Inkheart

I actually read this book more than a month ago, when Anneke first suggested it, and before it became our pick of the month, because it sounded interesting and I wanted to read it regardless. It's a charming book in the fantasy/fairy tale line, written for children, I suppose.

The hardest part for me to handle was to picture the fantasy taking place in the everyday, real world: the notion of cars, telephones, guns, school, and police juxtaposed with people who acted so obviously medieval was a bit jarring and never quite meshed in my mind. The villain was quite dastardly, although the characters had an annoying habit of frequently doing very stupid and predictably unfortunate things, which I could have warned them against! I suppose because it was children's fiction, they ended up doing the simple, obvious things. The plot moved along quickly, though, and the premise involved a fascinating conceit about stories coming alive by reading them aloud.

I didn't quite know what to make of the hinted romance between Resa and Dustfinger. I did like the development of Elanor's character. I always like it when you end up liking someone who was not at all likable at the beginning of the book.

The ending rather left me hanging - it felt too patched-up and abrupt, and didn't properly resolve the drama of the preceding hundred-odd pages. No doubt the author was setting up for a sequel.

Certainly not a timeless classic, but a very readable and enjoyable story.