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.
