Imagine Scarlett O’ Hara, Sherlock Holmes, or Harry Potter being pulled out of their worlds and into ours. What book lover doesn’t dream about such a thing? That, in short, is the premise of Inkheart by Cornelia Funke: A few lucky people can read characters and objects out of books. But this ability, it turns out, isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be.
The story goes like this: One night, when Meggie is a baby, her father reads aloud from a book. Poof! One of its characters, a man called Capricorn, appears in the flesh. This man Capricorn turns out to be very nice. Nah, just kidding. He’s like totally evil, a notorious villain who stops at nothing to get what he wants. From there, Meggie’s world is turned upside down, her life is thrown into utter chaos, it’s one snafu after another. You get the picture. To defeat Capricorn and his network of baddies, Meggie must summon the courage to “master the magic.”
So why did I love it? Well, it’s got everything I love–magic, adventure, fairies, a gripping story, cool character names (Capricorn, Dustfinger, Silvertongue).
As if the cool character names and catchy premise isn’t enough, the whole time I was reading, it felt like I was watching an amazing movie. In fact, in 2008, it was made into a movie starring Brenden Fraser. (I’ve yet to see it.) There’s even a novelization of the movie. Wait. Huh? It’s already a novel, you make a movie, then novelize the movie? I can’t even. But I digress.
I was in a mad rush to get to the end, and it was well worth the madness. The ending blew me away. It’s probably one of the best climaxes ever.
This book reminded me of why I love to read in the first place. If you can’t decide what to read next, access your inner child and give Inkheart a go.
