Customer Reviews

Inkheart

5 star:		(364)
4 star:		(98)
3 star:		(53)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

From the very first pages of this wonderfully well constructed tale, to the very last page, I was hooked. The words of the author evoke wonderfully clear pictures in the reader's mind and the air of suspense is maintained without terrifying younger readers. I would reccommend this book to any reader from fifth grade to adult. The characters were believable and, as a reader, I cared what happened to them. The reverence for books made it doubly rewarding. ...

Although I haven't read the author's previous work, The Thief Lord, I eagerly delved into Inkheart. The book's size, a staggering 534 pages, didn't faze me because the pacing was so expertly achieved. The book felt like it was made of only around 200 pages. Cornelia Funke constructs her sentences beautifully, transporting readers instantly to Elinor's Italian house, Capricorn's abandoned Italian village, and even somewhat Meggie and Mo's house. The characters seem as though they were real, and I enjoyed the charming references to some of Meggie's favorite books, several of which I have also read. One of these amusing references is to Lord of the Rings, referred to as the "hairy-footed people's quest" in Inkheart. This is truly the book lover's book, because unless you've read the book or seen the movie or are extremely clever, you couldn't guess it. This novel keeps you guessing until the very end of the book when the stunning conclusion grabs you and won't let go. I look forward to more stunning works from Cornelia Funke in the future!

We liked this one even better than Funke's most recent work, "The Thief Lord." Inkheart's premise is even more engaging: Meggie's dad, a bookbinder, is so marvelous at reading out loud that many years ago he "read" the villain Capricorn from a book called "Inkheart" into reality. The villain then kidnapped Meggie's mom. Meggie and her dad must find them and trick them back into the book.

Although Inkheart is a long book (500+ pages), Funke establishes the thrills and the threat in the book's premise almost immediately, on a dark and stormy night and the day following when Meggie and her dad first try to make their escape. The narrative continues to an isolated village in Italy where Meggie encounters a menagerie of minor evil characters who have also escaped from the book.

Meggie is an engaging and spunky heroine that will appeal to both boy and girl readers.

A nice feature of the book is its general love for books - dad Mo is a bookbinder, aunt Elinor is a book collector with a huge library. Clearly Funke is not a lightweight trying to cash in on the Harry Potter fantasy kick; she conveys her love of books and language in a way that will enthuse any reader from 8 to 80.

German author Cornelia Funke rocketed into international bestseller status with the Venetian fantasy book "Thief Lord." Here she produces a different kind of fantasy in "Inkheart," a slower but pleasant fantasy that bumps into some pacing problems.

Meggie lives with her father Mo, a bookbinder who repairs old books with crumbling spines, broken covers and bindings. Though she loves her father, Meggie is puzzled by all the unanswered questions she has, like where her mother is and why Mo suddenly makes them move without warning, as if he's trying to escape something. One night a strange man -- Dustfinger -- arrives at Meggie's house, speaks with her father, and vanishes again.

The next morning, Mo and Meggie leave again suddenly to stay with eccentric Elinor, a tough woman with an obsessive love of books. Dustfinger comes along with them -- along with a mysterious green book that is, for some reason, very valuable. Meggie finds out just how valuable when her father is kidnapped by the thugs of the evil, sadistic Capricorn -- Mo is able to bring book characters out of their books and into the real world. And Capricorn is willing to use Meggie to make Mo do exactly what he wants.

"Inkheart" lacks some of the sparkle and memorable characters of "Thief Lord." Despite this, it's a solid fantasy story that manages to transcend what sounds like a very silly storyline. Okay, reading people in (Meg's mother) and out (Capricorn and his deformed thugs) sounds absurd even in a fantasy book, but Funke manages to pull it off in believable fashion.

Funke's writing (very well translated) has a nice breadth of detail, and she gets across the personalities of the characters quite well ("Capricorn would feed the bird to the cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart..."). What it lacks is suspense and pacing. Funke is good at evoking mystery but not a building sense of suspense. And the book drags quite a bit near the beginning, although it picks up near the middle.

Meggie and Mo are nice but unassuming lead characters. There's really nothing that makes them stand out. Not so for Dustfinger and Elinor. Dustfinger is a tormented sometime-traitor who can't cope with living in our world, giving him a more pitiful personality. And Elinor is a take-charge, reclusive, tough book-lover whose odd behavior makes her more endearing.

"Inkheart" is a bit clumsier and draggier than Funke's first novel. But it stands as a pleasant little fantasy, especially for those who, like Meggie, adore books.

If you're going to complain about this book then don't even write a review until you can appretiate great literature. I'm only 9 and I've probably read more then 500 books in my life. Now only 1 out of each twenty to thirty books I read are worth reading, and let me tell you, this was one of them. I personally, don't like good books to end so I was glad this was 544 pages long. If you disagree with me you just don't like reading.You would rather boot up your computer or switch on the T.V. you might not take me seriously since I'm only nine, but that would be one of the biggest mistakes you'll ever make. I DO NOT read books on my age level! I read books my sister who's 15 years old reads! Inkheart is my favorate book, and that's saying a lot, because I don't know about you, but I'm a very very picky reader. Cornelia Funke is THE BEST childrens writer I've ever known.(I've read hundreds of different books and rated hundereds of authors) I want to become an author someday and I can only dream of being as good as Cornelia Funke.

A young THOROUGH reader.

The premise of Inkheart, that some have the ability to call out characters from books by reading aloud, is absolutely wonderful. At first, of course, one thinks how great to have such a talent--to call out Bilbo or Willy Wonka or Aladdin, but what if you couldn't then return them to their homes--how tragic and cruel for them. Or even worse, what if you couldn't control your talent, so reading aloud Lord of the Rings might mean you'd get to talk to a hobbit or an elf, but also means you could just as easily be suddenly facing a troll or an orc or even worse, Sauron himself. Adding another achingly sharp layer,

what if whatever was called up from the book didn't simply appear but has to replace someone else in your world so that your best friend or father or mother got sent into the book world?

All of this is great fodder for a novel, opening up literally limitless characters. Unfortunately, Inkheart falls short in the execution. The story's main plot involves the struggle between the 12 year old main character (Meggie) and her father (Mo) and an evil villain (Capricorn) and his henchmen whom Mo accidentally "read" into being years ago, losing Meggie's mother into the book in turn. The villain is bent on turning Mo's talent to evil intent and will stop at nothing to get Mo in his power.

Or at least, so we're told, though to be honest, for all the many sentences about how evil Capricorn is, how sadistic his chief henchman is, by the middle of the book, their actions come across as less "evil" than bullying. Sure there are a lot of threats and abductions and hurling of people into "the crypt", but when nothing more untoward happens and when this sort of thing gets repeated several times, the villains tend to lose their bite. Perhaps this is due to the young age the book might be aimed at, though in that case the earlier descriptions of Capricorn's potential for horror should probably be downplayed as well.

The story begins when Mo learns from Dustfinger (another character from Capricorn's world accidentally brought into ours) that Capricorn has learned of his hiding place and is seeking both Mo and supposedly the only surviving copy of Capricorn's book. Mo, Meggie, and Dustfinger flee to Meggie's Aunt's house, filled with thousands of books. Without giving away too much, there is a betrayal, Mo is abducted as is Meggie eventually. Then there are escapes and then more abductions. The plot seems to circle around the same setting and even the same actions, never spiraling far from repetition, and because the villains are not particularly convincing as villains, the victories and defeats don't create much tension.

Along the way there are a few nice plot turns, such as when the author of Capricorn's book makes an appearance, but predictability returns shortly. The characterization is relatively weak. As mentioned, the villains are not all that believable as villains, and Meggie and Mo, while sympathetic, are a bit two-dimensional. They gain our sympathies more through tried and true plot (the missing mother, the abducted daughter)than through depth of feeling or character. Funke is at her strongest in the creation of her middling characters--Dustfinger, Meggie's aunt, and a young boy pulled from yet another novel in a "test run" for what is to be Mo's big work for Capricorn. These characters, neither wholly good or wholly evil, are more complex and thus add a level of complexity and unpredictability, bringing a refreshing air here and there into the story. They are not enough, however, and in plot, character and final resolution, Inkheart remains mostly predictable and static, lacking the richness of character, story, and description found in Funke's previous effort, The Thief Lord.

If the bad news is that Inkheart is somewhat disappointing in many ways, the good news is that Inkspell, the second book in the series, is in every way worlds better. So while I wouldn't recommend Inkheart as a standalone book very strongly, I would highly recommend people read it and move right on to Inkspell, whose qualities more than make up for the weaknesses of the first book. Therefore, recommended highly not for itself, but for its sequel

This is a good book but I thought it was too long. The descriptions were sometimes tedious and things didn't happen for long stretches at a time. I wonder if that has anything to do with the translation? I think the premise of the book is great and the title is wonderful, especially as it relates to Capricorn. I had problems with some of the things that went on in the book. Although I'm not advocating more violence in the book it was hard to believe these "toughs" were as mean as they were said to be if they never did away with characters once they found them. They kept on letting them go or just locking them in a cell. I thought Elinor was just too much in love with her books. (And I'm a librarian!) She thought more about them when they were destroyed than the people in trouble around her. I can only assume the wonderful illustrations were done by the author since there was no credit given. I was also hoping the reader would be taken into the world of "Inkheart." I'm not sure if I'll read the next two books in the trilogy but "Inkheart" is a very good book, if a little flawed. I enjoyed "The Thief Lord" much more. (One good thing for me was discovering Lawrence E. Wilson's reviews!! Can't wait to read some of his suggestions!)

Young adult fantasy is possibly my favorite thing to read and after reading The Thief Lord I was extremely excited about this title. It sounded so exciting and innovative that I was downright crushed when I actually read it and found it to only be mediocre at best. It began strongly enough, but as the book continued I began to look at all the pages left to go with a groan as it was very slow going and I had very little interest in the characters and their situation. The premise is not nearly as exciting as it sounds and the "real" word is burdened with too many cartoonish characters to make it feel like a departure from the fantasy world. This book is also far too long and meandering. The parts that are exciting are sandwiched between parts that are painstakingly dull and the story seems to "end" several times before the book actually does. At times, it seems the author is being paid by the word count rather than for content. The characters are flat, the villain is decidedly the Diet Coke of Evil whom we are apparently meant to believe is evil just on the narrator's word without her showing us (the most evil thing he does is burn stuff like a Count Olaf wannabe), and the narrative voice is preachy about the virtues of reading other books. When the author mentioned a Peter Pan or other classic, I only found myself wishing I were reading one of them instead of this story (especially when these references are tied to a strange feeling of arrogance as if the author was doing some sort of wink wink nudge nudge as if we were meant to include this book in that class, which it is definitely not). I made it to the end of the story, but it was very slow going and most of the drudgery was not worth the few good parts.

The premise of this book sounds very exciting - an everyday father reads aloud from books, which he loves and restores, and finds that some of the characters shift into this world, while something from this world gets shifted into the world of the story. Sadly, he loses his wife this way and is left to raise his daughter (Meggie) alone, fleeing from the "evil" Capricorn.

The reader learns all of these facts in exposition, not live action!!! A very important distinction, because this story, while having a great idea, fails to execute it in a way that evokes magic or drama.

The author plainly loves words and stories and is masterful at sensory details, so the first chapters draw you in. But her plot is annoying at best. What you get in the first chapter is the same as the rest - a lot of thinking and talking, but very little doing. Many many many pages are devoted to the characters driving from one house to another, or escaping from a village on foot through trails and bemoaning the fact that it's cold, they're tired, and there are snakes, oh dear, but hey, snakes don't come out at night, so who cares that there are snakes? This is literally explained to us by the characters. Or they spend lots of time shut up in a room, complaining about the lack of freedom.

The problem is the author forgot about story structure. She makes Meggie and her father the protatonists when the theme of the story (displaced characters) is best portrayed by the characters who were shifted out of their world, namely, Meggie's mother and Dustfinger. Dustfinger is by far the most interesting character and the only one with any kind of character arc. I guess the author thought a childrens' book has to be told from the child's point of view, but Meggie is a very passive character. She does very little and knows nothing, having been protected all her life from the truth by her father, who is also completely passive until he's forced into action when Meggie gets into trouble.

The supposedly terrifying bad guy refuses to use his real name, much like Voldemort in Harry Potter, but is unable to think up a more dasterdly name than Capricorn, his astroligical sun sign. Capricorn is the "Inkheart" of the title, but like his chosen name he isn't all that scary. He threatens a lot, but since he always wants something from the characters and needs them alive and unharmed for them to do his bidding, all he does is shut them inside a room. No child is going to be terrified by a guy who only gives people a time out!

His main henchman had the potential of being scary, but we learn his fatal flaw very soon - he's terribly supersitious. Threaten him with a poetic curse and he shudders.

The heroes have no magic beyond juggling tricks and the gift of reading fiction and making things shift from the story into this worold and vice versa. But they have no control over this gift. The characters from other stories are just human, they have no magical gifts.

All of the story takes place in this world, most of it in a deserted village that Capricorn has taken over. It's dirty and lacking any luxury. Definitely NOT the stuff of escapism!

It's as if the author had no idea what age she was trying to appeal to. She makes the book very very long, which is more appropriate for older readers, but keeps the context friendlier than the Lemony Snicket books even though Meggie is all of twelve. There is no mystery to be solved, so no anticipation is generated. Capricorn has no grand plan to take over the world, so we don't really care if he is foiled or not. All in all, there aren't a lot of reasons to spend good money on this book. Definitely buy it used is my recommendation.

This book is sooooo great. It's just fantastic! I am a high school freshman and have read many books and this is one of my favorites. For anyone who enjoyed Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings or The Thief Lord (by the same author) InkHeart is for you. This story just pulls you in from the first page. Any Fantasy Lover would utterly enjoy this book.