Inkheart, the first book in the Inkworld trilogy. It is a beautifully written masterpiece. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, it’s really good. 

The story is about a 12 year old girl, Meggie Folchart, a book lover, and her father, Mortimer “Mo” Folchart, a bookbinder. They both have the magical ability to read characters out of any form of literature into their world, just by reading the words aloud; Meggie, however, is unaware of this ability in the beginning. One rainy night, a night that changes both Meggie and Mo’s lives, for better and for worse, a man named Dustfinger (weird name I know, but I swear he’s a great character) comes to warn Mo about Capricorn. He is an evil, dangerous, and heartless villain that Mo accidentally brought into their world many years ago from the book, Inkheart, coming to take said book from him. After learning this, Meggie and Mo travel to Italy and move into Elinor Loredan’s home, a relative and eccentric book collector, hoping to avoid Capricorn and keep the book safe. Unfortunately, those hopes are soon shattered and Meggie finds herself in the midst of an adventure that she believed only happened in fairytales. 

Okay, now that the summarization part of the book review is done, I can finally ramble about why I like the book so much. First, I love how the relationships between characters are written. For example, Meggie and Mo. Their father-daughter relationship was super refreshing and nice to read considering that I don’t see this type of relationship written about often. The characters are all lovable (except maybe for Capricorn and his goons, they’re pure evil, but if you’re into that, that’s cool, I don’t judge), interesting, and unique in their own way. My favorite character in this book was definitely Dustfinger. He plays a very significant role throughout the story, is very charming, and is definitely what you would call a “morally-gray” character, which I’m a total sucker for. As you read the story, you start to notice all the pieces being strung together, how all the characters and their actions are connected in some way or another. I love when that happens, it really just shows how well thought-out and good the story is.

Although- which I believe is the case for most stories, especially fantasy ones- the start was a bit slow. However, that was essential in order to build up to the fun stuff, which, trust me, is totally worth it. That’s really the only, “complaint,” that I have about the book. I’ve always been an impatient person, so it’s really not the book’s fault. Look, I just really love this book, along with the second and third one, and I highly recommend it if you’re into fantasy books or are just looking for something interesting to read. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like it, it may not be your cup of tea, but it certainly is mine. ?