BOOK REVIEW - Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Tattoo is a teen/YA paranormal book by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and was published by Delcorte Books on January 9 2007.

PLOT

Bailey Morgan isn't the type of girl who shows a lot of skin, but somehow, she ends up in a dressing room at the mall with her friend Delia applying a temporary tattoo to her lower back. Never one to suffer fashion doubt, trendsetter Delia knows exactly where she wants her own tattoo: on her stomach, right where her shirt ends—can you say "midriff"? Annabelle, the quiet one, chooses the back of her neck, and tomboy Zo plasters hers on the top of her foot. The tattoos will last for three days, and Delia's sure that with them, the four friends will absolutely kill at the school dance.

Unfortunately, killing is just what someone has in mind, and Bailey, Delia, Annabelle, and Zo are in for the battle of their lives. Along with her tattoo, each girl receives a gift—a supernatural power to help them in their fight. As Bailey's increasingly frightening dreams reveal the nature of their enemy, it becomes clear to the girls that it's up to them to save the world. And if they can get Delia to stop using her newfound power to turn gum wrappers into Prada pumps, they might actually stand a chance.

WHAT I THOUGHT

The story is interesting and only the second time I have heard the term sidhe in a YA story it is nice to get a changeup from the usual wolves and vampires trend. I think the girls’ interaction about their powers is interesting especially Zo at first feeling like she has the rough end of the stick with what is almost a passive power but then you see her strength of character and how driven she is when she can make a difference. The friends feel real as does their interaction with each other and it goes a long way to making them all feel real and gave them depth.

The main reason for me checking out this book at first was the fact that I knew that it was part of a series and didn’t seem like the usual love triangle stuff that YA seems to slip into these days. What I found after the first few chapters is an engaging story different from the stuff I usually read. While it could be argued that the four friends fall into stereotypical character traits, the smart one, the tomboy, the cheerleader and the quiet modest one I am willing to put that down to the fact that it is the first book of a series and therefore we, the reader should allow for character growth in future books. I like the lore which is something that is important to me in Urban YA especially in a series and I am eager to learn more about the other world that connected to this one.

One thing I think I should warn potential readers about is that sometimes it feels that this book is aimed at very young readers and looking up on Amazon it suggested the potential target audience being 12 or so and in places it shows. It is hard to explain exactly how are but if you read a lot of YA I think it will be noticeable to you. I don’t mean the book itself is childish or the plot too simple it is just aimed at a younger audience then say a series like House of Night which has more mature themes in it.

Overall I would recommend this book as it is succeeds in the simple tenant of fiction, suck you into a world you can accept and make you interested about the fate of the characters contained within that world.