Inkheart, Week 4

Welcome to the final Online Book Club discussion of Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. 

Are you relieved that you made it all the way through the book? It was pretty long!

When we left off last week, we had a hint that Resa was Meggie's mother, but I wondered how she became mute and how she got out of the story. We found out in chapter 39 that the other reader, Darius, read her out of the story, and she lost her voice in the process. As soon as Meggie hears that the woman was read out of the story and she had hair like spun gold, Meggie assumes the woman must be her mother. Were you surprised she was able to put it together so quickly? 

I was curious throughout the first part of the book about who Capricorn would want read out of the book. I thought it might be a loved one or a trusted servant—I wasn't expecting a horrible creature like the Shadow. Didn't you feel a little frustrated with Fenoglio that he would write such a terrifying monster into his story? He really filled Inkheart with terrible villains. 

What did you think of Dustfinger's admission that he knew who Resa was, but he didn't want to admit that she belonged to Mo, the man who read him out of his home? I thought it was really sad. I know Mo read Dustfinger out of his home story, but he didn't mean to. It isn't fair to keep Resa from her family, just because Dustfinger didn't want to admit that she should be with Mo and Meggie. I was glad that Meggie was able to go and see her mother and Dustfinger in the crypt. That section was pretty intense with the fight between Dustfinger and Basta, but I did enjoy that Resa was able to slip a note to Meggie. It was a pretty sweet note, didn't you think? 

I thought it was a bad idea for Elinor to go to the police, but the experience ended up being great because it brought Resa and Elinor together. Did you feel sorry for the police officer who had been intimidated by Capricorn and his men, or did you wish that he would stand up to them? It was good that Resa and Elinor were together—I think it gave them both strength and bravery during Meggie's performance, and it gave Meggie strength, too. 

What did you think of the section about Meggie's performance? I thought it was a bit anticlimactic. I thought we had waited for so many chapters to see what would happen with the Shadow and Capricorn, and then, it was just done in an instant. And, we didn't really get to see any of the action because we were reading Meggie's thoughts as she read. I was glad that Mo was able to finish off Capricorn, but I still felt like I wanted more out of that chapter. 

Why do you think Basta and Dustfinger stayed and didn't return to the book with everyone else? Why do you think Fenoglio disappeared? Do you have any idea what might happen next for the characters? Were you satisfied with the ending? What would you have done differently if you were writing the ending? 

Meggie was such an interesting character. She was strong and brave, but she was still believable as a young girl. This interview from Scholastic discusses Cornelia Funke's inspiration for the character, among other things. You might also enjoy this essay from Bustle in which the author talks about how different her experience was when she re-read Inkheart as an adult from when she read it as a child. 

If you liked this book, check out the rest of the trilogy, Inkspell and Inkdeath. You can also find more books and movies with similar themes and characters on this list I created. Make sure to let me know if you check out Inkspell or any of the books and movies on my list. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this book along with me this month. Next month, we're reading Between Shades of Gray. It's a much more serious book than Inkheart, but I hope you enjoy it. Make sure to leave me a comment to let me know how you enjoyed the ending of Inkheart. I look forward to hearing from you!