A review by silquesoleil
Reckless. Lebendige Schatten by Cornelia Funke
4.0
read for the 2015 reading challenge: a book by a female author
Since I read a lot of books by female authors, I obviously picked this category b/c it didn't fit anywhere else, but I found it in the library and I finally wanted to read it. I can't even recall anymore what happened in the first book, to be honest. It's been so LONG which means I probably should have re-read that one but what is motivation?
What I really like about this series is how Funke takes Fairy tales and reshapes them, I'm obviously a sucker for those kind of stories, although it was sadly spoiled by some stale heteronormative aftertaste. (Why does a bluebeard feed only from the fear of women? Isn't that a bit of a onesided diet?)
Funke's writing is so good, that I didn't get bored of it although I usually struggle with German writing, in fact I read so few German novels that the language feels stiff and colorless when I turn to it.
My most significant problem was with the characters. I didn't care about Jacob, nor anyone else in that novel aside from Fuchs. Fuchs is vibrant, Fuchs is important, if only authors would make less use of that awful "woman in love ready to sacrifice everything for a man" trope.
Since I read a lot of books by female authors, I obviously picked this category b/c it didn't fit anywhere else, but I found it in the library and I finally wanted to read it. I can't even recall anymore what happened in the first book, to be honest. It's been so LONG which means I probably should have re-read that one but what is motivation?
What I really like about this series is how Funke takes Fairy tales and reshapes them, I'm obviously a sucker for those kind of stories, although it was sadly spoiled by some stale heteronormative aftertaste. (Why does a bluebeard feed only from the fear of women? Isn't that a bit of a onesided diet?)
Funke's writing is so good, that I didn't get bored of it although I usually struggle with German writing, in fact I read so few German novels that the language feels stiff and colorless when I turn to it.
My most significant problem was with the characters. I didn't care about Jacob, nor anyone else in that novel aside from Fuchs. Fuchs is vibrant, Fuchs is important, if only authors would make less use of that awful "woman in love ready to sacrifice everything for a man" trope.