Inkheart (Inkworld, book 1)
Inkspell (Inkworld, book 2)
Inkdeath (Inkworld, book 3)
By: Cornelia Funke
My Rating: Three out of five stars
Best for: 12 and up

For lovers of stories–but still kind of meh

The Inkworld trilogy is fantasy series by Cornelia Funke Book one, Inkheart, was first published in German in 2003 and in English in 2005. Book two is Inkspell, book three is Inkdeath.

Inkworld tells the story of a girl named Meggie whose life is changed when she discovers that her father, Mo, has the magical ability to snatch book characters from their story and bring them into ours. Very cool–except that the power also comes with a curse: when a book character comes to our world, someone from ours is sent to theirs!

It’s a magical story (in all the ways), but I struggled with the pacing. It felt like to took way to long for things to happen, and the reveals were kind of anticlimactic. If the books were shorter, I think it would have helped. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t originally written in English? Still, the world is rich and imaginative, however, and there are some fun characters and good-old plot twists that kept things just interesting enough to keep me going.

The Inkworld trilogy will appeal to all you fantasy adventure lovers out there, especially all you book nerds who love books about books! I picture younger readers to enjoy it more than I did–I strongly suspect some of the magic was wasted on my grownup-ness. Overall, I enjoyed Inkworld, and would recommend it to you and your kids. There are no content concerns. Best for 12 and up.

Happy reading!