Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

Inkspell (Inkheart Trilogy, #2)

by Cornelia Funke

Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of the extraordinary events of Inkheart, and the story whose characters strode out of the pages and changed her life forever. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater created from words, the need to return to the original tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with the magical ability to read him back into the story, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges back into the Inkworld of his past. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and soon they find their way inside the book too. There they meet Fenoglio, the author of the original Inkheart, now living within his own story - but discover it much changed, and threatening to evolve in sinister ways he could never have imagined. But can Meggie, Farid and Fenoglio 'write' the wrongs of a charmed world about to be fought over by rival princes and rebels?

Reviewed by Amber (The Literary Phoenix) on

4 of 5 stars

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Cornelia Funke's Inkworld trilogy inspires me. There is something to the simplicity of the idea that things can be read out of (or into) a book that tugs at my imagination. Unfortunately, Funke's writing style has always been difficult for me. She writes very slowly, and I have a hard time sitting in one place for too long. After struggling through both Inkheart and Reckless, I decided to try the audiobook version of Inkspell.

If you're like me and you want to LOVE Cornelia Funke, but struggle with her writing and pacing, an audiobook is the way to go. This one is read by Brendan Fraser (who played Mo in the Inkheart film) and he does a pretty good dramatic reading. Like Silvertongue, he draws you in, and I think that made it a lot easier for me to enjoy this book.

The Inkworld is pretty much what you'd expect in a cookie-cutter fantasy world. There are forests and kings and faeries and a little bit of magic. I love worlds like these, and it's built well, but it's filled with tropes. I'm okay with that - this is my genre, these are the worlds I like to disappear into the most.

As for the characters, there is growth and change, but it is VERY. VERY. SLOW. Farid's character begins to come more into his own, though I am still generally unimpressed with the ways he handles anger and sadness (although they make him a more faceted characters, so I suppose that good). There is a sweet little relationship blossoming between Farid and Meggie, which I enjoyed watching. Meggie herself feels far older than her age (always has), so that is still something to get past. Silvertongue himself is a frustrating character for me in Inkspell, because I really like him, but he's incapacitated most the story and we see very little from him. His POV, as well as Dustfinger's, are so painfully slow that even though I like the characters, I wanted to get out of their heads so the story would move along a bit.

And that's a running theme here - the world is so beautiful and the characters so interesting, but the writing just drags on and on and on. Even with the good narration, I found myself impatient at times. If I had been reading this in hardcopy, I honestly might have DNF'd it for the pacing, which would be sad, because I really liked the ending and will be listening to (definitely not reading) Inkdeath.

Actual review is a generous 3.5 stars, and it all comes from the worldbuilding and character potential.

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  • 13 October, 2018: Reviewed