Firstly thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo is a story that involves a magical realm, fortunes that foretells your future, and a gargoyle pet. It tocks all the the boxes for a fun, adventurous book.

The action starts pretty much straight away in the book, where we join Metty on her fating day, where she travels a little further than most of the London Underground.

The story has some unexpected twists and turns, and this is a book i definitely think many of my Year 7 and 8s will enjoy, as well as th avid older readers.

I can't wait to read the next installment!

WOW! What an incredible debut! The magic system is inventive and unlike anything I’ve ever read before - I was mesmerised reading every page as it came to life in my imagination.

What would you do if you learned your life’s fate at 10 years old?

It’s a book about self-discovery, and choosing your own path in life, about friendship and learning to lean on those that love you for who you are. As an adult reading this, I could see that it was political - but from a child’s point of view this would come across as the goodies vs baddies.

A truly incredible book that’s up there with my favourite books of all-time!

I have heard so much about this and it really did not disappoint. I really loved the story and will definitely be buying a hard copy to keep. Full of magic and mystery, where what you know can often be open to interpretation. The heroine, Metty is given a tattoo on her 10th birthday, but it is a skull, which she thinks will turn her into a murderer when she is adult.. Can she find her missing father and find a way to change her future? This fast paced and exciting story will help find the answers.

It's Metty's birthday and she is the age to get fated. She travels to Madame le Beau with her dad, and her um meets them there. As soon as the inky tattoo is on Metty's skin and revealed to her parents, her mum takes off and her dad bundles her back home. Her fate is not a good one. All of the staff are now terrified of her and then her dad walks out on her.

When she sets off to find him, she's found by her aunt and taken to her London home. There she meets Sundar and starts to learn about magic.

Her mind isn't really on the magic, though. Her dad is missing and Aunt Mags knows something about it but isn't saying. Metty and Sundar set about trying to find Metty's dad, but it's not easy when you can't use magic properly and you're not supposed to leave the house.

A wonderful tale of friendship and finding yourself as well as being yourself, perfect for middle school ages.

Inkbound is spellbinding. Unique, imaginative with rich storytelling and a magical and mysterious world to explore. I loved Metty, Sundar, The Captain and Aunt Mag, the villains were also chilling too. I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this.

There's some fantastic world building here that really draws you in. Each person has a 'fate' which could allow them to do many things, but each fate is open to interpretation. Our heroines fate seems to show that she will murder someone with magic, and she is hidden away to protect herself and others.
But there is more to Metty Jones' fate than she thinks. When he father goes missing, she begins her search and discovers a lot more about herself and the Jones family.

It's a very intriguing story and I'm curious to read more. But there was something just a little lacking in the tale, I can't pinpoint it, but it was enough that I didn't feel i could rate it more than 4 stars.

But it was still a very interesting read, and I do recommend giving it a go.

There are stories and then there are stories – tales that come as close to replicating the giddy feeling of falling in love as is possible – and in this read, I have found a new love. As close to perfection as any middle grade fantasy I’ve read, this held me captivated as I turned its pages and left me aching for more when I finished. Full of mystery and magic and with a fabulous heroine that readers will adore, this is without a shadow of a doubt going to be one of my favourite books of 2025 and is one to which I know I won’t be alone in needing not just one sequel but an entire series.

Set mostly in New London, a city that will seem both comfortingly familiar and yet intriguingly new at the same time, this is quite simply a brilliant piece of fiction – one that is hugely imaginative, richly described and one that has those moments within it that make you gasp and set your mind racing as you try – and fail utterly – to guess what is coming next. Ideal for confident readers in Year 4 upwards who are fans of Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor series or B. B. Alston’s Amari books, this is a title that has been on my radar for some time and that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Our story opens in the British capital, on an underground train heading to Darkwell – a station that Metty, who considers herself to be a bit of an expert on London’s tube system, has never heard of. Reaching their destination, she and her father – the captain – alight and make their way to the appointment where Metty will discover her fate, as is usual for children on their 10th birthdays, which will be revealed to her in the form of a tattoo on the back of her hand. When the time comes to be marked, Metty is shocked by the resulting image – an ink-black skull, held by a hand wearing a violet glove – a sign that she is destined to become a murderer – and is told by her father that it will need to be kept hidden from now on.

A year later, Metty has become more used to the idea of being a murderer and now spends much of her time absorbed in thoughts of whom she is likely to kill – something that has not made her popular with the staff at the Welsh home to which the captain has moved them following the acquisition of her tattoo. With the memories of her 10th birthday still fresh in her mind, she is hoping that turning 11 will prove to be less eventful but is deeply hurt when her father tells her that he must leave immediately, before she has had a chance to celebrate with him, promising that he will contact her later that day.

When he fails to do so, Metty is hurt but quickly realises that he has not willingly broken his promise to her but has, in fact, disappeared. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Metty hatches a plan to find him but before she gets very far, her Aunt Magnificent arrives unexpectedly, announcing that Metty is in danger in Wales and takes her to her home in New London – a floating city above the ancient metropolis. Here, Metty sets about tracking down the captain but before long becomes aware that all is not as it should be in her new surroundings and that an underground group known as the Black Moths is behind a series of events that threaten the stability of New London. As she searches the city and becomes increasingly aware of the Black Moths’ activities, Metty begins to wonder if they are connected to her unique fate. But when she finally discovers the shocking truth, it is beyond anything she could possibly have imagined…

Metty is a fierce protagonist who has a burning curiosity to get to the bottom of things, even before she receives her fate. Once she discovers that she is destined to become a murderer, she applies this curiosity to various aspects of what she sees as her inescapable future and develops an emboldened attitude towards life that makes her refuse to take no for an answer and leads her into all sorts of scrapes after her father disappears. Transported from the quiet of the Welsh countryside to the hustle and bustle of her aunt’s home city, she is eager to drink in everything that it offers and is filled with a drive to uncover the truth about her father’s disappearance and its possible connection to the sinister Black Moths.

As we accompany her on her adventure, we scarcely have time to draw breath. The narrative is fast-paced and filled with a glorious assortment of colourful characters and magical objects and settings that are exquisitely described as we encounter them, with some pretty big points in the plot reliant on tiny details that have been carefully woven into the earlier chapters. Not only does this ensure that, once started, the book is sure to be finished but it also leaves the reader with that feeling of desperately wanting to reread the story – something that doesn’t happen that frequently in my experience.

With the book ending quite neatly but with questions unanswered, I am so very much hoping that it is the start of a series – the author’s website indicates that it is but I have been unable to find out any more about a Book 2. I guess I will just need to be very patient and, when it comes, greet the news of a sequel with the excitement that it surely deserves.

I am, of course, enormously indebted to publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books and to NetGalley for my virtual, advance read. Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo publishes in hardback on January 30th and in paperback on September 25th.