Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Once upon a time, I went down to my local Indie bookstore to find a birthday gift for my mom. After roaming around the place for a good hour ( I can never spend less than an hour in a bookstore), I took a pile of books up to the desk and asked the clerk's opinion on them, telling her a bit about my mom's taste in literature. Inkheart was among the books in that pile, and it was the first one that she grabbed. She looked at it in disdain. "I definitely wouldn't pick this one," she told me. "I didn't like it at all."
"Really?" I was surprised. "I've heard such good things about it."
She shrugged. "I thought that it was awful. Really awful. Of course, the book was originally written in another language. German, I think. Perhaps there was something lost in the translation."
So I put down Inkheart that day, got my mom a book by Fablehaven author Brandon Mull, instead, and Inkheart got bumped a few spaces down on my TBR list.
I should never have listened to the clerk that day, even if she HAD been a reliable source in the past, and has continued to be a reliable source even now.
It makes me wonder. What else have I missed out on based on a bad review from a trusted source?
Because I have since read all three books, and fallen in love with them. I now consider this one of my very favorite fantasy series. The child in me identifies with Meggie, the girl who lives more fully inside of her books than she does in the physical world. Mo and Dustfinger have joined the ranks of my most beloved fictional characters. This is a series that I absolutely MUST own, so that I can share it with my children in years to come.
The Good
Wonderfully imaginative. A fair mix of happiness and sorrow. Fabulous characters.
The Bad
the last book in the series requires the most suspension of belief. It feels as though rules are broken too often, as though absolutely anything goes and what's to stop the story from careening off of the page completely?
But overall I love the story, and I think it ends wonderfully.
My Rating
Read it. Read it read it read it.
I give it a 9/10
