Inkheart

So...something light and unemotional to finish an emotional day.

I always pick up a new book before heading to Ghana, because I always have time to read on the planes, and at night when there is NOTHING to watch on TV! This time I picked up Inkheart. I really love fantasy books, and thought the promo for the movie looked somewhat appealing.

Let me just say, I don't remember ever NOT enjoying a book as much as I have NOT enjoyed this one! It is 600 pages (or so?) of boringness. It's not even that much of a fantasy. And the plot seems very weak to me. I have been trying to finish the stupid thing since I got home from Ghana but I think I have finally given up--with about 50 pages left. I just don't CARE how the thing ends. I have picked up $2 books that were horribly written and I don't ever remembering not finishing a book--even a bad book.

Inkheart turns me off in other ways too. It is marketed as a children's book. It even won awards for best children's book in "whatever" year. But the thing says "d*amn," "h*ll," and "Oh my G*d" dozens of times throughout the book. Hello? Don't I always tell my children that people cuss because they are too uneducated to think of an appropriate word in the cuss word's place? Now, sometimes in adult books I "get" the cussing, but it just seems ridiculous to me to have cussing in a children's book.

This is one book that might actually be better as a movie. I'm assuming the movie doesn't cuss, and maybe the plot plays out better in a 1.5 hour movie than it does in a 600 page book. It couldn't play out worse!

My recommendation...don't waste $6 on this paperback, for your children or yourself. MAYBE see what the movie is like once it's old and rents for $1.

Anita
P.S. Sorry if you loved this book and I have offended you!