Whispers of Ink and Starlight, Garrett Curbow (Review by Caitlin Winkler)

Rating: 3.25/5 Stars

When I first heard the premise of Whispers of Ink and Starlight by Garrett Curbow, I was very intrigued and immediately thought of one of my favorite books growing up, Inkheart. The story of a man who, when he reads aloud a character jumps out from the book into the real world and a person goes from the real world to the written page, was such a new and interesting concept for young me. Reading this summary about a book where a woman’s life is bound by someone actively writing her story was immediately intriguing to me and I knew I had to read this book. While very different from Inkheart, the premise of the written word being its own character in a novel is so interesting to me and I was very happy to get a review copy of this novel.

Nellie has always lived her life knowing that she is not in control of her future and her choices. In her small town of Georgia, she lives with Quill in their home with no friends or family outside of the two of them. Quill, or “Father”, is her sole companion and her narrator through life, whether she likes it or not. But one night, Nellie gets to taste a small amount of freedom, meets James, and her whole life trajectory is changed. Throughout the summer, Nellie and James fall in love and explore the world and themselves. But Nellie is still beholden to the one narrating her story and time may be running short on their happy ending.

I was very excited about the idea of this book but somewhere along the way it missed the mark for me a bit. I am always hesitant to be overly critical of a novel because I am so impressed that someone can find such an original thought, as is the case in this story, and actually write a book. However, there was just something missing for me here. The beginning and the end felt like two different stories, which would not necessarily be a bad thing, but in this instance, it felt a bit disjointed. I will say that this felt incredibly original and the characters were really intriguing to me as well. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it fell a bit short of my expectations, which is likely on me as the reader.