(Cover picture courtesy of Walmart.)

Ever since the extraordinary events of Inkspell, when the enchanted book Inkheart drew Meggie and her father, Mo, into its chapters, life in the Inkworld has been more tragic than magical.

The fire-eater Dustfinger is dead, having sacrificed his life for his apprentice Farid’s, and now, under the rule of the evil Adderhead, the fairy-tale land is in bloody chaos, its characters far beyond the control of Fenoglio, their author.  Even Elinor, left behind in the real world, believes her family to be lost—lost between the covers of a book.

Facing the threat of eternal winter, Mo inks a dangerous deal with Death itself.  There yet remains a faint hope of changing the cursed story—if only he can fill its pages fast enough.

After being entranced first by Inkheart, then Inkspell, I couldn’t wait to read the last book.  But I was sadly disappointed.  This may have been my own fault for having too high expectations, but perhaps not.  It was an okay book, but I felt that a lot of what happened in Inkdeath came way out of left field.

Unlike in the other books, Meggie takes a back seat and the story really revolves around her father, Mo.  This is not necessarily a bad thing because he is an excellent character, but it is sort of disappointing, especially to younger female readers who read the story because they felt a connection to Meggie.  One of the things that came way out of left field is Meggie’s new love interest, Doria, who is a member of the robber’s camp.  He never showed up until the last book and it was like Meggie completely forget Farid, her first love interest.

Despite the ‘Huh?’ factor, Inkdeath is not a bad book.  The ending is actually satisfying and the plot zipped right along.  The characters develop at a natural pace and Cornelia Funke brings the Inkworld to life with her spellbinding writing.  In terms of pure writing talent, Cornelia Funke has no equal in the YA genre.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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