Melissa McShane's Reviews > Inkling

This was pure delight. It reminded me strongly of Diana Wynne Jones's The Ogre Downstairs because of how the children and the adults ended up aware of Inkling and how the magic of Inkling's existence worked. It's common for middle grade and YA contemporary fantasies to follow the path of "keep it a secret from the grownups," and that's not a bad thing. But how much more interesting to engage the adults while still keeping the kids as prime movers for the story? It's Ethan who's the moral center of this book, and he stays that way by being a typical kid who's learning to work out good and evil for himself.

I thought at first that the secondary plot (Ethan and his family dealing with the fallout from his mom's death) would be tedious and typical of every other story that has this plot, and I was so happy to see it didn't go that way. I loved the depiction of depression, I loved how Ethan's dad was so well portrayed and how his creative path went, and I especially loved his dead-on reaction to fan mail. Ethan's sister is adorable, and his nemesis is fantastic (I'm afraid this is one of those books where I lose my memory of the characters' names almost immediately). (view spoiler)[I was so happy when they ended up allies. I love that dynamic. (hide spoiler)]

I would love to push this book on everyone, though I don't think that's reasonable. And I will happily read a sequel if one ever appears.