The Black Tattoo

Entertaining. I think it would've made a better graphic novel than novel-novel (and the way plot points are reiterated at the beginning of its parts makes me wonder if it the author conceived it as a graphic novel).

Begins well: two 14-year-old boys get drawn into an adventure where one becomes the

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host of the Scourge, a demon that manifests as a black tattoo on his skin. Very "Matrix-y" fight scenes ensue, and then suddenly the book changes tone for part two.

Heavily influenced by "The Matrix," "Sandman," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Bits of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett as well.

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Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven is in the style of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, although less whimsical. Set in London, Jack's life is absolutely normal. Everything that happens to him is typical, it just figured that it is his cool friend Charlie that gets the magic powers and is going to

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save the world. The Scourge is coming and he wants to wake the dragon and send the world back into the void from whence it came.

Although it is a thick book, it is a quick read. The story moves along nicely and while you don't get a good feel for the characters, you get just enough to keep things real. As real as they can be when Hell is a mole on a dragon's back and the devil's favorite passtime is watching demons play gladiator games. Don't worry, God will put them all back together again.

Sam Enthoven has done a good job creating this mythical world and making the fantasy realistic enough to hold your attention. The sheer girth of the book would tend to make me recommend it to older readers, but the story line, language and content lend it to being a good read for all teens. My 12 year old son loved it.

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this book was very good and always kept you on the edge of your chair. a book you could not stop reading

You could say that The Black Tattoo is another of the countless good vs. evil tales where a trio of characters battle to save planet Earth from the forces of darkness. You could say that. Until you read this book.

The author’s cast of characters could be any of the teenagers attending your nearby

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school. Charlie, the misfit, is bored with school, doesn’t do homework, can’t get a girlfriend, hates his life and desperately wants to be like his ultra-cool, good-looking, smart and ever-popular friend. Jack, of course, is that friend. Then there’s Esme. She’s trained her whole life for this mission. It has been her total focus for as long as she can remember. Just think of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and you’ve got the talents, skills and finesse of Esme.

The author draws the reader into this story through his integration of vividly described action scenes, fantastical settings, realistic characters, and quick pacing. As the main characters are deeply involved in surface issues, they are also dealing privately with individual issues of ethics, morality and loyalty. They must each deal with their own personal demons regarding these issues in order to be ready to accomplish the task at hand. Cleverly, the author provokes the reader’s contemplation of these issues as well.

Join Charlie, Jack and Esme as they battle inner demons, interpersonal relationship issues, and the battle of their lives. Together they must go to the very depths of hell to save planet Earth from total destruction. You won’t want to miss it!

Happy reading!

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Of course, being a Bookseller and being asked to review the first novel of…a fellow Bookseller presents some interesting dilemmas. Should I be brutal or sympathetic? Ex-Blackwells staffer Sam Enthoven takes the enthusiastic view of throwing in all the ingredients (Demons, Buffy-a-like ass-kicking

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teenage girls, tortured orphans with secret powers, you know the sort of thing) to the melting pot from the beginning in the hope that it all makes sense. He’s done his background reading – Garth Nix, Philip Pullman, Darren Shan are all clear influences, and as children’s genre fiction goes this is safe and sturdy, with some interesting issues raised and nice plot twists along the way. As first novels go - a fine attempt.

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In the West End of London there are things you cannot imagine. Secret societies, hidden demons and the gateway to Hell. Certainly Jack never imagined any of things. Nor did he imagine meeting a magical warrior girl or to be part of a mystical initiation along with his best friend Charlie. However,

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when Jack discovers who and what they will be fighting one thing becomes clear. Just when things look bad, don't worry. They will always get worse.

The Black Tattoo was originally written to be three books, but published as one. Each book has a definitive beginning middle and end although they are clearly one intertwined story. While I was reading it I did think that it might have been better off as three separate shorter books than this thick of a book which some readers might find off putting. I do think that the characters, violence and, well, unsavory (i.e. rather disgustingly gross) parts of the story might lend itself more to the taste of teenage boys, but I am sure that there are girls out there that this story would appeal to as well. I did enjoy the story overall. I really love the British slang used (I'm American) and always find reading it enjoyable. Another thing that struck me, and this probably wasn't even intentional, was that the character of Jack really rather reminded me of Arthur Dent (of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and much of his inner dialog made me smile just from the familiar feeling I got from it.

All in all I did enjoy this book and would certainly recommend it to any lover of YA urban fantasy, boys or girls.

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i like this book , but at sometimes it was a little confusing. Over all i liked it,and i hope that he keeps up the good work.

Just finished the Black Tattoo. It reads a lot like the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Demons and people and their minglings and such. Trips to hell, and back again, and back to hell, and an interesting little bugger called the Chinj.

This was an interesting book by Sam Enthoven, who I have never read before. Jack's best friend Charlie has always been effortlessly cool and when, after some strange events, Charlie suddenly has a black tattoo covering his back and they start to wonder if Charlie is exactly normal.
It wasn't very

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well written I think or maybe it just isn't my type of book. It seems like it was sloppily written. But the storyline was still interesting.

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This did not reach my lofty esxpectations that I held for it. After being on the receiving in end of many excellent reviews, I was anticipating a cracker. However, the dense and often cumbersome plot mixed with the sheer length of the novel and unneccessary elements of story, drama and

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characterisation made this a dissappointing read. I must admit in its fvour that it is unique and inventive, yet it's not the most compelling book I've read.

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This book when i read the blurb sounded pretty good. this book was recommended to me by my friend so i thought why not. then i started to read this book and it seemed interesting to me, but it got me a little bit confused. altogether i think it was a pretty good book though. it made me want to keep

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reading.

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I confess, I bought this for the back cover blurb.

('Vomiting bats? I'm sold' Neil Gaiman*

* Neil Gaiman has specifically asked us to point out that he has not actually read The Black Tattoo yet.)

The book gave me *exactly* what the blurb led me to expect - a really enjoyable, fun, ride complete with

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vomiting bats, demons in the subway under Centre Point, and the poor, abused, old Marquee, perfectly cast as the gateway to hell. (It might help that I'm a Londoner, and this book is a London book)

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this book was RAD! i love this author. authors from the U.K. are interesting to me i don't know why. i love the different types of monsters and the plot. i heard about this book from a friend she didn't like it so much. but i think that if you are into fantasy and characters like monsters and a boy

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dropping into hell then i think that you would enjoy this book.

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It’s full of demons and the devil. It’s full of adventure and magic. AHS/MHW

What a great read! Full of action, magic, demons and London landmarks. How could it be better? Give the people more! We need more of this in our lives!

eh i just wasn't impressed. i've read this same plot in so many other books and enjoy it but this one was a little dull for me. Not enough soul just writing on paper

This book has a lot of supernatural action. Most of my friends would like this, and the characters can relate to some of them too.
4Q, 4P; Cover Art: Awesome!
This book is best suited elementary on up through highschool students.
It was selected due to the cover art and title.
Grade: 9th
AZ-AHS-NC

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven was a thrilling and entertaining book that I could read over and over again enjoying each time. It is about A young boy Charlie and his best friend Jack. They do not fit in very well with people along with the fact that Charlies parents are divorced and he hates his

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father. They then are sucked into a supernatural adventure where charlie gets "magical" black tattoos going down his back. These then give him supernatural abilities that he uses for bad. This genre of books are very new to me so reading this was a fun experience, but I wish more could have been done with it. What I mean by this is that I feel like the author could have tossed in more characters and important acts by the characters to give this book an over all better feeling.

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Back Tattoo was an okay book. I didnt really like it because it was a challenging read and was such a big book i found myself lost some of the times while i was reading. People who can keep track of the book and can comprehend whats happening would have an easy time reading this book. I though this

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book was supposed to be about something else so when I read the book it was something completely different. I didnt reallly like this book because its not really what im into reading.

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This book was amazing. Compliments to Sam Enthoven. I wouldn't recommend this book to beginner readers. This book for me was a bit of a challenge. But, overall It's just an outstanding story.

This book was nothing like what I expected, the protagonists are much younger then you would think and the cover is definitely overly serious when compared to the actual text of the book. Yes the book is an apocolyptic hell will take over the world kind of thing, but it doesn't take itself too

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seriously. With running jokes like (God)frey, the archivist/librarian being our God and double headed tape worms who argue at every meal over who's the mouth and who's the bum, this book is good for a laugh. Don't expect one of those whiney the world is ending and it's all up to me books, cause this isn't it.

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This book was nothing like what I expected, the protagonists are much younger then you would think and the cover is definitely overly serious when compared to the actual text of the book. Yes the book is an apocolyptic hell will take over the world kind of thing, but it doesn't take itself too

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seriously. With running jokes like (God)frey, the archivist/librarian being our God and double headed tape worms who argue at every meal over who's the mouth and who's the bum, this book is good for a laugh. Don't expect one of those whiney the world is ending and it's all up to me books, cause this isn't it.

Show Less

This book was nothing like what I expected, the protagonists are much younger then you would think and the cover is definitely overly serious when compared to the actual text of the book. Yes the book is an apocolyptic hell will take over the world kind of thing, but it doesn't take itself too

Show More

seriously. With running jokes like (God)frey, the archivist/librarian being our God and double headed tape worms who argue at every meal over who's the mouth and who's the bum, this book is good for a laugh. Don't expect one of those whiney the world is ending and it's all up to me books, cause this isn't it.

Show Less

This book was nothing like what I expected, the protagonists are much younger then you would think and the cover is definitely overly serious when compared to the actual text of the book. Yes the book is an apocolyptic hell will take over the world kind of thing, but it doesn't take itself too

Show More

seriously. With running jokes like (God)frey, the archivist/librarian being our God and double headed tape worms who argue at every meal over who's the mouth and who's the bum, this book is good for a laugh. Don't expect one of those whiney the world is ending and it's all up to me books, cause this isn't it.

Show Less