Storm Review: Katie

Ink.
It has a mind of its own.
Used by Kami, the descendants of gods.

It's in the blood of the Kami.
It's in the blood of Tomohiro.
And it's in the blood of me.

There has to be a way to silence the ink.
To put a stop to the devastating powers it gives us.
To save the world, and ourselves.

My name is Katie Greene.

Book: Storm
Author: Amanda Sun
Series: The Paper Gods
Standing: Book 3 (final)
POV: 1st person, by Katie, past tense
Genre: YA fantasy, paranormal, Japanese mythology

Source: physical copy
Pages: 287
Rating: 4 Stars


Blurb (Goodreads)
After almost a year in Japan, Katie Greene has finally unearthed the terrible secret behind her boyfriend Tomohiro's deadly ability to bring drawings to life—not only is he descended from Kami, the ancient Japanese gods, but he is the heir to a tragedy that occurred long ago, a tragedy that is about to repeat. Even as the blood of a vengeful god rages inside Tomo, Katie is determined to put his dark powers to sleep. In order to do so, she and Tomo must journey to find the three Imperial Treasures of Japan. Gifts from the goddess Amaterasu herself, these treasures could unlock all of the secrets about Tomo's volatile ancestry and quell the ink's lust for destruction. But in order to complete their quest, Tomo and Katie must confront out-of-control Kami and former friend Jun, who has begun his own quest of revenge against those he believes have wronged him. To save the world, and themselves, Katie and Tomo will be up against one of the darkest Kami creations they've ever encountered—and they may not make it out alive.

                          ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭

After the ending to Rain, I was left with a million questions, all with absolutely no answers.

Storm picks right back up with where Rain ended, just a few days after. Katie's having issues, Tomohiro's having issues, and Jun's having serious issues. Everyone's having issues. GAH. What has the world come to?

Katie and Tomo are on a race to put a stop to the waging war of kami blood inside Tomo, because if not, the kami blood will take over and he'll destroy everything. But to make matters worse, Jun suddenly is having an ethical crisis, in the sense that he's letting his kami power get to his head, and suddenly he's off killing people. Though they're mainly gangsters that Jun claims the world is better off with, Jun is still murdering people. And he's convinced that if Tomo won't obey him, he'll destroy him because he's too dangerous. Issues, a little? But I see where Jun's coming from, and can even sympathize, even if his resolution is completely twisted and ridiculous. That fool.

One person I really grew to like in Storm was Satoshi Iskikawa. If you recall in the first book, Ink, he was a wimpy coward, determined on exploiting Tomo's kami abilities for Tomo's "own good". Turns out there was a very good reason, and here we see him redeeming his previous actions. I loved his sass, and he brought a smile to my lips whenever he spoke. I mean, only he would demand Katie to take a picture of him and some famous bridge when there's a serious issue at stake. He's a loyal friend, and I'm glad that he's able to straighten out and find his way in the end. Him, Katie, and Tomo make an awesome team.

Another surprise in this book was the reappearance of Katie's dad. I won't go into detail about it, but it brings the story and Katie's character to a full circle, and leaves a satisfying sense of closure to her life.

The ending contained a lot more excitement and action than I originally suspected, which was more than fine by me. Weapons! Swords! Bows and arrows! Spears! Wings! They all make one epic battle and finale.

One of the neat things about this book is that there are actual drawings on the pages, pictures that were draw in the book's plot. One of the drawings involved a snake, and may I firstly give kudos to the artist, because I nearly dropped the book when I saw it on the page. Yikes. But it gives the book a sinister feeling, as if the ink on the pages truly are trying to do some evil.

Areas that are visited in this book: Shizuoka, Tokyo, Ise, and Nagoya. This book does not lack any Japanese culture, which is really nice to read about!

I'm a little sad to see this trilogy go, as I enjoyed it very much. All in all, it was a fantastic series, filled with rich Japanese culture and mythology! I definitely learned a whole lot from this series!