Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

To read and make characters I love come out of books? Would that be a blessing or a curse? Probably, a bit of both.

“Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service. Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. Meggie has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. He can "read" characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story. This "story within a story" will delight not just fantasy fans, but all readers who like an exciting plot with larger-than-life characters”

So here’s the mistake I made with this book: I watched the movie adaptation prior to reading the book. And I loved the movie. The movie was fast and action packed and witty. The book, though it was very good…well, was kind of the opposite.

Now, I preface this by saying I did enjoy the book. I did. It was beautifully written and the world that Cornelia Funk created was so carefully and delicately crafted that you fall right into the story. You feel every hope and despair and every fear and relief. But…I just had a hard time getting into the story. Maybe it was because I listened to this on audio book, Or maybe it’s because I had read and enjoyed prior to this was an adult action packed adventure. While I enjoyed listening to this, I found that sometimes maybe the words were too over crafted. Does that make any sense? It was too shiny and pretty for me. All the words perfectly polished. I prefer some rawness in my stories. I felt that the villains were dark and unforgiving. Capricorn was dark and sinister without being cartoony. Mo and Meggie I found to be a little grating on the nerves from time to time and Dusterfinger was, well, a coward. But everything was polished to a perfect shine. Not enough of grim I feel for such a dark story.

Inkheart is such rich and complex world and this story ending the way it did, I was pretty surprised that this is a series. Though I felt this was story was a little to squeaky clean for me, I will probably venture out and read the next book in the series.

If I had the ability to read characters out of my book, I think I would look at it as curse. Because I know I wouldn’t want yank the characters I love out of their worlds…even if it would be awesome to hang out with say…Charley Davidson or Harry Dresden…just saying…