Review: Reckless by Cornelia Funke

 

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Fantasy , 345 pages 

Published 2010 by Chicken House

Oh dear....
What a disappointing book. The very pages stunk of mediocrity. 
The main issue with 'Reckless' lies solely with the characters: Cornelia Funke plunges us right into the middle of the story, with no detail on the characters what-so-ever. Jacob, Will and Clara are possibly THE WORST leads in a novel I have ever read about. There is absolutely no chemistry between them. I couldn't care less about what happens to them. 
I imagine Cornelia Funke's brainstorming of these characters was a lot like this: 
Cornelia: Kay, so: Jacob is the main character, Will is his brother and Clara is Wills girl friend. Getitgotitgood, now onto the story...
Editor: No, wait a second Corny, I think you need a bit more detail.
Cornelia: Really? Okay, ummm...Will and Clara met in a hospital and fell in love
Editor: FREKIN' PERFECT! 
Im not even kidding, that is all the information we got on these characters. And WIll and Clara, the couple who is 'head over heels desperately in love', never show any affection for each other. Ever. 
The plot of 'Reckless' is basically this: Will gets turned into a Goyl (a species of monsters made out of stone who are evil for the hell of it) , and Jacob and Clara have to save him. 
The problem (one of trillions) is this: Will gets no page-time before the transformation. His first scene his him turning into the Goyl. This means that the reader doesn't care for him, and I couldn't give a rats ass weather he is saved or not. 
Oh, and for the majority of the 345 pages, everybody treats Will like his is a baby. Just because he is the younger sibling) doesn't mean he needs to be treated like a two year old, when he is, in fact, graduated from high school. 
The characters are so annoying and less one-dimensional (or more, I guess...) then: 
 

Also. the un-named world-behind-the-mirror seems like a cheap, much less thought through version of The Inkworld in Inkspell and Inkdeath also by Cornelia Funke. 

Normally, I love Cornelia Funke-she is in my list of favorite authors, along side Stephen King,J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl. The 'Inkheart trilogy' are some of my favorite books, and The Thief Lord is sensational. 
Maybe I just had super high expectations for her new book. I had, after all, been following Funke's blog updates since she announced the idea for 'Reckless', eagerly counting down the days to its release. 
None the less, this was really not enjoyable.