Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy) by Cornelia Funke Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy)
Book Review: www.freewebs.com/hlgstrider
Summary: 2 Stars
At the beginning of each chapter of Inkheart is a quote from another book. These quotes are probably the best part the book. Now this isn't that harsh of criticism because Ms. Funke is obviously a lover of truly good books. The quotes include excerpts from The Lord of the Rings and Watership Down among other classics and if a book is a Tolkienangelist it has to be a good book, right? Yes and no.
The idea of Inkheart is wonderful, straight from every readers dreams and nightmares. It is the tale of a man who can draw things out of books by reading and who one night accidentally draws out a villain beyond control who haunts him and his daughter to desperation. A promising idea, but as I know from both reading and writing any promising idea (in fact, with writing, most) can fall flat.
Inkheart does and doesn't. For one thing it introduces a cast of wonderful good characters (My favorite being Dustfinger, the flame swallowing trickster), but the bad characters lack interest. The lead villain Capricorn doesn't stand for a greater evil. He is just an under-developed nasty man. Attempts at a back story for him and his henchmen fail miserably. The story starts out fine with the right amount of mystery and clever locations/situations, but the middle twists and drags like a yo-yo that can't quite make it back up the string and while the device used to end the book is clever, it isn't pulled off well. The yo-yo swings limply while the author explains the trick she meant to do in intricate, well thought out detail.
The plot was good, but the writing was merely functional, dressed up in places by truly brilliant short observances about children, books, and life. Wonderful idea. Ok book.