The Reader

The Reader is by debut author Tracie Chee and is the first book in her Sea of Ink and Gold series.

Once there was, and one day there will be. This is the beginning of every story.

Sefia lives her life on the run. After her father is viciously murdered, she flees to the forest with her aunt Nin, the only person left she can trust. They survive in the wilderness together, hunting and stealing what they need, forever looking over their shoulders for new threats. But when Nin is kidnapped, Sefia is suddenly on her own, with no way to know who’s taken Nin or where she is. Her only clue is a strange rectangular object that once belonged to her father left behind, something she comes to realize is a book.

Though reading is unheard of in Sefia’s world, she slowly learns, unearthing the book’s closely guarded secrets, which may be the key to Nin’s disappearance and discovering what really happened the day her father was killed. With no time to lose, and the unexpected help of swashbuckling pirates and an enigmatic stranger, Sefia sets out on a dangerous journey to rescue her aunt, using the book as her guide. In the end, she discovers what the book had been trying to tell her all along: Nothing is as it seems, and the end of her story is only the beginning.

The Breakdown:
1. Chee's debut novel has a slightly horrifying concept to me, a world where no one reads.  There are not books of stories.  Histories are passed by word of mouth. There is one book, and to know how to read is powerful and magic. She weaves interesting characters into a complicated story.

2.  I think one of my favorite things about this book was the crew of the Current of Faith. I loved reading about Captain Reed and his crew. They were definitely interesting characters.  The way they took in Sefia and Archer was awesome and I hope to see more of them in future books.

3. Although, I liked Sefia well enough, I never really felt connected to her as the main character.  Her character fell a little flat sometimes. It just felt like that Chee did not do enough to flesh out her character.  I felt she did a better job of making Archer and even the crew of the Current into more dynamic characters than her main heroine.

4. My biggest complaint with this book is the choppiness of it, especially in the first half.  Bounce between Sefia, Captain Reed, and Lon's characters made it hard to get fully engaged in the story.

To Read or Not to Read:
I am going to give this a Read, because I think this series can be good depending on how Chee proceeds in future books.