Book Review: Inkheart // Cornelia Funke (#1 Inkworld)

InkHeart

Author: Cornelia Funke

Series: #1 (Inkworld Trilogy) 

Genre: Fantasy , Adventure , Middle grade

Synopsis:

Meggie loves books. So does her father, Mo, a bookbinder, although he has never read aloud to her since her mother mysteriously disappeared. They live quietly until the night a stranger knocks at their door. He has come with a warning that forces Mo to reveal an extraordinary secret - a storytelling secret that will change their lives for ever.

Rate: 4 / 5 ⭐

"Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness--and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn't ask anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly."

Review: 

This is my second time reading this book. I read it a few years ago but never got around to finishing the trilogy hence the reread. I liked it as much as I did the first time around. 

Its a very simple fantasy. Book characters come to life when they are read aloud. So obviously not everyone has this 'power' and in this book, characters that have come to life are the villians of the story. Which is where it all goes downhill. Because now Capricorn wants more cronies for his gang and money (obviously), to be read out of novels for his own personal use. Obviously Mo (who is one of the few that can read characters out of books) refuses to do so. And the story begins with Mo trying to get his daughter Meggie to safety from Capricorn and so on and so forth. 

The story was pretty simple and for a middle grade book, it is pretty good. It doesn't have a lot of dark elements although the 'evil' characters are described as quite bad and scary, they didn't really seem all that much (maybe it might scare a 12 year old). The characters were also very well written out but there wasn't much character development. The writing sometimes felt off but I am assuming it is because this is a translated novel. This book was originally written in German (so I guess I managed to read a book for #womenintranslation month). 

I had a few issues with this book though. It was too long, the plot was dragging. The book was more than 500 pages long which could have really ended at 350 ish 400 ish pages. So basically somewhere in the middle I was skimming through the pages.

The use of violence. There was a bit too much considering the target audience. People thrown in prison and people being beaten up. And if you read in between the lines, the women are abused and may have even been r*ped. Another point, I personally felt like this would have been good as a stand alone, from where it ended. Yes I did have a few questions regarding certain characters and situations (which I know will be answered in book two) but it could have worked well as a stand alone. So if you do get bored with the long wind-ness of the book you could just stop here and call it a day!

So all in all a good concept, not particularly executed very well and its not a great book but I don't think its so bad either. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧