Cassie's Library: Inkheart: The Book Review or Wow, I read over 500 pages!!!

Inkheart
by
Cornelia Funk

I had the pleasure of seeing the movie "Inkheart" when it first came out on DVD, which I imagine for the original theatrical release date of 2008 was shortly after that. My uncle, John, had checked the film out from the local video store (Dave's Video I believe) and told me that I should see the film. I watched it that night. I was pleasantly surprised, as I remember it. This is what led me to finally decide to read the book because I thought it would be interesting to see finally what the main differences between the two were.

As I went to the library to see if they had it, since it was not a book I was keen on owning at that particular point, I was apprehensive. I know that a lot of books that are made into films simply do not translate correctly, for whatever reason. I was hoping that my love would not change for the movie. I discovered the library had all three of the books in the series (Inkspell and Inkdeath are sequel books). That is when I got a bit of a shock! The book was over 500 pages in length. I am not one that usually reads a book of that size. I am about 350 max on most of my reads. I, however, accepted the challenge to read it anyways.

This is the cover of the edition that I read:

I brought the book home and began reading it. It took me about 18 days to read this book. I started on September 1 and finished it on September 18th. Which shows that I am building up these blogs on purpose, so that I have some content for you all to read or watch. :) It took me that long to read not because it was a bad book, but because I just am a slow reader. As I got into this book I was finding myself drawn into this world that Funke created. She created a rather rich world. I have never been one to enjoy books with a heavy emphasis on fantasy, which is partially because I was not allowed to read books outside of specific types. This resulted in me not appreciating these fantastical elements as much as someone that has say read "The Hobbit" or "Lord of the Rings" series, which I never have. This being said I was still highly impressed with this book. The action drew me in and Funke sprinkled it throughout the massive volume to keep the reader wanting more. Just when I was starting to think it was getting a bit boring she would have another element be revealed or have another character have something happen to them to draw me back in.

There were several passages in this book where I literally said "Wow, I can picture exactly what Funke is talking about." I felt transported into the Inkheart book myself. The premise of the book is also a strong one, which goes back to the sentence I just said "transported into the Inkheart book". One of the main characters has the ability to read people in and out of books, which I am comfortable stating because this is discovered fairly early on in the book and also is mentioned in the book jacket synopsis. This premise was interesting, fresh, and allowed for great plot moments throughout.

My favorite character in this book was probably Dustfinger. He was a heavily flawed character, but one that had one simple desire. This made him easy to relate to and also allowed me to see clearly how every action was driven by that one desire. You never had to question why he was doing something because it was very obvious. I enjoyed this as almost a character analysis and how well a character can be written when given a purpose.

My least favorite character had to be one of the main characters, Mo. I understood that he was a big part of the driving force of the story, but he just seemed to be taking up precious story time from other characters that I liked more. I also could not see why he would need to be in subsequent books with the way that the story ends. It felt like much of his story was resolved.

WHO I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO: Fantasy book lovers, new fantasy readers, young adults, children, book lovers, book collectors, and those that simply want to have an enjoyable long read.

WHO I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO: People who do not appreciate books (why are you even reading if this is you? #sorrynotsorry), people who do not like books with any truly dark characters or non-redeemable qualities to a character, and anyone that feels that fantasy is not a genre up their alley.

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