Review: Tarnish

Tarnish by J.D. Brink

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Full Disclosure: I received this book as a First Reads novel!
I bought myself a digital copy anyway, just so I could keep reading it when not at home!

Do not be fooled by how long it took me to read this book: In the middle I graduated from college and lost a family member, so I had some longer-than-normal breaks in my reading schedule.

I loved this book. I was all prepared for some long-winded, drawn-out, fantasy rehash and was completely flattened by how clean and original the writing felt. It's told in the first person by a young man, and the kid could as well be my own brother. He's very easy to relate to, a very real person. The other characters are as well, in the general sense. There are, of course, some larger-than- life characters, but that's to be expected.

The storyline was exciting and kept you thinking. Multiple point-of-view threads kept the storytelling fresh and really helped in making the characters personable. I LOVED Brink's storytelling mechanism. Not the storyline, but the TALES interwoven with the story. As plot devices they were a great way to update the reader on decades of history (taken with a grain of storyteller's salt).

There are multiple typos throughout the book, through not so many as my own brain cooked up. Don't take a long break near the beginning of a book, just trust me. I spent maybe half the book thinking the sword was supposed to be called 'Silver' and that every 'Sliver' was a typo. The poem in the beginning of the book ("Silver, they call it") got lodged in my brain. I wish I'd simply read the first chapter over.

In fact, I might read the whole book over. :)
Wait... was that other title by J.D. Brink "The Prince of Luster and Decay" starring a soldier named Jacob Knox? If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find that book now.



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