Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Inkheart


Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart.

I have mixed feelings about Inkheart. I loved the beginning. Loved it. I loved the ending. The last hundred pages or so were great. But the middle--well, not so much. This book is nearly 550 pages, and I just think it would have been better if it had been 375 or 425. But definitely not 550! The action could have been a little tighter, perhaps a little less description, perhaps one less chase scene. I don't know. I just found myself hopelessly stuck in the middle of the book thinking that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The characters. I like the heroine, Meggie, and her father, Mo. And the other characters Eleanor, the aunt, Dustfinger and Farid were alright. And the bad guys were sufficiently and genuinely evil. But sometimes I felt it was just a bit too much. The writing style, when it was good it was good...but sometimes I did get a little bored. There was plenty of action, plenty of description, plenty of characterization. There was plenty of everything. I guess I'm saying I could have done with a little less of each of the above. I liked the book overall; I loved parts of the book. But I just can't say that I loved it completely or thought it was perfect. I would definitely recommend Inkheart to booklovers and fantasy lovers. Those that love getting lost in a good "once upon a time" type story.

The story itself....

Meggie is a young girl who loves to read. She's seriously obsessed. She even sleeps with books under her pillows. Her best friends are books. There's few things she loves more than a good book, a good story. Mo is Meggie's father. He loves books too. He mends them. He's a book doctor. But as much as he loves books, he knows they can be dangerous as well. He's hiding a secret. A big secret. One rainy night, the secret is forced out into the open. Meggie sees a man staring at the house, watching the house, waiting for something or someone. As soon as her father sees this man, you can begin to feel the danger, sense the adventure. Dustfinger. He has found them at last. Found them again. Dustfinger is one of those semi-likable semi-villains. Neither good, nor evil. Selfish, yet not heartless. He wants what he wants. But he doesn't necessarily want other people to suffer. He's full of longing and desire for something that is completely impossible. So he's hopelessly miserable. The secret? Well, Mo, her father, has another name. Silvertongue. Her father has a gift. Or a curse. Depending on your point of view. The 'gift' is something that he's ashamed of, something that he'd be rid of forever if he only knew how. A 'gift' that Capricorn and Basta--the villains--want to use for evil.

Inkheart is full of adventure, full of suspense, full of descriptions. It's exciting but long.

6 comments:

chrisa511 said...

Great review Becky :) I plan on reading this one for the YA Challenge and I've been so excited about it...I hope I enjoy it.

I understand your issues with the book, I have that same issue with a lot of fantasy. It's an easy trap to fall into with this genre and it's something I'm fighting with my story I'm writing for NaNoWriMo...it's tough to stay out of that trap! So the big question..are you going to read Inkspell?

Becky said...

Chris,

I am planning on reading Inkspell. I don't know when. November is proving to be a busy month. And December is almost always hectic. But I am planning on reading it. I just hope I can fit it in before I forget Inkheart too much.

I did like Inkheart a great deal. I just found myself in the middle of the book saying, hurry up and get to the good stuff already. Let's get this resolved. Don't keep dragging it out.

It will be interesting to see how Inkheart is filmed. If they compact the action. If they leave out anything or compress some stuff.

1morechapter said...

I listened to this on CD with my kids and enjoyed it very much. I think I rated it 4/5.

http://1morechapter.com

Anonymous said...

Long books can be very good; I have nothing against length in and of itself. But I have to admit that few authors can write something of great length without it dragging; most of them could do with judicious editing.

Ladytink_534 said...

I'm going to be doing a re-read of this before too much longer. I really hope they decide to make a movie of it!

1morechapter said...

http://1morechapter.com/2007/11/14/inkheart-trailer/

Inkheart Trailer