A Book Review by Grace Heine
Title: Inkheart
Written by: Cornelia Funke
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: June 6, 2005
Paperback: 576 pages
“Dustfinger inspected his reddened fingers and felt the taut skin. “He might tell me how my story ends,” he murmured.
Meggie looked at him in astonishment. “You mean you don’t know?”
Dustfinger smiled. Meggie still didn’t particularly like his smile. It seemed to appear only to hide something else. “What’s so unusual about that, princess?” he asked quietly. “Do you know how your story ends?”
Meggie had no answer for that.” (Page 243-244)
The fire-eater first appeared in Meggie’s backyard. He stood in the rain, in the cold, in the darkness, staring at Meggie’s house. Then he came inside and spoke to her father, Mo, of strange things, strange people, and strange happenings. After the man leaves, Meggie’s life becomes a whirlwind of confusion and magic, with all the answers hiding themselves in a book Mo won’t let her read – a book titled Inkheart.
Oh, my book nerd brain can’t handle this book.
Mo Folchart can read characters out of books.
OUT OF BOOKS.
*giggles with giddiness*
I’m so jealous of the people living in this book.
Meggie Folchart’s life starts out with a bookworm aunt, late night reading, hot chocolate, candles, a loving father, and a homemade book box – and it ends with fairies, an Arabian thief, fire-eaters, a man with an ink-black heart, a horned martin, and magic.
I’m obsessed with Inkheart.
This book is every booklover’s dream-come-true.
In Inkheart all my dreams are fulfilled.
If I were stuck on a desert island and had to chose only one book to take with me – I would take Inkheart.
Or The Neverending Story.
Or The Tombs of Atuan.
Or A Wizard of Earthsea.
Or The Mysterious Benedict Society.
Or The Giver.
Okay fine – I’d take a whole library.
But Inkheart would definitely come with.
This book has:
#1. A great plot
#2. A beautiful writing style / prose
#3. A satisfying ending (although there are two more books in the series: Inkspell, and Inkdeath)
#4. A title which Spellcheck just can’t accept – and I love making Spellcheck mad.
#5. What I thought was a really good movie adaption (although in a 2016 interview, Cornelia Funke said about the movie, “To do it was a magical experience — to be on the sets and to see your characters come together around you. That was unforgettable and I would do it again. But I did not like the movie because I learnt from it that a book is a flying carpet; you give it to the movies and they hand you a napkin and say, “This is the same thing, Cornelia!” But it’s not.”)
I love that quote.
Inkheart is full of beautiful quotes and choosing one for the beginning of this post was as hard as… as… as…
Picking a quote from Inkheart.
I recommend Inkheart for every fantasy lover, or those who like books about characters from a magical world coming to our own world.
For More Information about the Book and Author Click: HERE
Age Range: 9 and up.
Cautions – *Contains Slight spoilers*
Violence: Elinor shakes Meggie. Several characters think about strangling someone else. Basta is constantly threatening people with his knife. Dustfinger mentally torments Basta with words and Basta’s own knife. Metaphor about a cat eating a young bird. Elinor says she’ll shoot people. People are pricked with thorns. A person is shot and bleeds a lot. Maggie is pulled around by her hair. Capricorn’s men take pot-shots at cats. Person’s arm cut by a sword. People are shot at. Basta scarred Dustfinger’s face with his knife. Elinor finds a dead roster hinging in her library. Farid burns his lips. A cat scratches Flatnose on the face. A boy is cut in the head. Fanolio threatens (jokingly) to tie his grandson’s nose into knots. Capricorn’s bad deeds, killing people, burning houses, stabbing people, a dead cat, getting bit by an animal, making Gwin (a horned-martin) into a coat, beating dogs, throwing rocks at a dog, beating children, dog bites, a bloody butcher’s shop display window, a little boy grazes his knee, and a woman dying for no particular reason are mentioned.
Sensuality: A man falls in love with another man’s wife. A man lifts women’s skirts. It is mentioned that Basta has “a way with women.” Dustfinger asks Farid if he likes Meggie.
Profanity: Bloody, d–n, h–, b—–d, a person is called a “witch” and “idiot,” God’s name is taken in vain. Capricorn’s village is referred to as “The Village of the D–ned.”
Other(drugs/alcohol): People drink. People smoke cigarettes. Prisoners are locked in crypt. Dustfinger thinks a lot about death. Dustfinger thinks about sleeping inside a coffin. People spy. Meggie tries to run away. People verbally fight. Book burnings. Capricorn’s headquarters is set up in a church where he has a statue of himself and he has desecrated an angel statue with devil horns. People are forced to bow to Capricorn’s statue. Basta is superstitious about everything. People insult others. People lie. Basta is extremely superstitious and every type of superstation you can imagine is mentioned. People steel. Arson. The devil, people inventing the devil, wolves who kidnap children at night, murder, evil eye, poison, pneumonia, witch, demons, prison, selling soul to the devil, earthquake, poisoning cats, cannibals, and a six armed monster are mentioned.
Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Cleanness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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