INKSPELL by Cornelia Funke

Inkspell is Cornelia Funke's sequel to her very popular children's fantasy book Inkheart. I can't really say much about Inkspell without ruining Inkheart, but I'll do my best anyways. These books play on frame stories. Frame stories is a story within a story (Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum; the Oz movie is also a good example). The story we read and the story the characters in Funke's books read become tangled. Characters may leave the world they're from and enter a 'fictional' one instead. The line between the real world and the imagined one becomes even hazier in Inkspell when Meggie, along with her family and friends, enter the 'Inkworld.' I loved the first book, and Inkspell was even better. Most of the characters love to read. I felt like we had a lot in common. This story was so much darker than the first. Meggie, our hero, doesn't always make good choices. There's death, near death, and sacrifice, which I can't get enough of. There's more romance between all the characters: Meggie and Farid, Mo and Resa, Dustfinger and..? Inkspell felt more magical than Inkheart because the majority of the story it takes place in 'Inkworld.' These two books are some of my favorite fantasy stories. Definitely great for all ages. Just read it. I don't know what else to say. It's pure pleasure, a great adventure story (plot twists included) with lots of enjoyable, perfectly imperfect characters. Please don’t deny yourself this enchantment.

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