Saturday 3 January 2009

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke


I was lucky enough to receive this book off my Christmas wish list and I have to say it has definitely kept me glued to it in the last couple of days. The book is aimed at YA and has 543 pages. By reading this, I have achieved a tick on my first challenge to read 12 YA books this year. Have a look at the challenge below.
The book set in Italy, is based around two main characters - Mo, a rather talented bookbinder and his daughter Meggie. Mo has an unusual talent which allows him to read characters out of books. Unfortunately when he reads a character out, he will often read something or someone from his world into the story. One of the characters Mo reads out of the book, happens to be a rather nasty creature. He has searched for years to find Mo, in order for him to read him lots of things out of other books. His pursuit of Mo and Meggie is relentless and causes a lot of other innocent people to become involved and have aspects of their lives ruined.
I don't want to give to much away, as this book is full of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I found the characters to be well written. I loved Elinor and her obsession with books and could see elements of myself in her. I could also just imagine Brendan Frasier as Mo, he reminds me of his character in the Mummy films a bit.
The extracts from other books included at the beginning of each chapter were very well chosen as they gave indications as to what to expect in the chapters. This alone must have taken some time to find. These extracts have given me an extra list of books I would now like to read.
I have not seen the film yet and I a little concerned by the trailer to see that it definitely strays away from the book. The book does not include extracts from the Wizard of Oz and I really hate it when a book is not represented accurately in the film version.
I have read a bit about Cornelia Funke and I was amazed to find that her books only started to sell internationally when one of her German fans wrote to an English publishers, asking why she had never been published anywhere outside of Germany as she was such a fantastic writer. If this publisher had not acted upon this letter, we would really have missed out.
There is a fantastic website about Cornelia which is run by her sister. I actually think it is better than the official one. The address is http://www.corneliafunke.de/en/. Do have a look, it has lots of fabulous pictures.
I would highly recommend this book and will probably class it as one of my best reads of 2009 even when the year has just begun! Can't wait to get my hands on Inkspell and Inkdeath!
Here is a link to other blogs which have reviewed this book.the bookworm: Inkheart#links

7 comments:

  1. I keep picking this book up but haven't actually read it yet - thanks for reminding me that I need to finally do it soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have this book but haven't read it - am going to have to now

    Part of me wishes I hadn't popped over here now as I am sure I am going to have to join this challenge

    Plus you have such great info on books on the site

    I will be visiting often
    I have put a link on my blog

    ReplyDelete
  3. great review! I'll be linking your review to mine, when I get mine up. I finished Inkheart today :) I liked Elinor too, I totally can relate to her obsession with books.
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have my copy just in. I can't wait to get on it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I need to read this before the movie comes out...I keep meaning to and then a new book arrives!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have you started the sequel yet? I just got more and more addicted as the series continued! Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete

Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.