Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Title: Inkheart
Author: Cornelia Funke
Series: Inkheart #1 
Source: Borrowed
Format: Paperback 
Genre: Speculative Fiction - Fantasy

Synopsis (from B&N):

One cruel night, Meggie's father, Mo, reads aloud from INKHEART, and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of fiction, landing instead in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie's in the middle of the kind of adventure she thought only took place in fairy tales. Somehow she must master the magic that has conjured up this nightmare. Can she change the course of the story that has changed her life forever?

I like reading books that were beautifully written and without any doubt, Inkheart was one of them. The prose in this book was almost poetic and there were tonnes of beautiful quotes in it. While I enjoyed embarking this journey with its main characters, Mo and Maggie, there were some other things that prevented me from giving this book a higher rating.

Mortimer “Mo” Folchart was a bookbinder who had a huge interest in books. Despite of his affection towards books and reading, he never dared to read out loud to his daughter, Maggie, due to his unique ability to read the characters in and out of the book he was reading.  He hid this fact from Maggie because many years ago, he accidentally read his own wife, Theresa, into the book – Inkheart – while some other characters, including a villain named Capricorn and Dustfinger, the fire-eater, were brought to our world. He made up other stories about the disappearance of his wife to conceal the truth from Maggie and Theresa’s aunt, Elinor.

However, when Dustfinger suddenly appeared at his doorstep one night, bearing the news that Capricorn and his men were looking for him and Inkheart, he was forced to fly from his home to Elinor’s. Things got more complicated after that because Dustfinger betrayed Mo and told his whereabouts to Capricorn. Soon, Mo, Maggie and Elinor were captured and kept at Capricorn’s Village and here began their enthralling adventure in attempting to free themselves from the vicious villain while at the same time, discovering one surprises after another. What did Capricorn planning to do with Inkheart? And why did he need Mo help to accomplish his mission?

The idea behind Inkheart was interesting. I believe that the world and the characters in the book were beautifully invented by Funke and they kept me interested to read it till its very last page. However, I found it a little disappointing that the story‘s pace was extremely slow. It took about 100+ pages for something interesting to really happen and when it did happen, the excitement was quickly died down. Besides that, I also felt like the story moved in a loop where the same thing kept on happening over and over again.  I don’t know if this was due to the fact that the book was translated from another language or maybe because this book was originally aimed for young children. Nonetheless, the story was good and if you don’t mind reading something slow and descriptive, this could be something you’d enjoy.

Favourite Quote: Some books should be tasted Some devoured, But only a few Should be chewed and digested thoroughly

A fun, imaginative story with vivid and interesting characters. With its poetic, descriptive prose, this book was beautifully crafted to entertain the minds out there who love adventures with tinge of fantasy in it. Despite being a bit slow for my liking, I'll still read the subsequent chapter to see what happen next to the character I loved.