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The Ink Black Heart


This one is my least favorite book so far. It's very lengthy (1,012 pages) and hard to slog through because of far too many anonymous characters combined with the difficulty in reading the multiple, concurrent chat room conversations between the anonymous characters. It was hard to know how to properly read those chat room conversations to get the intended information and characterization. Sometimes there were three going at once.

The mystery is complex to the point of fault, and by the end I needed a schematic to keep it all straight. I still don't think I understand how it all worked out.

However, Strike and Robin are always worth a slog. I feel like I know them having lived in their fictional world for the last six months. Chapter 1 snatches defeat from the jaws of victory for the two of them. I'll elaborate no further on that. The coda at the end is tear-inducing and sets up an interesting dynamic for the next book.

I am very curious how The Ink Black Heart will be adapted for the show because of the unique setting of much of the mystery. It would be the toughest one to adapt in my opinion, but there are some superb events in the book that are tailor-made for the screen and had better be included! I look forward to seeing how they do it. I read they start filming it in early 2024.

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The TV adaptation for The Ink Black Heart began filming this week in London. The Strike fandom is all abuzz. It has been confirmed that Robin's hair has returned to the trademark red gold! Here's an X post from the first day of filming. https://twitter.com/RGalbraith/status/1757812077140246550

Side note: I think Tom Burke looks heavier in the face on purpose because as the books progress, he loses weight. That will have to be demonstrated somehow. Maybe this is how. Speculation, though.

Another side note: It's not lost on the fandom that the tweet above was released at 12:01 AM on Valentine's Day.

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Here's the trailer for The Ink Black Heart. Just released yesterday!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YJUrLjGIG0

I see hints of some really important book events I was hoping would be in the adaptation. Can't wait!!!!

Now that TIBH is ready to roll, they'd better get going on The Running Grave's adaptation!

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