Reckless (The Mirrorworld)

by Cornelia Funke

Oliver Latsch (Translator) and Lionel Wigram

For the first time in his life, Jacob Reckless is afraid. For years he's stolen across to another world. A dark enchanted place he's loved for its treasure, secrets and dangers. Until now. Will, his younger brother, has followed him with terrible consequences: The boy will turn to beast; the girl he loves will break her heart and chaos will rule forever, unless Jacob can spin a fairytale to save them ...An extraordinary fantasy thriller from the bestselling author of the Ink trilogy, published worldwide on 14th September 2010. This is a special, signed edition of the book and will be available for a limited time only.

• ISBN10: 031605609X
• ISBN13: 9780316056090
• Publish Date: 14 September 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 394
• Language: English

Reviews

A dark and deadly world exists beyond the mirror...

In Reckless, the Mirrorworld and the storytelling is rich, intricate, intriguing and magical. There's creativity in terms of writing, plot, magical objects and magical creatures, but the world is grounded by logic and rules. There are similarities between the Inkworld and the Mirrorworld, however, while the Inkworld is familiar and warm, the Mirrorworld is dangerous and deadly. The writing style and the world in Reckless resembles one of those dark and twisted traditional fairytales and it's fitting that there are fairytale references in Reckless.

Reckless has interesting, complex, flawed, morally grey and unlikable, but oh so likable characters.

The main character, Jacob Reckless, has made a name for himself as a treasure hunter in the Mirrorworld. Jacob holds his thoughts and emotions close to his chest and Reckless only scratches the surface of his character. I'm hoping that more of Jacob's personality will be revealed in future Mirrorworld books because the brief appearances of fear, vulnerability and insecurity are so impactful. 

Jacob has been living life well in the Mirrorworld, until the moment that his younger brother, Will, decides to follow him through the mirror. From then on, it's one near-death experience after another because Will's skin is slowly turning to stone and not just any stone. He is the legendary Jade Goyl. Will's transition externally and internally from human to potential Goyl is extremely interesting. Another interesting result from the plot is the exploration of the sibling relationship between Jacob and Will. Jacob is trying to stop Will from becoming a Goyl out of responsibility and love, but their relationship is so complex. There's love, trust and bonds that cannot be broken, but there's also doubt, suspicion, rejection and fear. 

My favourite character is Fox, the shapeshifter and Jacob's voice of reason in the Mirrorworld (for the most part). Fox is such a likable character. I also found a lot of complexity in Jacob's and Fox's relationship. Fox is Jacob's loyal ally and although he sometimes takes her loyalty and friendship for granted, the foundation of their relationship is strong. They love, trust and protect each other and would go to the ends of the earth to ensure each other's safety. I'm cheering their relationship on and if their relationship ends up being more than platonic (and it does seem to be more than platonic on Fox's side), I will definitely not complain. 

The climax is epic and while the ending is satisfying to some extent, there is a cliffhanger that introduces a whole new set of problems for Jacob. 

A dark and deadly world exists beyond the mirror and after reading Reckless, I'm excited to experience more of it.  

"But Jacob loved the night. He felt it on his skin like a promise. Like a cloak woven from freedom and danger."

[nannah]

When I first began this book, I didn't know what to think. Sometimes, I thought Funke tried to hard for beautiful, poetic writing and that everything was rushed and I was going to write a whole lot about the flaws of this book.

And then I decided I didn't want to nitpick it anymore. Funke has a brilliant and beautiful imagination, and she poured all of it into this novel. The concept of the stone people was gorgeous to say the least, and her talent of bringing characters' emotions to the readers is her strongest point here.

While some parts of the story did seem a bit random (oh look, I suddenly have this thing that turns me invisible, how convenient!), overall, I really, really liked this book. The atmosphere was engaging, the characters were well-painted and sympathetic, and the plethora of images and imaginative concepts kept me captivated.

I only wish that there was a prequel to this story. Jacobs previous adventures were mentioned almost every other page, and I would have really liked to experience those as well.

But anyways, a very imaginative and evoking read.