What she didn’t know was why the idea should disturb her as much as it did. Rogue, Zamorna – they were both only fictional characters, weren’t they?
And maybe that’s my problem – that these characters seemed all too real for my own good. But first, let me tell you what Worlds of Ink and Shadows is about.
Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Branwell Bronte. One of the most celebrated families in literary history. Some of the most famous classics have been produced by these siblings that died at a very young age...
And Lena Coakley spins this masterful story about their origin entwined with aspects of family love and loyalty, and the stories we have the ability to weave.
THIS BOOK BLEW MY MIND.
Worlds of Ink and Shadow starts off when the Brontes are just teenagers – normal teenagers who spend their days learning, painting, attending church and occasionally shifting over to their own fictional world: Verdopolis.
Set in a town in Africa, the four siblings (the genii, in this world) created it from absolutely nothing but the power of their minds. They are whoever they want to be in the story. They story is whatever they want it to be. It’s a piece of their own imagination that exists somewhere real and not real.
Of course, nobody gets powers like that without a price. And the price they pay is deadly – the need to return, the hauntings and worst, the blurring of worlds. Soon, they realise they can’t keep going back, and there’s only one way out of a world they created.
Haunting, magical, beautifully written, Worlds of Ink and Shadow is a masterful debut that will leave you wondering long after you’ve put it down.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
