the Inkworld series: book two
genre: children’s. fantasy.
The Review
Okay, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book so hold on to your hat here. This is such a classic series that I had a really hard time choosing a rating. In the beginning, I was all about this, but it just kind of went downhill for me.
Characters:
In comparison to the first book, Inkheart, I felt like Inkspell really let me down in the area of characters. Which was honestly a surprise to me. I really enjoyed all the characters in Inkheart, yet, for some reason, the same characters felt flat and uninteresting in the sequel. It seemed like Funke writes in limited third person with Meggie as the main character (at least that’s how Inkheart was). But in this book, Funke hopped around all over the place and I had a hard time keeping up with whose head I was supposed to be in. And, if Meggie is still supposed to be the main character, she didn’t have a lot of chapters.
One area where Funke succeeds is the covering the unlikeable, but natural emotions of her characters. Meggie and Farid acknowledge their unfounded jealousies. Fenoglio is a whole mess in and of itself (he’s the main villain of this story in my opinion, I hate him). And even Roxanne, in the end, can lash out when she’s in pain. However, the problem is that the positive aspects of her characters can get lost because of her emphasis on the negative. This really made it hard for me to attach to and root for the characters.
Set-Up:
This is the main problem with this book. It is way too long. And I don’t mean page length — I have no issue reading a long book. But man this book felt like it took FOREVER. There were a lot of parts in here that weren’t really important and they took up pages and pages of this story. I understand wanting to flesh out your characters and fill in gaps to give your story substance, but there were so many parts that dragged on for no reason. I loved Elinor in the first book, but her chapters, specifically, were completely unnecessary. She and Darius had no influence on the story at all. If Funke wanted to still have her in the story, she could have stuck with just one chapter and been done with it.
The middle chunk of this book is really where I got stuck. It felt as though nothing was happening and the story was just bouncing around between characters. Chapters that were 3 – 10 pages in length and just adding a ridiculous amount of background or scenic descriptions.
Additional notes: This isn’t a bad book. The Inkworld series is rich and creative, but I find it hard to think of this as a kid’s book. In comparison to Inkheart it feels like it’s on a whole different level. It’s violent, it’s wordy, and it’s long. If anything this is a young adult fantasy story about a 13/14 year old and her experiences in a cruel fantasy realm.
Spoilers below: highlight text block to view
My biggest complaint is that my favorite character dies in the end. Honestly, Dustfinger was the only reason I kept struggling to get through this. Why did this have to happen haha.
approx read time: 23 days (I told you this took me forever. yeesh.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Screems™
Previous in the series: Inkheart
Ownership: I was going to keep this series, but I’m pretty sure it will be donated now 😂