Microreview [Book] Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Among the ranks of Butler and Atwood, Ink portrays a future that seems all too close for comfort.

Imagine a world where a tattoo determines your citizen status. Ink follows Finn, a reporter for a struggling newspaper as he works (and falls in love with) an informant named Mari. Written in a noir style (though rising to lyricism throughout), it's hard not to imagine this book in classic black and white. What separates it from other near-future dystopias (if we can even call it that considering the current political climate) is the "magic" based on Latin American history. Throughout the novel, Mari's jaguar "twin" washes over her features at times and guides her when the world is too much.

While the novel opens with a focus on Finn the reporter and his informant-turned-lover Mari, it continues expanding into four point-of-view characters each occupying a different role in not only the story but in the world. Abbie is the daughter of a woman organizing the new internment camps for "inks" and Del is part of a local business that hires temporary workers. As their stories grow closer together and intertwine, Mari grows in her power but also her ability as a storyteller. Fairy tales whether true or false, become another form of escape.

Ten years ago when Ink first hit shelves, it would have been a difficult read. Now, the images of tattoos, GPS trackers, internment camps, border dumps are all too mainstream. Just like Twitter in the novel, these stories fill my timeline. This past weekend, a brief discussion popped up on my timeline regarding good speculative fiction: it's not meant to predict the future but warn against a type of future. Ten years ago, just coming off the Bush presidency, immigration, racism, sexism, and so on, weren't great, either, but Ink warned against a certain future. Plenty of people listened and worked diligently to avert it, particularly in communities of color, but here we are. It can get worse, as Ink shows, and this warning should ring loud to the people and communities systematically empowered (that's us, white folks).

It's hard not to talk about social justice as this new edition comes out, but that's also a disservice to Vourvoulias' work. Much like Atwood's Handmaid's Tale or Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, this novel is incredibly engaging. It's fast paced, action-packed, full of myth and magic and truth, and displays Vourvoulias' talent as a writer as she navigates four distinct points-of-view and these characters' engaging voices. While the subject matter hits hard, the novel is an adventure.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 9/10

Bonuses: +1 for being one of those books that is an IMPORTANT READ in this day and age, if you feel me. 

Nerd Coefficient: 10/10, “Mind-blowing/life-changing.” Read more about our scoring system here.

Reference: Vourvoulias, Sabrina. Ink [Rosarium Publishing, 2nd Edition, 2018]


Posted by Phoebe Wagner

6 Books with Sabrina Vourvoulias

SABRINA VOURVOULIAS is an award-winning Latina news editor, writer and digital storyteller. Her news stories have been published at The Guardian US, Philly.com, PRI.org, NBC10/Telemundo62, Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia Magazine, and City and State PA, among others. Her journalism has garnered Edward R. Murrow, José Martí, Keystone, Pen & Pencil Club, and New York Press Association awards. Her short fiction has been published by Tor.com, Strange Horizons and Uncanny, GUD, and Crossed Genres magazines, as well as in multiple anthologies, including the upcoming Kaiju Rising II, Sweet and Sugar Tooth, and Sunspot Jungle.

Today she shares her 6 books with us...

1. What book are you currently reading? 

Confession: I haven't read Lovecraft before, but after reading and loving the Victor LaValle and Ruthanna Emrys novellas that recast and subverted Lovecraft stories, I decided to bite the bullet. My daughter had a copy of The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft (edited by S. T. Joshi) on hand, so I started. Another confession: Even biting the bullet, I don't know how far I'll get.

2. What upcoming book you are really excited about? 

Exile by Lisa Bradley. I've long admired Lisa's poetry and short stories — hers is a distinctive and sharp Latinx voice and I just can't get enough of it — so I'm really looking forward to her novel. I'm also looking forward to Teresa Frohock's Where Oblivion Lives, the next installment in her Los Nefilim series set in 1930s Spain. I'm a sucker for historical dark fantasy with magical or paranormal resistance at its heart, and Frohock does that uniquely and excellently.

3. Is there a book you're currently itching to re-read? 

Kiini Ibura Salaam is one of the finest stylists in speculative fiction and her book of stories, When the World Wounds, is quite spectacular. I'm really haunted by two of the stories in the book, "Because of the Bone Man" and "Hemmie's Calenture," and think I might need to reread them as a master class in how art can confront our deepest societal wounds.

4. How about a book you've changed your mind about over time--either positively or negatively? 

When I watched the first season of the TV version of American Gods I found I actually couldn't remember much of the novel, which I had read when it was first published. But I did remember I had liked it, so I went back to reread it. I was less enamored the second time around. I realized that the characters were far more compelling and engaging on screen than on the page, and the most memorable moments (Vulcan's gun-toting and gun-loving "Make America Great Again" town, for example) were TV moments, not book moments. Plus, I don't know what "America" Neil Gaiman was touring when he wrote the book, but there is no American U.S. — much less the Americas — without Latinxs in it. Maybe I was a more forgiving reader back when I first encountered the book, but I don't have time for that sort of exclusionary worldbuilding these days.

5. What's one book, which you read as a child or young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing? 

No one book, but I started reading poetry young, and poetry from Spanish Golden Age Epics to Warsan Shire continues to be the deepest influence on my work. Cadence is everything, even in prose, and I write out loud...

6. And speaking of that, what's *your* latest book, and why is it awesome? 

My latest book is the new edition of my novel, Ink, from Rosarium Publishing. A near-future immigration dystopia originally released in 2012, Ink opens when a National Identity bill becomes law in the US, marking immigrants and children of immigrants with biometric tattoos and tracking chips. The novel explores how ordinary folks, both "inked" and not-inked, sidestep and resist the ensuing, and escalating, repression. Ultimately, the novel celebrates the power of resilience, ingenuity and community. In the years since it was first published, my imagined dystopia has become increasingly relevant, and I'm really grateful to Rosarium for its commitment to reissuing it at this exact moment — when anti-immigrant and anti-Latinx rhetoric has reached fever pitch. Rereleases aren't usually money-makers for small presses (or even large presses), so I think the reissue is a act of resistance in and of itself. And what a lovely act of resistance it is! This edition of Ink is beautifully laid out, has a gorgeous new cover by South African artist Vincent Sammy, and includes a thoughtful new introduction by renowned Latina writer, Kathleen Alcalá. Author and physicist Vandana Singh has called this both "a page-turner" and "a book for our times" — so how much more awesome can you get?


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.