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A review by orchidlilly
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Ah, Inkdeath. Poor, mildly disappointing Inkdeath. This entire series suffers from what I like to call triligitus. That is to say, the trilogy starts with a bang, loses a little momentum in the middle book, and the third book falls disappointingly flat on its face. I’m exaggerating a bit, of course, Inkdeath isn’t in any way bad, per say, but it just feels unsatisfying. There’s plenty to like in the book, sure. The prose is just as good as it’s always been, the main plot with the Adder is wrapped up well, and the worldbuilding is lovely as usual. That being said, I have some specific gripes for how the characters are written in particular.
Violante rather comes into her own, moving from a somewhat tragic background figure to a somewhat competent and fully fleshed out one. It’s nice to see a fantasy book have a powerful female character, but Violante is far from perfect. After all, god forbid we have a female character without a love interest, so she has to be weirdly besotted with Mo for no good reason. Despite her relative independence, Violante, our only non-stereotyped female character, still spends most of her time waiting for the men to do the work that she’s not strong enough to do herself.
The men of the story, and the world of the book as a whole, have always been somewhat sexist in nature, but Inkdeath seems to really dial that up for no apparent reason. Maybe if this fantasy-branded sexism was in any way discussed as something needing fixed, it would have been alright, but as is the world and book seem to just accept it as the way things are, making me wonder if that’s not also how Funke views it.
Then there’s the love triangle. It’s kind of obvious that it was just shoehorned in to fit the rising popularity of love triangles in YA and middle-grade books at the time. If Doria had been introduced in the second book as an alternate love interest from the get-go, things would have felt more natural. But he only starts showing up here, in the last book, and so his addition feels a little off-kilter.
And just as an aside, I’ve never been huge on pregnancy subplots, and I feel that this one especially, takes away what little agency Resa had as a character and instead pushes her further into the simple role of worried mother and wife.
Now, this is a lot of complaining about a book that I’ve given three stars. It’s not a bad book by any means, nor is it a bad ending to a trilogy. It just feels like a bit of a letdown, is all.
Violante rather comes into her own, moving from a somewhat tragic background figure to a somewhat competent and fully fleshed out one. It’s nice to see a fantasy book have a powerful female character, but Violante is far from perfect. After all, god forbid we have a female character without a love interest, so she has to be weirdly besotted with Mo for no good reason. Despite her relative independence, Violante, our only non-stereotyped female character, still spends most of her time waiting for the men to do the work that she’s not strong enough to do herself.
The men of the story, and the world of the book as a whole, have always been somewhat sexist in nature, but Inkdeath seems to really dial that up for no apparent reason. Maybe if this fantasy-branded sexism was in any way discussed as something needing fixed, it would have been alright, but as is the world and book seem to just accept it as the way things are, making me wonder if that’s not also how Funke views it.
Then there’s the love triangle. It’s kind of obvious that it was just shoehorned in to fit the rising popularity of love triangles in YA and middle-grade books at the time. If Doria had been introduced in the second book as an alternate love interest from the get-go, things would have felt more natural. But he only starts showing up here, in the last book, and so his addition feels a little off-kilter.
And just as an aside, I’ve never been huge on pregnancy subplots, and I feel that this one especially, takes away what little agency Resa had as a character and instead pushes her further into the simple role of worried mother and wife.
Now, this is a lot of complaining about a book that I’ve given three stars. It’s not a bad book by any means, nor is it a bad ending to a trilogy. It just feels like a bit of a letdown, is all.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism