Mo and Meggie are a father-daughter bookworm team. Mo runs a business where he binds collector’s books, and Meggie goes with him on his jobs throughout the world as she reads her way through her own mini collection of books. Everything seems to be normal until one night a strange visitor named Dustfinger arrives. He takes her father into a private room, and as Meggie spies on the conversation, she overhears that a man named Capricorn wants a book that Mo has. The next day Mo takes Meggie and Dustfinger to the south, to Meggie’s aunt Elinor and her book collection. Dustfinger is an interesting person to Meggie, and he has a horned ferret-like pet and is a fire-eater.
While spending time with her book-addicted Aunt Elinor, Meggie sees Mo give a strange book called Inkheart to the aunt. That night, men come and take Mo and the book away, but it is revealed that Elinor secretly switched the books against Mo’s wishes so she could secretly read it. They must all go to Capricorn’s village with the real Inkheart and hope that Mo is alive and well so they can all go home. This sets them on an adventure filled with a host of interesting characters and magical book-reading.
This book took me longer than average to finish because it is a 500-page book! Some parts of the story took me awhile to finish simply because they weren’t as action-packed as others, but if you can get past a few dry spells the book is definitely worth your time. It is all about the magic that books can bring, and I can easily see this becoming a classic in the future. It has all the things that make a great adventure story, unique characters, unique story, and a lot of description and action. I will be reading the rest of the Inkheart series, and I recommend this to anyone who has the time/patience to read a 500-page amazing story.
Overall Rating: 4.5/5