Monday, May 15, 2006

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.

1 Comments:

At 8:47 AM, Blogger Carrie said...

I thought this book was fun! I posted about it on my blog so I feel a little silly reposting here. Suffice it to say - I got very wrapped up in the story and didn't even try to "think ahead." Reading this book was like eating a delicious ice cream sundae. You just wanted to.

I'm curious about the sequel, "Inkspell" but I have this inkling of a feeling that it'll be something of a let down after the first book. So I'm staving off for the time being. Anneke, have you read, "Inkspell" and, if so, what did you think?

At any rate - thanks for recommending this one! I had a blast with it!

 

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