The Petrified Flesh (Reckless)

by Cornelia Funke

Other authorsCornelia Funke (Illustrator), Oliver Latsch (Translator), Lionel Wigram (Draft Writer)
Hardcover, 2016

Description

Jacob and Will Reckless have looked out for each other ever since their father disappeared, but when Jacob discovers a magical mirror that transports him to a warring world populated by witches, giants, and ogres, he keeps it to himself until Will follows him one day, with dire consequences.

Publication

Breathing Books (2016), 336 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member beserene
I was somewhat surprised by this book, mainly because it seems to be oriented toward an older audience than most of the novels I have read by this author. Though we get a glimpse of them as children, for the body of the novel the protagonists, Jacob and Will (and, yes, this book is chock full of
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Grimm references), are much older than those of books like 'Dragon Rider' and 'Inkheart'. The creatures of the MirrorWorld, into which these two young men have wandered, are often sinister and violent. That world itself is, as we discover, on the cusp of change, with a war ending and technologies shifting toward the industrial.

In many ways, this novel is melancholy. At times it feels like an elegy for the impossible -- the magic objects of Grimm's fairy tales are locked in the museums of Empresses and Emperors; the bright creatures of Fairyland are dirtied by clouds of coal smoke and the trappings of early modern life -- and all those things that we, the readers of childhood and adulthood, would expect to be wondrous and magical taste of a bitter reality. The characters in the novel, especially Jacob, perceive this in a variety of ways, but they do not fight it. In retrospect, that feels frustrating, but it is a part of the grittier portrait within which Funke is working here.

I suspect that many readers who are used to the more hopeful worlds in Ms. Funke's other novels may be disappointed by this book's darkness. The climactic scene, while I won't give it away, is startlingly bleak -- it offers an unheroic consequence to an impossible choice -- and the end, which leaves the door open for further installments, is only barely hopeful.

For me, though, the novel worked. I found in it a sense of disillusionment that seems to be appropriate for a teen audience -- an age where the stuff of edited nursery fairy tales has become entirely too unlikely and the world seems tainted anyway -- and that was consistent with the quest plot and the finely woven details that clothed it. I was not composing a review as I read -- a sign of a truly engaging story -- and I felt the emotional context strongly, especially in that climactic scene.

Bottom line: I liked this one, but I suspect that some others will strongly dislike it, especially if they have approached it with very different expectations.
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LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: When Jacob Reckless was very young, his father disappeared. Once Jacob got a little older, he followed in his father's footsteps: disappearing into the mirror in his father's study, into the Mirrorworld, a world that is full of fairy tale creatures - both the good and the evil. One day,
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when he was 25, his younger brother Will followed him through the mirror, but he was quickly injured by the power of the Dark Fairy... and that injury is spreading, turning Will's skin into stone: the mark of a Goyl, a race of powerful and inhuman soldiers. Jacob is determined to find a cure for his brother, so they set off, accompanied by Clara, Will's girlfriend who followed him through the mirror, and Fox, a shape-shifter girl who has been Jacob's long-time companion inside the Mirrorworld. Along the way, they must face not only terrors from the darkest hearts of fairy tales, but also their own hopelessness and despair, for Will's humanity is slipping away, and their quest seems all but futile.

Review: Reckless is an great example of a book with a fantastic premise and tons of narrative possibilities, that nevertheless doesn't quite manage to live up to its potential. Funke has a knack for creating fairy-tale worlds out of the darkest materials possible, and while Inkworld was new, Mirrorworld is straight out of the Grimm Brothers (not coincidentally, also a Jacob & Will duo), with none of the Disney-fied sugar coating. It felt like stepping into the medieval Black Forest, and there's a broad suggestion that the Grimms created their stories out of their experiences in Mirrorworld, instead of the other way around. Hansel & Gretel and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and countless others all show up in Reckless, if not in person then certainly in thematic and plot elements. It's a bit of a mishmash, but it runs according to the familiar logic of fairy tales, so the result is a world both immediately familiar and terrifyingly foreign, and rife with possibilities for stories to tell.

And Jacob's story has the potential to be a good one. Its themes - of guilt and betrayal and obligation and family, and of how far those things can drive a person even when set against all better judgement and logic - are not only fairly unusual ones for children's fiction, but are also pretty dark in and of themselves, more so than would be suggested by the suggested pre-teen age range. Jacob's inner demons are just as powerful as the fairy-tale monsters he has to face, and it lends the story an emotional complexity I wasn't expecting.

Where Reckless fell short of its potential for me was that it didn't spend enough time exploring all of these complexities. It is a relatively short book (less than 7 hours of audio), and it is breathlessly fast-paced. Too much so, in fact; it was so fast-moving that it was easy to get a little lost, and difficult to keep tabs on how the characters had gotten from point A to point B in just a few minutes, and why. A lot of crucial details went by with minimal to no explanation, and I think Funke would have been better served by slowing down, and giving her characters - and her story - time to breathe and grow in between all of the action sequences. The basic materials of a great book are all there, but it seems like in trying to pitch the book towards a younger audience - a strange choice, given the ages of the characters, the nature of some of the themes, and the overall darkness of the story - Funke shortchanged the very things that would make it most interesting as a crossover read for adults. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: It's not without its flaws, but I think Reckless is still worth picking up for anyone who likes darker fairy tale retellings, or who enjoys Funke's imaginative world-building.
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LibraryThing member ed.pendragon
Best known for their collection of fairy tales, more so than for their pioneering philological researches, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (the surname translates as 'fierce') are the inspiration for the main characters Jacob and Will Reckless in Cornelia Funke's newly in paperback novel, Reckless (meaning
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'headstrong', 'rash' as well as being a bona fide English surname). When Jakob Grimm was 11 their father died, much as the literary brothers' father disappears when Jacob is around the same age. Later, the two real-life brothers trained in law before getting deeply involved in reseraching folklore and folk-customs, and the older Jacob moved in with Wilhelm and his new bride; in Reckless the unattached young adult Jacob finds himself in an alternative fairytale world joined by Will and his girlfriend Clara against his wishes. It is clear that Funke has determinedly drawn on the lives of the Brothers Grimm to structure her tale (the first of many, we are to presume) of magic and fairies set in archetypal Teutonic black forests and Central European cities.

What other influences can be seen in this novel? Of course many, many of the Grimms' fairytale motifs are referenced in the tale, but for me a key story is one which is not so well-known in the English-speaking world, the significantly-named 'The Two Brothers'. In this Grimm tale the two brothers' lives are strongly linked in parallel, and when one of them gets turned to stone by a witch the other has to find a way to restore him. This is so reminiscent of Will's flesh becoming stone by the black arts of the Dark Fairy that I'm pretty sure that the tale furnished much of Funke's plot mechanism. Add to that the coincidence that the name for the reddish carnelian stone (so similar to the author's own name) is derived from a Latin word meaning 'flesh', and Reckless seems to become a much more complex novel than may first appear. Not only that, but Jakob died in 1863, around the time that Lewis Carroll was working on the first Alice book; and the looking-glass as portal to another world which Funke uses for her first Mirrorworld novel was famously used by Alice in the Wonderland sequel.

But I digress! Reckless is another of Cornelia Funke's darkly imagined universes, where jeopardy is around every corner and there is little to laugh at. At first sight this might seem to be merely a variation on the device she utilises in her Inkworld trilogy, of imaginary worlds accessible to inhabitants of our own, but there are differences in its application. Jacob is much older than the main protagonist of Inkworld, the plotting is tighter and the story more focused. There is also the sense that as the strands of Jacob's personal world unravel so do more clews appear to take us into the next volume. It also feels shorter, and the frequent criticism of the Inkworld tales outstaying their welcome is not likely to be leveled at this first Mirrorworld installment.

A feature that does re-appear is the inclusion of Funke's pencilled illustrations. There is much to enjoy in some of the marginal sketches, but some of them could have done to be critiqued before they appeared in print as they don't all meet a high standard. I did, however, like the motif of the looking glass heading each chapter with a different image relevant to what followed. I also liked the use of archaic names for places which we know as Britain, Lorraine, Vienna and so on.

So, a final verdict? The language of the English version is beautifully taut and full of understated poetry and conceits, and the short chapters made me just want to read just a little bit more, and a little bit more... This is the start of another lovingly created series from Cornelia which I am really looking forward to tracking down.
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LibraryThing member Kat_Hicks
Cornelia Funke has been one of my favorite authors for years-- I still have the worn-out copy of Inkheart that I bought with my allowance money when I was nine. So the news that she would be releasing a new novel-- the first in a series, no less-- for a somewhat older audience had me counting down
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to the release date.

Reckless does not disappoint. The world Funke has created in her latest book is at first strikingly similar to the world of her Inkheart trilogy, the major difference being that this world is entered through the surface of a mirror rather than the pages of a book. What amazes me, when I was a kid first falling in love with fantasy and now, when I've read about hundreds of fantasy worlds, is her ability to create characters and creatures that are nothing close to anything anybody else has thought of. In Reckless, Funke does it again: she introduces us to the Goyle, a race of people made of stone, a hauntingly bizarre creature known only as the Tailor, and a race of faeries who seem set to defy current stereotypes.

That said, the world of Reckless is so complex that it tends to leave readers wanting, and maybe a little confused. My biggest peeve with the story is that it centers on 24-year old Jacob Reckless's journey through the Mirrorworld to save his brother Will from becoming a human Goyle-- stone man. Yet Jacob first entered the Mirrorworld twelve years ago, as told in the Prologue. I wanted to know more about Jacob's adventures when he was younger, how he became a renowned thief and adventurer in his new-found world and how he first met Fox-- the shapeshifter girl who accompanies him on his travels and who so often wears her vulpine pelt that she's nearly forgotten what it's like to be human. Fox is definitely the most intriguing character in the book, and there already seems to be a triangle forming with her, Jacob, and Clare-- Will's girlfriend-- on the different angles. Reckless is largely a plot-driven novel, with a story that would make a brilliant bedtime story were it not for the creepiness of the creatures, and I guess, a few mature themes. It's definitely written for an older audience than Funke's other books-- Inkheart, Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, etc. The prose is lovely as ever...reading books-in-translation always makes me wonder if the original novel is so beautifully-written, or if that's the work of the translator? Either way, I can hardly wait for the yet-untitled sequel.

Altogether Reckless is an engrossing read, the sort of book you tear through in as few sittings as possible, only taking little breaks from the building suspense and intriguing story-world only to admire Funke's beautiful pencil illustrations arching over the frequent chapter titles.
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LibraryThing member yearningtoread
Jacob Reckless hasn’t felt at home in our world for twelve years. His haven in found beyond the mirror in his father’s study; where people live in little villages and cottages, monsters are common talk amongst the town-folk, stone men rule and push for power, fairies are dark and deceptive, and
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the Empress of Austry is a treasure-hunter. Jacob himself is a treasure-hunter, often working for Her Majesty to find her desires – a wishing table, a glass slipper, a golden ball. Jacob lives here most of the time, lying to his brother that he is going on vacation, a business trip, a trip to see a friend in need. He loves his brother, but too much pain lies outside of the mirror, where both of his parents are dead and his life is falling apart. And all is well on this side of the mirror. It is dangerous, yes, but Jacob has nothing to lose… Or so he thinks. Because of a simple mistake, Jacob’s brother Will has followed him over. And what’s worse is Will has been clawed by a stone man, a Goyl, and now Will’s skin is slowly turning to stone. Jacob must do everything he can before his kind and gentle brother turns completely into a stone man, heart and all.

I’ve loved Cornelia Funke’s books ever since I read Inkheart “that fateful day” a few years ago. Since then, I’ve read everything of hers I can get my hands on. Almost every book has been absolutely incredible; only one has been a disappointment (Dragon Rider). I preordered Reckless six months ago, hoping it would be another classic like the Inkbooks…

In a way it was wonderful, and in a way it was not. I’ll list the bad first.
First thing: I didn’t love the translation. I wish wish wish Anthea Bell had translated this one (she translated the Inkbooks), but it was Oliver Latsch. I like his stuff, but sometimes his wording is funny and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Second thing: Cornelia’s books may be labled as “children’s books”, but don’t believe it. I can’t imagine letting my child read this book. I think a good age to start at is 15. For one this is a very dark story (much of it is derived from the Grimm’s fairytales); it also has some sensual scenes invovling men and the fairies they have fallen in love with. The fairies, as stated before, are dark and deceptive, but also very seductive. Jacob and the king of the Goyl love two different fairies, both of whom aren’t always faithful.

And then comes the good…
Cornelia is a master at weaving a great story, from start to finish. She draws power from folklore and her favorite stories, but she is also incredibly original. Reckless was just so. While it could have been a terrible retelling of Grimm’s fairytales (what it was built on and after), it was a wonderful example of taking from the classics without copying them. Another very good aspect of Reckless is that Cornelia is not afraid to give her characters pain. It is what real stories are made of, and this author definitely knows how to toy with her reader’s emotions for the characters by making them endure hardship. This is much of what kept me into the book the whole time. Sacrifice and hardship make books so much more real.

So, in all, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next one (she plans on writing at least two more books about Jacob Reckless and his world beyond the mirror). And while this is a novel worth reading (although not a classic in my opinion), it is not for everyone, especially not for children.
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LibraryThing member arkgirl1
Reckless introduces us to Mirrorworld, Cornelia Funke's engaging new world of fantasy and fairytales that I'm sure will have young readers wishing the next book was written ... this older reader definitely felt like that! The central Reckless of the title, Jacob, has discovered a world behind the
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mirror in his 'missing' dad's study and there he starts to carve out a new life for himself with his faithful companion Fox. But then younger brother, Will, manages to follow Jacob into Mirrorworld and Jacob discovers that the threats and perils of this magical land are no longer the escape he desired. Added to the fantasy quest aspect of the plot we also have the relationship intrigue with Clara[Will's medical student girlfriend], Fox, Jacob, Will, Miranda[the Red Fairy] and even the dwarf Valiant!
This story mixes familiar fairytale concepts with some intriguing new twists; as she did with the Inkworld series Funke manages to create wonderful descriptions of this new world. There are dwarves, fairies, Goyl and magical gifts, plus referencing of well-known fairytales, but this book does have dark twists. The dark elements, plus the romances, point at the book being aimed at the young adult market but it is also a book that can be enjoyed by all that enjoy fantasy literature. If you enjoyed Inkworld come and discover the delights Mirrorworld has to offer!
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LibraryThing member summerskris
Cornelia Funke has one incredible imagination. Ever since reading Inkheart, I’ve been a big fan of hers, so I was really excited to be given the opportunity to review Reckless. She didn’t disappoint. Overall, Reckless is a highly enjoyable read filled with a brilliant cast of characters that
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comes to life through the magic of Cornelia’s rich, vivid imagery, and the strong voices that she implants within them.

Reckless takes place in an enchanted world ruled by dark magic, inhabited by fantastical creatures, and saved by heroes’ sacrifices. While I would have enjoyed getting to know Jacob better, seeing how he’s the protagonist, Cornelia successfully integrated multiple perspectives into the story without confusing me at all. In the long run, I appreciated knowing what was going on where, as it added more suspense and foreshadowing to the story and allowed me to appreciate characters that I wouldn’t have liked much otherwise.

Being in his twenties, Jacob is an older protagonist for a YA book; however, it doesn’t take away from the ability of younger teens to relate to him should they decide to pick up Reckless. He knows love, despair, and anger. He possesses a strong will. And his friends are as loyal and courageous as he is. All of these make him the hero that we want to see.

Joining Jacob as he seeks the cure to save his brother’s life and protect a world from impending evil has been quite an adventure. I enjoyed meeting the Mirrorworld counterparts of many fairy tales that we heard growing up. Cornelia Funke is a master storyteller. I would definitely recommend reading Reckless if you enjoy darker fantasy stories and don’t mind an older protagonist. I can't wait until its sequel comes out!
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LibraryThing member Booklady123
Reckless is the story of Jacob Reckless, his brother Will and a fairy tale land that exists beyond a mirror Jacob finds in their missing father's study. Though it takes place in the land of fairy tales, it is not Disney’s fairy land. This land is dark, harking back to the original fairy tales
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which were NOT all about lightness and happy endings.

Jacob discovers the land beyond the mirror in his father’s study when he just twelve. At this time his father has been missing for a year. Jacob spends many years traveling this world getting caught up the dangerous and adventurous excitement. He does not share this secret world with his mother or his younger brother. However, in a “reckless” moment he makes a mistake that allows his brother l to follow him into this dark world. Shortly after arriving Will is injured by a stone creature known as a Goyl. And now, unless Jacob can find a way to break the curse, his brother will be taken over by stone and become a Man-Goyle. To complicate matters, not just any stone is taking over Will’s body – but the rare jade. There is a legend about a Jade Goyle and its importance to the Goyle king. Could Will be this legend?

Funke lives up to her well earned reputation as a riveting and engaging writer. Once again, as she did in Inkheart, Funke has created a complex world full of legends and myth, many of which will be familiar to fans of the Brothers Grimm. She reaches out and grabs the reader’s imagination from page one and holds onto it until long after the last page is turned. Dark and brooding with a liberal sprinkling of imagination and adventure this promises to be a popular series. Oh and yes, there is a mystery as well. Just where is Jacob’s and Will’s father? And what is his connection to the world in the mirror?

I highly recommend this book for those looking for more traditional and less Disney-esque fairy stories. The publisher has listed this book for ages 9-12. I would recommend it for ages 12 and up.
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LibraryThing member bell7
Ever since his father's disappearance, Jacob Reckless has looked out for his mother and younger brother, Will. One day while searching his father's office, young Jacob finds a mirror that brings him into a world where fairy tales are real - but much like those of another pair of brothers, the world
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can be dark and deadly. Twelve years later, Will follows his brother into the Mirrorworld, where he is attacked by the Goyl and begins turning into one of them, his skin becoming jade. Prophecies of the Jade Goyl say that he will make their king invincible, but Jacob will do everything in his power to save his brother from becoming one of them.

Ever since I read The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke has been one of my go-to authors. Her worlds are sometimes dark but always compelling. The Mirrorworld has everything fearful from fairy tales, but the machinations, jealousy, and love of its characters make it seem as real as our own world where "happily ever after" rarely comes without a price. The ending leaves an opening for more books to come, and I hope that's the case.
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LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Jacob has uncovered the doorway to another world, hidden behind a mirror. It is a place of dark magic and enchanted objects, scheming dwarves and fearsome ogres, fairies born from water and men born from stone. Here, he hunts for treasure and seeks adventure in
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the company of Fox - a beautiful, shape­shifting girl, who guides and guards him. But now Jacob's younger brother has followed him into the mirrored world, and all that was freedom has turned to fear. Because a deadly curse has been spoken; and Jacob must risk his life to reverse it, before his brother is turned to stone forever... Revised and updated by Cornelia Funke, The Petrified Flesh is the first book in the thrilling Reckless series.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review
: Don't mistake "young adult" for "fluffy." This story of brothers, orphaned early in life by a father whose abandonment of them without a word also cost them their mother to her grief, as they find the "Mirrorworld" that their father vanished into...inside his study!

This is a portal fantasy, with a secondary world that resembles our own enough to be an alternate-history world except for the fact that magic works. "Austry" is the name of the Mirrorworld country the brothers, and their father before him, arrive in, not the Austria they leave behind. The family's disintegration, as abetted by the mirror, is not something that the hero Jacob is trying to fix or to escape, like Meg in A Wrinkle in Time or the Pevensies in The Chronicle of Narnia. Jacob's a young adult, he fled into Mirrorworld to find a place for himself not look for someone else. Of course he finds others...a bad father-figure but a good mentor in Albert Chanute, innkeeper and treasure hunter in Austry, a girlfriend of sorts in Fox the shapeshifting...fox. He's got a life as a treasure hunter! He's met the Empress six times! (But don't tell Chanute that, he's only met her three times for treasure-hunting and now he's past it, so there'd be jealousy and trouble.)

The stakes this secondary world introduces to us could not be higher. Jacob's treasure-hunting ways are threatened by the Goyls, put a gar- in front and you'll get it, finally having effective leadership and thus starting to win battles in the eternal war between humans and their kind. What matters about that is that Will, Jacob's brother, has been bitten by a Goyl and is suffering the inexorable fate of such: He's turning into the stone creature that we call a Goyl but, since he's human, he won't survive the change. He will be a stone human...dead, but still walking without his soul. And Jacob, whose running away to find a life in this other world, now can't figure out how to save Will...and his refusal to share knowledge of Mirrorworld with Will is what left him susceptible to the bite in the first place. Oh! Wait! That's not enough pressure, not enough baggage. Will's utterly innocent girlfriend Clara finds the mirror and enters Mirrorworld, too!

Now, let me not spend more time in Spoilerville than is necessary. Will and Clara are serious Mary Sues. The world happens to them. They're not possessed of Jacob's trove of information...and this is something he quite rightly blames himself for not imparting to his adoring little brother. He spends just enough time recognizing that he's set these conditions in motion, and the success or failure of Will's future life among the living not-Goyls is entirely on him.

Celeste/Fox surprised me as a character. Will is younger than Jacob and he has a blah girlfriend, but Jacob's magical girlfriend is...a real full-bodied relationship partner! I wasn't thinking that would work in a kid-aimed story. But this, with its neither dwelt-on nor avoided sexuality and its frank presentation of bodily suffering...Chanute's arm is lost for a singularly stupid reason, for example, but it's before the story we're being told now starts, and is reported not experienced...is part of the not-quite-adult storytelling world. I'd give this to any sixteen-year-old and expect them to feel positive about it. Not younger, though. The consequences of stupid actions aren't minimized!

But sometimes, stupid people just can't be forced to stop being stupid. Clara simply can not be made to see what is completely obvious to the meanest intelligence: She is NOT in her own birth-world anymore and can NOT act like she's out for a particularly strange walk there! It gets wearing, her insistence that Jacob act as though her world's rules still hold sway. And he, fool of a man that he is, keeps explaining and explaining why her way won't work! Because she's unwilling to learn!

But Jacob...he's fighting through death and resurrection, he's fighting enemies he knows are enemies as well as friends he doesn't know are worse than enemies..."Who makes peace when you can have victory?" muses one such...Jacob fights until the fabric of Mirrorworld finally delivers him the thing he's consistently asked for, demanded, begged to receive. The thing he's died inside and out to cause to happen.

He's received the gift of an ending.

What a lovely way to make your portal fantasy pop! Make it such that there is no more severe betrayal that can occur to anyone in this world. Give everyone an ending. Then, stand back and watch the fun begin!

So perfect for its intended audience, so much in accord with the end-of-adolescence access of adult emotions but without the perspective to manage them. This should take the world by storm, and I hope it will.
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LibraryThing member LemurKat
I love Cornelia Funke. The Inkheart trilogy ranks up there in my "favourites". However, I did not love this book. I should have - it had all the elements of something I would enjoy - fairytale references, dark fantasy, a mirror reflected into ours. A curse. What it suffered from was poor plotting
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and poor writing. Is this how Funke's work usually is? Or is it the fault of the Translator (Not Anthea Bell, as her previous novels had been)? Who knows? Whatever it was, this felt like only half a book. It started introducing Jacob, one of the Protagonists to the Mirrorworld - a faerie tale world through the looking glass. It then jumped 12 years into the future when Jacob had been visiting on a regular basis, only to have his younger brother follow him and subsequently be cursed by a dark fairy to turn into one of the stone people, the Goyl. Constant inferences were made to events and adventures Jacob had participated in the past, but the present was a choppy shambles of unfinished sentences. I found my attention - and thus my comprehension - wandering throughout and forced myself to re-read several pages.

Another thing of note - although I found this in the "children's" section it is not really a children's book. Will and Jacob are adults, Jacob engages in several (albeit quite subtle) sexual encounters in the book. However, the writing style is too simple to be an adult's book. So I'm going to classify it as Young Adult, although that doesn't feel quite right either...

Cornelia, you've let me down.
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LibraryThing member Suzanne520
Cornelia has managed to take classic well known fairy tales, wring out their darkest qualities, and paint her book with them, while still managing an original story line! This book was very good and interesting, I love good twists on classics!
LibraryThing member ChristianR
Years ago, Jacob Reckless discovered a mirror that leads him into another world, which he vanished into many times to escape his sad home life. When his younger brother, Will, follows him through the mirror and is transformed into a Goyl (skin of stone), Jacob will do anything to get him back to
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normal. Lots of adventure, weird creatures, undying devotion, and civil war between the humans and the Goyls make this a guaranteed winner.
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LibraryThing member bookandahug
"It took quite a while before Jacob understood." Twelve year old Jacob Reckless is standing before a mirror in his father's study and the reflection he sees is not what he expects to see. Jacob has been looking at pain ever since his father disappeared. His mother is distraught and his younger
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brother, Will, is looking to him for reassurance and protection. Escape comes for Jacob as he passes through the mirror and finds himself in Mirrorworld, a land of fairytale creatures that bears a recognizable resemblance to several European countries. Jacob creates an alternate life for himself taking on the challenge of finding missing magical objects for the Empress with the help of a companion, Fox, who is a shapeshifter. These dual realities work for Jacob until the day his brother, Will, follows him into Mirrorworld and is wounded in an attack.... (read more on abookandahug.com)
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LibraryThing member shelbel100
Jacob Restless’ father has disappeared leaving behind a wife and two sons. While searching his fathers’ office for clues to his disappearance, Jacob finds a magically mirror that transports him to a world of magic. A world where fairy tales come true but where all is not sugar and spice.
Years
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after finding the world and spending most of his time there getting to know how to avoid all the dangers, Jacob’s brother, Will, follows him into the mirror world where he is infected and slowly turning into a man made of stone.
Jacob must find a way to undo the dark magic and make his brother human again. He, a girl who can shape-shift into a Fox, Will, and Will’s girlfriend, Clara embark on a periless journey to find a Fairy who will help them destroy her Dark Fairy sister and turn Will back to a human.
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LibraryThing member ktgris
Cornelia Funke has given us some of the most incredible middle grade novels I've ever read--including all of those in the Inkheart series. Her latest, Reckless, is definitely worth a read (especially if you enjoy Grimm's fairytales) but lacks that extra whallop of amazing I've come to associate
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with Funke's work. Perhaps that's because she treads ground already trodden so often it tough for a writer to gain solid footing. That said, she writes most of us under the table on her worst day, so give it a read!
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LibraryThing member phh333
Good new fantasy book that takes you to the dark side of fairy tales. Jacob and Will Reckless (think Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm) travel to the fairy tale realm through a mirror where they encounter a dwarf, powerful fairies, deadly moths, man-eating sirens, unicorns, and the terrifying Tailor with
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fingers ending in blades and needles.
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LibraryThing member soybean-soybean
it was rather too dark for me. i much prefer funke's earlier books..
LibraryThing member KimJD
As compelling as her other stories, but slightly darker-- great for the middle school into high school crowd. Cornelia Funke knows how to make all those fairy tales from our childhood come alive in a shivery, disturbing way.
LibraryThing member jenreidreads
I am a HUGE fan of Inkheart, but sadly, Funke's other novels haven't quite lived up to that one for me. Reckless, the first book in a new series aimed for slightly older readers than her other works, is a tale of two brothers woven with dark fairytales. Jacob has been escaping into the Mirrorworld
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for years. His younger brother follows him and ends up cursed by a Dark Fairy, his skin turning to stone like the Goyl, a Mirrorworld race that is trying to take over the world. The main plot surrounds Jacob's quest to save Will, which is dangerous, of course, because the Goyl also want him. We get snippets of Jacob's past in the Mirrorworld, the different "real life" fairytales he's lived through. But while the story is pleasant enough, there's not a lot of depth. Jacob and Will's father left them when they were young, presumably to the Mirrorworld. Why? Why is there animosity between the brothers? Why did Jacob feel such a strong need to escape the real world all the time? Perhaps these questions will be answered in later installments, but I definitely feel this book was lacking a bit. Still, I continued to think about it after the book ended, which is a good sign.
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LibraryThing member BookishDame
Like so many of you, I learned to read by fairy tales.
Weren't our minds caught up in visions of the beauty, the magic and the color of those dark tales...didn't we all understand that pain and horror had to come before the happily ever after? Fairy tales were my bread and butter reading;
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undoubtedly they laid some kind of subconscious footwork in my life.


Fairy tales and their illustrations were so much a part of developing our imaginations; they helped to lay the foundation of our creative minds. Teachng, love and loss, psychology, empathy, art, imagination....so important; archetypical, as our professors would say. Children don't read fairy tales like we used to.


Now comes Ms Cornelia Funke who has written and created illustrations for her painstakingly crafted book. Hers is a book grafted throughout with fairy tales. Her fingers seem tipped with fairy wings, overtaken by an enchantment in order to make such strikingly beautiful pictures to accompany her story.

Here is a treasure fit for a king's child. It's a heroic, charmingly dark, gothic and mystical book. It has a story to tell and a moral to the story. It's "Reckless."

Fairy tales do not wholly dominate the book, there are only elements of the twisted and familiar stories we grew up with in "Reckless." Some of those that frightened and enchanted us are included, but Funke revisits them from another, more adult perspective. Sleeping Beauty with parchment yellow-colored skin and brittle straw-like hair laying with unseeing eyes; while her prospective, unsuccessful "princes'" bodies hang garishly disemboweled by sword-like rose thorns, gave me a sad twinge! Shiver....

Cornelia Funke's use of imagery and wordsmithing is mastered by few others in this genre. She creates a plausible world that is fantastical at the same time. We are drawn in by the details and reactions of her characters, and, as we accompany them; we believe in the action moment by moment. It's nothing short of magical. Visually, I found myself wanting to look like 13 yr. old Nesser, the Fairy-cursed Goyl..."amethyst suffused" jasper stoned skin with golden eyes. Even if she wasn't on "our side." How did that happen?

Characters such as Jacob, Will and Fox are sure favorites. I admit to a partiality for Fox, a shapeshifting young girl who scampers around as a golden-eyed red fox most of the time. She's wise and strong, a lithe and brave little warrior whose loyalty and selflessness is unbendable. She's just the sort of role-model that's wonderful for young girls.

And, of course, Will's girlfriend; Clara, is a strong-minded combination of the professional, medical student-sweetheart any young man would want by his side. It's Clara's knowledge of medicine, her insights, and her support of Will that leads the small band along their journey.

I applaud the way Ms Funke creates independent and well-rounded young women in her book. And, I also appreciate how she's balanced her male figures in the same way. Both Jacob and Will are worthy warriors and well-rounded young men. There is a purpose for good in them. They rise above their troubles and go through their mystical journey learning the lessons of all great men, survivors and leaders. Love, endurance, single-mindedness, loyalty, self-respect and selflessness are some of those lessons learned for both sexes.

This balance of fully realized heroic figures in the young men and young women speaks to the Utopian quality in Ms. Funke's "Reckless," and it's greater outreach and vision. Much could be said on this point alone.

Ms Funke's German heritage is tapped openly in her book: the Germanic home and history of the Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales; Schwanstein's Castle; i.e., Neuschwanstein, the "fairytale castle" of King Ludwig of Bavaria; the craggy glories of the Alps she perhaps grew up loving and seeing; and the songs and tales of Nordsmen, Vikings and mystical creatures as expressed in Wagner's operas. Germany is rich in folktales about the Black Forest and its dark creatures who haunt there; the caves, crystals and beautiful lakes that run from the mountains. All of these things, perhaps, lend themselves to the earthbound richness and beauty that fuels Ms Funke's literary achievements and art.

"Reckless" is not just a book for children and young adults, rather, it's a book for everyone. This series will go on my library bookcase along with the Harry Potter(s) and Alice in Wonderland.
5 Stars for an exceptional book and a collectible series.

Deborah/TheBookishDame
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LibraryThing member edspicer
If you are in love with the "Grimm (Fairy) Tales" then you are going to love this book. It has some Grimm brothers mixed into this intense story. The book is mostly about brother love and protection with a hint of mixed emotions from other traveling companions. It has humor, adventure, and
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forbidden romance as well as darkness. Q4P4 AHS/Kelly S.
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LibraryThing member tsisler
I enjoyed this book. It was an easy and intriguing read. I was hoping for a book that could rival Inkheart and in that regard was disappointed. This book doesn't develop the characters or the plot as eloquently or as effectively. However, it does provide a nice easy escape to another world and a
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fun play on the classic fairy tales.
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LibraryThing member K...
It was really good. I can't wait to read the sequel.
LibraryThing member nicola26
I don't even know what to say about this book because I honestly don't have a clue what happened in it. It started off so random. We were given little to no background information on the main characters, and then were thrown into a fantasy world where nothing was explained. Funke has an amazing
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imagination, and I really enjoyed the Inkheart series, but this just didn't interest me. We're constantly reminded that Jacob and Will are brothers, but we never see any relationship between them, nor are we given any reason to care about their fate. I think this book could have been good, but it was poorly approached and I won't be reading the sequel.
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Awards

Great Lakes Great Books Award (Honor Book — 2012)
Hampshire Book Awards (Shortlist — Hampshire Book Award — 2012)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2011)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Kids (Fiction for Older Readers — 2010)

Language

Original language

German

Original publication date

2010-09-14

Physical description

336 p.; 6.3 inches

ISBN

0989165647 / 9780989165648

Other editions

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