The Inkheart Trilogy

2003, 2005, 2007 (published, respectively) ; Cornelia Funke

The Inkheart Trilogy is a series of three fantasy novels written by German author Cornelia Funke, comprising Inkheart, Inkspell, and Inkdeath. The novels chronicle the adventures of teen Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud. Mostly set in Northern Italy and the parallel world of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.

Originally released in German-speaking Europe, the English translation of the third novel, entitled Inkdeath, by Anthea Bell was released in October 2008. In 2004 Funke sold the film rights to all three novels to New Line Cinema; thus far, the first novel has been made into a motion picture, which was released in December 2008.

Reading Inkheart, I liked the story, wanting to keep reading, but I struggled with Miss Funke’s writing style: misplaced words (or words out of typical order, but not meant for effect), choppy sentences, strange descriptions. After finishing the first novel, I did not feel compelled to search out the second installment, although, about a year later I came across a copy of it. I needed something to read at the time, so I turned its cover. Five hundred pages later, I cursed myself because I knew I struggled with her writing style before and this novel was not different; also, the storyline mainly dealt with the most interesting character of the entire series, Dustfinger, and it still took me nearly five months to read two-thirds of the novel's pages; however, the last two hundred or so pages (probably under two hundred actually) magically whisked all my frustration away—they were fantastic! So fantastic indeed, I sought the final novel at the library the next day. And, as they say, the rest was history: Inkdeath was simply utterly amazing, so worth reading the first two novels to get to read it, and it tied all three novels together with its major themes and storylines. Also, it transformed the story’s least interesting character, although he could read characters from novels—Mo, into a much more interesting character, rivaling even Dustfinger, a man who spoke and played with fire on his fingertips.

One final note: I read the first two novels completely unaware they were translated from German; this important tidbit explains the issues I had with their prose and probably would have allowed me to be slightly less critical of the first two novels if I knew this information in advance.