Inkheart

[lightreads]

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Young adult, about a twelve-year-old girl and her father who can read people and objects out of books into reality, and the other way around.

Puzzled – I should have loved this, and just . . . didn’t. I mean, it’s all about metafiction and rewriting narratives, and you’d think I’d be all over this like white on rice, yeah? And yet, it never even twigged beyond vague esthetic interest; I certainly never gave a damn about a single character’s existence.

Best guess? I think this book is exactly wrong, style-wise for me. I just do not get a story all about loving books so much you just fall into them and they come alive, when the story itself works so hard for distance with omniscient POV, and choppy chapters, and distracting epigraphs everywhere. How does that seem like a good set of choices?

View all my reviews >>

Comments

[significantowl.livejournal.com]

heh, when I saw you were reading this I thought, "maybe Light will like it, and I'll give it another go." Whenever I see a kid dragging it around, my thought is "more power to you", which in my position is probably not the thought I'm supposed to be having :)

[ecaterin.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm glad to hear another adult give this book a 'meh.' I had high hopes and stole my oldest son's copy away once he fell asleep (this was 3-4 years ago or so, when he actually SLEPT). I read the first section and was juuuust getting into it...when the magic stuff started up. Now, I'm a big time fantasy fan. I don't usually OBJECT when the magic starts up! But I really liked the story when it was about the 12yo and her book binding father and her obsession, and her enjoyment of candles and reading by candle light. The whole rest of the book felt forced. 'I must write About Magic and About Writing!' and so she did. But the only part of the story that felt genuine and subtle and layered was the initial description of a girl and her father and their love of books. I wonder if *that* is the book Funke actually wanted to write?

The other possibility I've kept in mind is that a whole lot was lost in translation? I don't know anyone fluent in German and English who's read both versions, so it remains a theory :)

[readerjane]

I couldn't get into this one either. Tried to read it when Daughter checked it out a couple of years ago. IIRC, she liked it (she would have been about fourteen at the time) and urged me to read it. Mostly I remember being frustrated because I didn't love it.