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Funke is on a serious roll Sep 26, 2008 (56 of 63 found this helpful)
I love the Inkheart trilogy, I seriously can't get enough of it! I must admit at first I was somewhat reluctant to read the conclusion to the trilogy, afraid it might be a letdown as most serie-enders are becoming, but it was as excellent as the first and second books (not to mention the breathtaking cover). Its excellently paced, descriptive, suspenseful, and keeps you flipping the pages, just salivating for the finish. I admit it started a little slow in my opinion, but it definitely picked up and kept my interest; I just couldn't put it down. I don't really want to give anything away, except that this is an amazing book, and you cannot miss out on it.
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I wanted to love it....I tried to love it.... But I just coudn't get there Oct 7, 2008 (24 of 38 found this helpful)
Oh, how excited I was to get my hands on Inkdeath, I am a huge fan of Inkheart and Inkspell and after waiting so long for the finale I was ravenous to see how and where the end would come. Just looking at the cover thrilled me. it's beautiful, one of the best I've seen. I traded sleep for just a few more pages and couldn't wait to pick it up again in my free time. I so wanted to write a glowing, fantastic review, I wanted to say that this was one of the best series conclusions ever and that it cemented my love of the trilogy, but I can't do either of things things. When I closed the book after the last page I couldn't help feeling unsettled at the way some of my favorite characters where treated and at a loss as to why Cornelia Funke would choose that direction, Though I was overll very pleased with the book.
The trouble with getting to attached to a story is that, when it ends as all stories must there is at least a chance that the the conclusion will rain all over your parade. which is what happend to me. Except that the rain was more more of a torential down pour, with huricane force winds, and lightning. Just so we'er clear it's not that I'm disappointed with the ending of Inkheart. It works really well, So why the let down. Well I'm writing this the night after finishing the book, so I havn't had a chance to process everything yet. But I can't help feeling that Funke through some major characters under the bus and just kind of left them there. My problem started with the fact that Meggie plays a greatly dominished role in the third installment. I was suprised to find her so much changed, she moved almost to the side of the story, and just doesn't do that much. I found myself often frustrated with her throughout the book and ultimately found her to be a much weaker and almost boring character then she was in the previous two novels. I also found myself upset by the way Darius was treated. I mean I knew his main purpose would evenually be to read Elinor over to the ink world, but what I hadn't expected was that after he'd done it, that he would dissapear into a sea of incidental characters. It just seems a poor way to repay his loyalty. Next, I can except what happend with Meggie and Farid, it doesn't thrill me, but I'm ok with it. what bothers me is this. Farid was a flawed but basicly good character, sure he made some pretty large mistakes in Inkdeath and was annoying in that special teenage boy way, But I don't think he deserved the way things went. Not only does Farid not get the girl, but he gets replaced by a completely new character that was just too perfect, and not only is this the guy that replaces Farid but there's a scene between Meggie and Fenoglio, that pretty much tells you that she will eventually end up marrying Mr pefect. I'm not sure way but it made me sad for Muggie to miss out on the suprise of finding that out in the course of time, sort of like the worlds biggest spoiler. After all the time we've spent with him and all the trouble Cornelia went to in previous books to paint him into the center of the story. In the end Farid literally just walks away leaving Dustfinger behind. And I said WHAT?
Inkdeath has pacing issues, there are places where it just crawls, places where the detail overwhelms the story, and more then a few times where information is repeated over and over again. I don't mean to be all gloom and doom, there where quite a few times that the magic was there and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough Inkdeath has a lot of twists that you wouldn't expect and several times I held my breath, both in awe of the authors creativity and fear for what would become of these beloved characters. So no disappointed is not the the right word. Cofused maybe and more then a little sad beause when Inkdeath was over, I found that I wasn't sad that it was done and that is not a good feeling when you started out loving a series but now it's just not the same.
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Boring and an unsatisfying read Nov 15, 2008 (16 of 20 found this helpful)
I had great hopes for this book. When I heard that it had been released I could barely contain my excitement at finally being able to read this book. Now after reading it, I have to say that I was extremely disappointed and dissatisfied.
Inkheart is an amazing story; I loved how it was about the power of the written word and books in general. But in Inkdeath, all of the magic is gone! Meggie Folchart was the protagonist of Inkheart and so the natural assumption is that she is the main character of the whole series. Clearly, she's not or I wouldn't be mentioning it. In Inkspell other characters start to have larger roles, certain things start to revolve around them, and more chapters are told from their perspectives. Yet Meggie is still an integral part of the story. However, in Inkdeath, the heroes are other people, like Mo and Resa. Meggie does absolutely NOTHING!!!! The whole book is 660 pages of boring NOTHING! It was a really boring story and I really disliked how all (& I mean all) of the characters were portrayed. For one, Mo is entirely different. He actually doesn't want to leave the Inkworld and he acts irrationally all of the time. Farid becomes a jerk. Resa is annoying. Maggie is a weak, useless little side character who sits weepy on the sidelines. And other characters become annoying fools too.
Cornelia Funke takes too long to make a point in this story. The ending is predictable - most of the evil is vanquished! Yay! - but the story still doesn't end on a satisfying note. As I said before, it was boring. I can't get over it. I kept waiting for Meggie to do something, for example, write something herself independent of Fenoglio to affect change and save everybody. In the last eighth of the book I finally began to give up hope and it came crashing down on me that this book was disappointing. I mutinously wished that Cornelia had never written a sequel to the wonderful Inkheart, because even though I loved Inkspell, as a cliff-hanger, it was nothing without an awesome final book and Inkdeath was not it.
So, though I fervently recommend Inkheart to any bibliophile, Inkdeath gets 2 stars from me because it lacks anything really interesting. You needn't bother reading it. If you've read Inkheart and Inkspell already, don't go on to Inkdeath so that you can remember those books and those characters with fondness.
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Good book over all, not as good as the first two Oct 19, 2008 (10 of 11 found this helpful)
I thought Inkdeath was a good book, but it was not nearly as good as the first two. For some reason, Funke chose to give Meggie a much less important role, taking most of the character's depth away as well. I think this was one of the only things that took away from the book. The beginning was also really boring, and the characters were so untrue to their roles in past books that they hardly seemed like the same characters at all. Other than that, I think the book was extremely well written, with many new engaging characters to enjoy. The ending was satisfactory, and the plot well thought out and exciting. I just wish Funke hadn't changed the characters themselves to fit the plot.
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Excellent book!! Oct 16, 2008 (5 of 9 found this helpful)
By far the better of the 3 books. Definitely didn't exspect it to end the way it did. But figured it had to end with a twist....lol If you enjoy the 1st 2 then you will definitely enjoy this one as well. But if you haven't read them in order don't bother because you are sure to be lost.....lol