Inkheart Cornelia Funke 543 pages; published 2003
So Mo began filling the silence with words. He lured them out of the pages as if they had only been waiting for his voice, words long and short, words sharp and soft, cooing, purring words. They danced through the room, painting stained-glass pictures, tickling the skin. (252)
There are books, and then there are books for booklovers. Inkheart definitely falls into the second category.
Twelve year old Meggie Folchart inherited her love of reading from her father Mo (Mortimer), a dedicated bookbinder. Everything about their lives together revolves around their shared passion: reading books, talking about books, collecting books…
Until the day a strange man, with an even stranger name (Dustfinger) turns up and disrupts Meggie’s understanding of the world. Suddenly books aren’t quite as safe as they used to be, her father is not the simple man he always seemed, and villains are no longer limited to the page.
I hate the idea of seeing a movie based on a book BEFORE actually reading the book, so I’ll admit that I bought this book before I really knew what it was about – just that it was had a pretty cover and was something about books… luckily it all worked out well.
Inkheart was a very enjoyable read, a real adventure story for booklovers. The idea of people and creatures literally leaping out of a book through the power of a reading voice is an amazingly beautiful one – even if it’s uncontrollability did have dire consequences in this book. How many times have you wished the books you love could just come to live beside you?
The relationship between Meggie and Mo was heartwarming, a father and daughter with no one but each other, and I hope to see that that progresses with the rest of the trilogy, as Meggie continues to mature – especially in face of everything Inkheart puts her through.
I did feel that the book was a little on the long side, like it dragged a little towards the end, however I will own up to having spent a rather long – and interrupted – time reading it. I am very curious to see how the rest of the series unfolds in Inkspell and Inkdeath. 4/5
3 comments :
Thanks, Rebecca, for sharing your views. I look forward to reading Inkheart & seeing the movie.
I had this book in my hand too during last weekend's bookshop crawl (errie). Have a son who'll love this one too, anyway it's now added to mount TBR (can't see the top anymore) - AND it's part of a series ... *sighs*
I just adored this book. I read something similar as a kid (a magic bookmark I believe could bring things out of a story, like Pip from Little Women for example) but I believe this is the better book. I got the last two from the library but I haven't started them yet...
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