Reckless

I’ve been reading Cornelia Funke for years now, and there’s something about her work that always appeals to me. The Thief Lord is one of my favorite books, and her best work, I think; but I’ve also enjoyed Dragon Rider and Inkheart, although I think the Inkworld trilogy would have been better as one book (and yes, I still haven’t read my copy of Inkdeath).

I’ve been meaning to read Cornelia Funke’s latest book, Reckless since last year, but like I said, I’m pacing myself in tackling the new releases of my favorite authors — most are already on my shelves, still sealed, but I’m planning on getting the lot of them finished throughout the year (in particular: Shades of Grey, Heroes of the Valley, Inkdeath, The Ring of Solomon and The Last Dragonslayer).

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, Reckless (translated by Oliver Latsch, illustrated by Cornelia Funke) features Jacob Reckless, a young man who has been travelling to the Mirrorworld for years, hoping to find traces of his father, who disappeared into the mirror in his study when Jacob and his brother Will were still children.

Jacob has made a home for himself as a treasure hunter in the Mirrorworld, much to the displeasure of his mother and the growing resentment of his younger brother. Disaster strikes when Will follows him into the Mirrorworld and gets attacked by a Goyl (some sort of stone man) and starts turning into jade.

Desperate to save his brother from turning into a Goyl, Jacob seeks for the cure, with the help of his longtime ally, a vixen he calls Fox, and Will’s girlfriend Clara, who accidentally follows Will into the Mirrorworld. Eager to thwart Jacob’s mission are the Goyl, who are in pursuit of the jade goyl that Will is turning into.

Reckless is vastly different from Funke’s works, mainly because Funke’s work thus far have been middle reader books, while Reckless features older characters (Jacob is 24 in the story), and has considerably darker themes.

Initially, I found the book challenging to read because it’s a bit more high fantasy than I’m used to, coming from Funke. The novel plunges right into the Mirrorworld without much preamble, assigning the reader the task of discovering the world on the other side of the mirror.

And unlike Funke’s other novels, which are mostly character-driven, the characters in Reckless are quite taciturn, perhaps not fleshed out enough for the reader to fully relate to them.

Reckless takes a while to warm up, but it gets into the groove at around halfway point, 150 pages or so, and those who read patiently do get a satisfactory adventure, as well as a better grasp of the strange new world that Funke presents.

I enjoyed the fairy tale Easter eggs in the story: character cameos (the wicked fairy), plot elements (fairy’s curse), settings (gingerbread house!), artifacts (Rapunzel’s hair, the golden ball), and other fairy tale references.  Fans of intertextuality, retellings, and dark fairy tales will surely find these interesting, too.

In spite of Reckless falling short of my personal expectations, I thought the plot was well-executed in the second half, building up to a thrilling chase and a satisfying resolution. While the novel doesn’t answer all of the readers’ questions, it does tie up enough loose ends, with room for a new story, hinting at another quest for Jacob Reckless. There’s talk of a sequel in the pipeline, although still unconfirmed.

Writing for the middle-reader age group is still Funke’s forte, but I’m interested to see how she plays out this story in the succeeding books.

***

Reckless, hardcover with dust jacket, 3/5 stars

Book #34 for 2011

Reckless is available at National Book Store.