Inkheart ~ Cornerlia Funke

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke is a middle-grade fantasy. Meggie loves stories, but her father hasn’t read to her since her mother disappeared. One day, a scarred stranger appears at their doorstep bringing warnings of a man named Capricorn. Meggie’s father, Mo, is forced to reveal that when he reads aloud, the world comes alive and characters step from the pages of the books. 

I read Inkheart a long time ago, most likely when the film came out. I remember really enjoying the book but not a huge amount else, other than the main premise. A couple of years ago, I found out that they had updated the covers and were now very pretty, but it’s taken me a while to feel that a five hundred plus page book wasn’t too intimidating to read. I also feel like it was a change of pace from what else I’ve been reading, I’ve been needing something with a happy ending.

There’s so much childhood joy and wonder in this book. What bookworm child hasn’t dreamed of becoming friends with their favourite character? Cornelia Funke’s writing immediately takes you back to that feeling and builds on it. Unfortunately, it does kinda prove that it would be a bad idea to read characters out of books, but the magic and wonder it brings with that message kept me glued to the page. 

Meggie is a character I really relate to, feeling more comfortable with books than people and yet not to the extent that Elinor is. Unlike many children’s books where the protagonist loves books, there wasn’t any bullying for being a bookworm and that was refreshing. Books and bookworms are valued and even as an adult it was nice to be validated like that. 

I had a lot of fun reading this book and I plan to read the rest of the trilogy. Overall, I gave it four and a half stars.

C🌙