Author:: Karen Romano Young
Pages: 388
Bears slight but startling resemblances to: Anansi Boys. Namely, they both deal with spiders.
Means of Aquiration: Bought it, 20% off (yay coupons!) at Borders.
General Impression: Excellent.
I didn't feel like going straight back to my dorm after arriving in Minneapolis on Sunday, so I took the train to the end of the line and went shopping at Borders (I had a coupon, how could I resist?) I saw several books there that I thought about getting (Note to self: write up a "most wanted" book list), but I eventually settled on this one. I can't comment on how good my choice was, since I still haven't read any of the other potential purchases... but I can say that I am very satisfied with this book.
Cobwebs is creepy, in a very likable way. I hate to fall into puns and clichés here, so to spare myself the shame, I will allow you to insert your own phrase containing some form of "web" and "to weave" here:
Okay, I'm glad that's done with.
Honestly, I really enjoyed this. The main character (Nancy) reminded me of myself when I was in junior high. (I believe Nancy is in high school, but I could be wrong.) Actually, she didn't remind me of myself at all...but I identified with her. That's special, isn't it?
The story, while often fantastic, is somehow also very real. Sometimes dreamlike, sometimes gritty. A book that I want to rub in someone's face while screaming "See?! It is possible to write an original fantasy novel!" (What can I say... some people deserve that.)
Author:: Cornelia Funke
Pages: Don't remember
Setting: Venice!
Read during: in the car during the ride from Racine to Minneapolis, just after winter break
Shall I spoil the ending? No.
When I opened the book, I wasn't sure who this book was going to be about. Was the main character going to be the titular Thief Lord? The funny, not-quite-bumbling detective introduced on the first page? Or perhaps the two brothers he was looking for? I wasn't sure what I was expecting, or even what I wanted. What I got, though, I liked.
Two young boys, newly orphaned, run away from their thoroughly unlikeable relatives... and where better to run but Venice, city of beauty and gold and light and winged lions? Where better, indeed?
Even after having just read and loved Inkheart, I had misgivings about reading Thief Lord. It seemed too clichéd to work... did I really want to read another book about parentless children, being roguish and clever and thwarting adults at every turn? I certainly did not. Happily, that wasn't what Thief Lord was about.
It got a trifle predictable here and there, but in general it remained fresh and exciting, with a couple twists I never would have imagined.
Author:: Cornelia Funke. (If my name were Cornelia Funke, I would write books, too.)
Pages: 534 (548 if you count the excerpt of the sequel, Inkspell.)
Setting: Europe. Modern day Europe. You wouldn't know it, though, except they have some electric lights, and they sometimes drives cars, and there are several references to how miserably people treated books in the Middle Ages.
Means of Aquiration: Someone (my youngest brother, I think) got it for Christmas, which is wonderful. I've been coveting this book ever since I first saw it in Waldenbooks a year(?) ago, but I wouldn't buy it in hardcover.
Importance of Books: Books are extremely important in Inkheart. Everything that happens, happens to books, because of books, or by means of books.
Before I say anything else, I will say this: There is a little gold foil proclamation on the front of this book that exclaims: Soon to be a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE! This means two things. First, you should endeavor to read the book immediately, if not sooner, because as soon as trailers and teasers and reviews start coming out about the movie, you'll already know too much about the story to properly enjoy discovering everything for yourself. (This is not to say that you will not enjoy the book, but simply to say that, as a rule of thumb, everything is better when you experience it for yourself, and this book is worthy of being enjoyed to its fullest extent.) Second, you should read the book before, after, because of, or despite seeing the movie, so long as you go in to it with an open mind.
It really is a good book, and I'd hate to have it ruined for someone.
Also, if you want to read it properly, don't read the description on the back cover. It gives far too much away. The first sentence on the back cover gives away something that isn't even hinted at until page 56 (the second clue doesn't appear until page 69, and nothing's actually stated until Chapter 16, which starts on page 136). I don't know who thought it would be a grand idea to give away the mystery of the first fourth of the book, but I don't think much of them.
Anyway.
This was a wonderfully long book, the sort where you get to the middle, and you realise that a normal book would be over, or just getting into the last two chapters... and you've still got half a book to go! For me, that is a wonderful feeling. Especially with a book I like as much as Inkheart. I read it all yesterday--positively devoured it. I haven't read a book that way for a very, very long time (and I've missed it.)
After my lecture on not letting people spoil books for you, I'm not sure what I can say about the story without giving anything too wonderful away.
There is a wonderful, horrible, evil villain, straight out of fantasy. There is an annoying aunt (who isn't really that bad after all). There is a dad who could win the Atticus Finch Award for being a wonderful father. There is a shifty man who juggles fire. There is a special sort of magic that all bookworms wish they had--now that I've read Inkheart, I'm glad I never did have it. There are fairies and monsters--real and imagined, human and unhuman.
It's a book for people who love adventure (but who might not love it so much if they ever found themselves having one.) It's a book for people who believe in happy endings (although nothing ever ends completely well in real life.) It's a book for people who know and love the characters they read out of stories (even though they have never really met them). Most of all, it is a book for people who love books.
See below for quotes.
"You met him once," said Dustfinger. "It's a long time ago, you won't remember you were so little." He held his hand at knee height in the air. "How can I explain what he's like? If you were to see a cat eating a young bird I expect you'd cry, wouldn't you? Or try to help the bird. Capricorn would feed the bird to the cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart, and the little creature's screeching and begging would be as sweet as honey to him."Meggie took another step backward, but Dustfinger kept advancing toward her.
"I don't suppose you'd get any fun from terrifying people until their knees were so weak they could hardly stand?" he asked. "Nothing gives Capricorn more pleasure. And I don't suppose you think you can just help yourself to anything you want, never mind what or where. Capricorn does. Unfortunately, your father has something Capricorn has set his heart on."
-Page 25
Meggie did not reply. She wasn't sure herself why she had asked the question. "This book is very valuable, isn't it?" she asked."What, Inkheart?" Elinor took it from Meggie's hand, stroked the binding, and then gave it back. "I think so. Although you won't find a single copy in any of the catalogs or lists of valuable books. But I'm sure that many collectors would offer your father a great deal of money if word got around that he has what may be the only copy. Actually I found out quite a lot about it, and I believe that it's not just a rare book, but a good one, too. I can't give an opinion on that. I scarely managed a dozen pages last night."
-Pages 86 and 87
Author:: Neil Gaiman, Genius.
Pages: 334 (American hardback edition)
Pointless description that leaves out all the best bits and utterly fails to do the book justice: Fat Charlie, an utterly boring person (he's a bookkeeper) finds out that--whoops!--his dad (now deceased) is (was?) a god. Furthermore, he finds out that he has a brother, who is also pretty much godtastic. Lots of things happen from there. (Charlie isn't actually boring. He just--until the book begins--leads a rather dull life. Of course, the book is about what happens after his life stops being boring. =])
Means of Aquiration: From Mom, for Christmas. And in hardcover! Exciting.
Trivia: I followed Neil Gaiman's blog for a while while he was writing this, which was fun. (I have since stopped having any sense of regularity with the sites I visit, so blog-following got a bit tricky.) I was pleased to hear from Mr. Nancy again after American Gods.
Now, I won't say that "this book is the reason Neil Gaiman is my favorite author," because that would be lying. Firstly, Neil Gaiman was my favorite author well before I read this book. Secondly, it isn't even my favorite book from him. But it might as well be, because a "good" book from Gaiman outshines even a "great" book or even an "excellent" book from almost anyone else.
I liked this book. It took a little while for me to get into it, but very soon I was into the swing of things. Fat Charlie's sense of humor made me laugh--he's one of those people who thinks darkly funny, blunt, bitter comments in his head, and he can't resist saying them out loud. (Actually, in that respect, he reminds me a bit of Richard from Neverwhere. Although I can't properly remember any of Neverwhere, they kind of give off the same vibe.) His matter-of-factness was delicious (see the first quote below for an example of this).
Neil Gaiman defies genre. Was the book a crime novel, a mystery, a fantasy, a horror story, a ghost story, a folktale, a comedy? Yes, all of those things. Is it utterly pointless to list every genre that it belongs to? Yes! (What's even more funny is when you have a book like Coraline, and you have to throw "Children's Book" in the mix of categories as well.) I love the fact that Gaiman's stories are about the story, and not about what the story is supposed to be, or where it belongs.
You should read this book.
Also, both times that I tried to type the word "utterly" above, I ended up typing "utterfly" and didn't notice until a couple days later.
Click below for quotes.
"So," she said. "You met your brother.""You know," said Fat Charlie, "you could have warned me."
"I did warn you that he is a god."
"You didn't mention that he was a complete and utter pain in the arse, though."
-Page 134
Daisy made a noise. It was not a yes-noise and it was not a no-noise. It was an I-know-somebody-just-said-something-to-me-and-if-I-make-a-noise-maybe-they'll-go-away sort of noise.Carol had heard that noise before.
"Oy," she said. "Big bum. Are you going to be much longer? I want to do my blog."
Daisy processed the words. Two of them sank in. "You you saying I've got a big bum?"
"No," said Carol. "I'm saying that it's getting lae, and I want to do me blog. I'm going to have him shagging a supermodel in the loo of an unidentified London nightspot."
Daisy sighed. "Alright. It's just fishy, that's all."
"What's fishy?"
"Embezzlement. I think. Right, I've logged out. It's all yours. You know you can get into trouble for impersonating a member of the royal family?"
"Bog off."
Carol blogged as a member of the British Royal Family, young, male, and out-of-control. There had been arguments in the press about whether or not she was the real thing, many of them pointing to things she wrote that could only have been known to an actual member of the British Royal Family, or to someone who read the glossy gossip magazines.
-Page 138