I wanted to love Inkheart. Oh, how I wanted to love this book. Great quotes, an even better concept, and… an unfortunately poor execution. When I closed this book, I sighed in relief. Aside from one character (who made it worth reading), I really struggled to like any character in the story. Let’s dive into this review.
One cruel night, Meggie’s father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART– and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever. This is INKHEART–a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud.
World, Characters, and Plot
My biggest struggle with Inkheart was the main character, Meggie. I understand that, because she is a little girl, the author wanted those stubborn traits to play in the story. Unfortunately, this “stubbornness” became extremely frustrating. No matter what situation she was in, Meggie never made one good decision. She repeatedly ignored the advice of everyone around her, only to be caught again and again. I finished the book disliking her, which is an unfortunate feeling to have about the protagonist of a story.
There is only one character that I genuinely care about in this book… Yes, just one. Against my better judgment, I truly loved the scenes with Dustfinger (regardless of his questionable name). He was the perfect “morally gray, sympathetic” character. I found myself skipping to his scenes because I enjoyed them so much.
The plot of Inkheart itself is on and off. As a whole, it was very slow and took me several times picking it up and putting it down until I finally finished it. There were some fast-paced moments, and a lot of dragging ones that took me ages to slog through. The concept of characters escaping their story is so good. I hated to see that concept played out in such a slow way.
PAGED IN: There is no profanity or innuendo in this book, although there is some violence that may be too much for young readers.
Conclusion
Final thoughts… meh. I hate to say that, but that one word genuinely reflects how I feel about Inkheart. I loved the concepts of this book, and I will keep it because I absolutely loved Dustfinger. There are more books in the series, so I will hold on to the hope that perhaps Meggie (and the plot) will grow on me as the story continues.
You can buy Inkheart here.
Marie