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    Reckless I: The Petrified Flesh
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    Reckless I: The Petrified Flesh
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    Reckless I: The Petrified Flesh
    Ebook316 pages3 hours

    Reckless I: The Petrified Flesh

    By Cornelia Funke

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Enter the magical world behind the Mirrors...

    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 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.

    Cornelia Funke is the highly acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author of the Inkheart trilogy, Dragon Rider, The Thief Lord and numerous other children's novels and picture books. Born in 1958 in the German town of Dorsten, she worked as a social worker for a few years before turning first to illustration and then to writing. Her books have now sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 37 languages.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPushkin Press
    Release dateSep 29, 2016
    ISBN9781782691273
    Unavailable
    Reckless I: The Petrified Flesh
    Author

    Cornelia Funke

    Cornelia Funke tells stories for all ages—as storytellers do—for book eaters and those who don’t succumb easily to printed magic. She is the bestselling author of Dragon Rider, The Thief Lord, and the Inkworld and MirrorWorld series. She lives in Malibu, California, on her avocado farm with her donkeys, ducks, and dogs. Learn more about Cornelia at her website: www.corneliafunke.com.

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    Reviews for Reckless I

    3.5/5

    327 ratings44 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Ok, admit it and get over it! I will never finish this. Life is too short.
    • 5/5
      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; 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
    • 4/5
      Cornelia Funke has created another magical world in her latest young adult novel, Reckless. When Jacob Reckless touches the mirror in his father's study, he enters an alternate world where all of the characters and magic from the Grimm fairy tales have come to life. Only this is not your happy Disney fairy tale. Instead, it is a dark world filled with danger and villains. Jacob spends much of his young adult years traveling between the real world and the world behind the mirror, where he earns the reputation as an adventurous and highly successful treasure hunter who has acquired some precious artifacts through battle and cunning. Only his life behind the mirror takes a serious turn when his brother Will accidentally steps through the mirror and becomes the victim of an evil spell that gradually changes Will into the inhuman Jade Goyl. Jacob, Will and their allies race to find a cure as the world behind the mirror goes through a ferocious political struggle between two kingdoms. Very fast paced and creative - recommended for young adult and adult fantasy lovers.
    • 2/5
      it was rather too dark for me. i much prefer funke's earlier books..
    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 3/5
      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 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!
    • 4/5
      A wonderful, action-driven fantasy, beautifully narrated, with excellent characters and more depth than you might expect from an adventure story.
    • 1/5
      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 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.
    • 4/5
      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 normal. Lots of adventure, weird creatures, undying devotion, and civil war between the humans and the Goyls make this a guaranteed winner.
    • 3/5
      I picked this book up at my high school's book fair because I was instantly drawn to the cover. It's pretty amazing, especially in person because one of the guy's eye is really shiny and stuff. When I read the back of it, I thought it sounded super interesting.

      Upon reading the book, I've found that it's probably geared more toward middle-grade readers because of the very simple writing. The story itself wasn't anything spectacular; it was more about solving a problem which was only there to show the Mirrorworld to the reader. I was hoping to read about how Jacob's father went missing -- in the Mirrorworld -- and what happened to him. Funke touches on that lightly, but only for a few pages.

      The characters were alright. None of them were very deep or interesting. I never became attached to any single one. The plot seemed to have a climax, but it wasn't very much of an impact.

      I gave it three stars, because the world was interesting but it wasn't a book that amazed me. There wasn't much to the story, at least for me. I wouldn't advise people against it, but only recommend for light reading.
    • 4/5
      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!
    • 3/5
      It has been years since Jacob Reckless discovered the world behind his father's mirror - a world for which his father abandoned his family. Since his discovery, he has been disappearing into this world for longer and longer periods. The mirror world is Jacob's escape from reality. For in this world, he has made a living as a treasure hunter going on magnificent quests for elusive items. A world where witches, fairies, giants and dwarfs roam freely. A world that is at the mercy of a deadly war.Jacob's secret has remained safe for years, until the day his younger brother Will follows him. Now Will finds himself cursed by the Dark Fairy and rapidly turning to stone. Jacob will have to act quickly to find a cure before his brother is lost to him forever.I had high hopes for Reckless - I really did! But sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations. I'm not saying it was a waste of time either and if there are more installments in this series, I will pick them up, because they do have potential. There were many things of this story that I liked, yet there were also a few that I didn't. I'll start with what got to me and finish on the good points.As Reckless starts you almost feel like you are thrown into the middle of a story. Yes, there is a prologue and you get the back story for the mirror, Jacob as a young boy and his missing father. But from there you are flung into the story. You know Jacob has been to and from the Mirrorworld countless times throughout the years and that he is known for his treasure hunting abilities. There are all sorts of danger and adventure that you catch glimpses of, but only remotely. I would have liked more detail into his earlier journeys. It almost feels like this would be the second book in a series. I think that it is because of this lack of character building that I really could not relate so much to the characters in the story. You only get very limited glimpses into who they are - and that includes all of them Jacob, Will, Fox (Jacob's shape-shifter companion), and Clara (Will's girlfriend). But, I must also say, that aside from the lackluster characters, I was very intrigued by this story. This was an adventure that I felt as if I truly were a part of. I loved the Mirrorworld with all its magical elements - the descriptions were mind candy. You could almost see the forest, smell the woods, feel the urgency to find a cure for Will before he turned Goyl. I also loved how Ms. Funke tied in well-known faerie tale tidbits like that of Sleeping Beauty (who never got kissed by her Prince and now remains a shriveled up corpse), Rapunzel (her magical hair), Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, etc. One last thing I want to mention, although this book is being presented as a YA novel, Jacob is only a child in the prologue of the book. He, as well as most of the other characters in this story are all in their twenties. Although there are no actual sex scenes, sex is alluded to more than once.All in all, I must end this by saying that it did take me a little bit to get into the story. After about 100 or so pages I ended up really liking it. The story was engrossing, angsty, action-packed and full of fairy tale adventure! So, although there were a few things I didn't like about it, I also found that I couldn't put it down. My final say would be, if you've read Cornelia Funke before then you may already know what I'm talking about (Inkspell series) - for those of you haven't then I'd say enter at your own risk.
    • 3/5
      I had a little trouble getting into this one. Jacob and Will's father disappears through a magic mirror when they're children, and Jacob spends most of the rest of his life making trips to the Mirrorworld to search for him. At some point Will joins him and is attacked by the Goyl, a race of stone beings who can cause men to turn into them. Will's skin begins turning to jade, and Jacob - with the aid of Will's girlfriend, Jacob's werefox friend, and an unfriendly dwarf - sets off to find a cure for this supposedly incurable affliction. In the meantime, the Goyl are deeply interested in finding Will, as the famed jade-skinned Goyl is supposed to fulfill a prophecy. The Mirrorworld is an interesting mixture of classic fairy tales and other more unusual fantasy elements, brought together in a realm that is both familiar and quite new. I hope to give the next book in the series a try. Funke's Inkheart trilogy started quite slow but the latter two volumes were un-put-downable so I have high hopes for this one. The world and characters are quite promising, and there is clearly quite a lot more of the story waiting to be told.
    • 4/5
      "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 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)
    • 3/5
      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 fingers ending in blades and needles.
    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 5/5
      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 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.
    • 4/5
      Very good book. It mentions several fairy tales in a new light. I am hoping that she is going to come out with a second.
    • 4/5
      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 fun play on the classic fairy tales.
    • 3/5
      Eh, the beginning was a bit vague on the details, didn't quite get into it till somewhere in the middle of the book...overall, it was ok...not too shabby, not the best thing I've read...it's ok
    • 5/5
      The reader is immediately plunged head first into the world on the other side of the mirror. There are two brothers, Jacob and Will. Their father left through the mirror and never returned, only to be followed by Jacob who came and went, leaving Will, his younger brother with their mother. Jacob is wily and while keeping a lookout for his father becomes a treasure hunter for the Empress. But in this story we only hear about his exploits peripherally. His younger, and much different brother, follows him and because of an error in judgement on Jacob's part becomes enmeshed in a very nasty and unpredictable world. Into this already tangled web comes Clara, Will's girlfriend, looking for Will. Fox, Jacob's companion, and a two-timing, not to be trusted Dwarf, named Valiant join forces to try and save Will from a terrible fate. This story is beautifully drawn with a fast plot. Very enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      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 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!
    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 4/5
      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, 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.
    • 4/5
      In the first book of the Mirrorworld series, readers meet the troubled Reckless family. The father has recently disappeared, and Jacob and Will are trying to understand their new life while their mother drowns in her grief. Jacob searches his father's study at night, when his mother can't stop him, looking for clues to his father's whereabouts. The first chapter opens on such a night, as twelve-year-old Jacob finds a clue scribbled on notepaper he hasn't seen before. It is a riddle about the bizarre mirror hanging on a wall. Jacob tries to unravel the puzzle, which is about a person not seeing to enter the mirror, and eventually he covers his eyes in the glass's reflection with his hand. Instantly, the room in the reflection changes. He turns around, and discovers he is no longer in his father's study. He is almost immediately attacked by a strange and small creature with sharp teeth. Jacob escapes back into his father's study by covering his eyes in the mirror that is hanging in the wall of the strange room. He may be back in his own world, but now he knows his father's secret, and he doesn't plan on sharing it with anyone, not even his little brother Will. The second chapter jumps forward in time twelve years. Jacob is back in the Mirror world, and this time, Will is with him. Thanks to internal meditations, the reader learns that Jacob has been a frequent visitor to his secret world, disappearing more and more, just like his father. Over the course of twelve years, his brother began to view him as unreliable as their dad, Jacob became a famous treasure hunter in Mirrorworld and found a friend in the shape-shifting girl Fox, and their mother died. After his mother's death, Jacob was restless to escape to his other world, and living up to his name, he slips up and lets his brother see him. Will follows him into the world, but it gets worse. They are attacked by Goyl - stone men no doubt inspired by Gargoyles - and Will is infected with their curse. Some men struck by a Goyl become a Man Goyl, as their skin is replaced with stone, thanks to the magic of the Dark Fairy, the mistress to the Goyl king.The complications pile on for Jacob and his brother. Will's girlfriend, Clara, discovers the secret of the mirror after Will calls her, and she arrives and joins their party. Everyone tells Jacob that there is no way to reverse the Dark Fairy's curse, but he is determined. He risks his life over and over to save his brother. As Will's skin hardens, so does his emotions - Goyl are known for their rage and impatience. After several near-death experiences, Jacob learns that he must destroy the Dark Fairy to have his brother back. By this point, though, the Dark Fairy is hunting them. Goyl stories prophesy that a Jade Goyl will emerge to make their king invincible, and it turns out that Will's growing green skin is the only jade stone in the land. Still, Jacob is willing to walk into the heart of the trouble if it means saving his brother. I admire Cornelia Funke, and bought this book with no knowledge of the series, inspired solely by her skills as a writer. Fortunately, I loved it. The Mirrorworld is an amazing place, composed of magic and burgeoning technology like trains and cameras. The place has a steampunk feel. Moreover, the world is built out of fairy tales. Not the sanitized versions with happy endings, but grim interpretations closer to the heart or original fairy tales. In this world, sleeping beauty may never be saved by her prince, instead sleeping in an eternity of living death. In this world, the tailor really does carve men up and makes clothes out of their skin, and watermen lure maidens down into their watery caves to be their captive brides. Yet this world also has flowers that will change a woman into the most beautiful creature with just one sniff, magic keys that can unlock any door, and dragons and unicorns and fairies. It is a land both magical and beautiful, terrible and frightening, all at once. The characters are as compelling as the world they inhabit. Jacob is a dashing hero. He buries all his emotion, but with his brother intruding in his secret world, cracks begin to appear in his armor. Will is the kinder and more obedient brother, but as he turns into a Goyl he is becoming even harder than Jacob. In addition to the complicated relationship between brothers, there is the romance between Will and Clara, Jacob and Fox's friendship (which Fox wishes were more), and the strange feelings brewing between Jacob and Clara. Throw the back-stabbing and greedy dwarf Valiant into the mix, and the plot is seeded with messy feelings and interactions. A busy plot allows for plenty of confrontation and character development, and the action is suspenseful and woven around multiple fairy tales. I greatly enjoyed stepping into this world, and then look forward to visiting Mirrorworld again in future books in the series.
    • 4/5
      It was really good. I can't wait to read the sequel.
    • 4/5
      This was a fun YA/middle grade portal fantasy set in the world where fairy tales come from - so, dark, disturbing, and violent. I loved the characters, particularly Fox, the girl who'd much rather spend all her time as a vixen, and Jacob, who's so convinced he's not a good person that he somehow fails to notice how he's willing to sacrifice literally everything for his little brother. I was a little disappointed by the female characters' roles overall, though, and something about the prose just felt unpolished. Overall verdict: good, but not as good as Inkheart.
    • 3/5
      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 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.
    • 3/5
      When I started this book, I knew absolutely nothing about it, except that it was by Cornelia Funke. Mine is actually a signed copy! Much like with Inkheart, you can since Cornelia's true love of the written world, although here the character escapes into the world populated by fairy tale characters rather than bringing book characters into the real world. Also much like Inkheart, the book is very dark. None of the characters come through as shining examples of humanity; no one is perfect.

      The story is interesting, and, I suspect, not over. The ending felt a bit abrupt, so I rather hope there is more to come. If it ends as is, I warn that it is not an entirely happy ending. The fairy tale world is populated with terrifying creatures from fairy tales, more of the original Grimm brothers' sort than Disney's sweet, happy kinds. This book, unlike her others, is not for children or, at least, it has not been written with them in mind. Although I believe it is being marketed to schools anyway, this book seems in a lot of ways best for adults or old teens.

      The main weakness of the book for me lay in some of the construction. Funke chose to use an omniscient third person narrative. Although the character most closely followed is Jacob, other characters have chapters from what is essentially their perspective. There are frequent interjections in italics, which represent the thoughts of a certain character. Since she shows the thoughts of many of the characters at various points, she has to clarify which character is meant by including the name of the character in question each time. This means that every couple of pages there will be a thought like this one: "Impatience, Jacob. Say it as it is. After all, it's one of your most prominent character traits." The repetition of the name in the thoughts becomes extremely obnoxious. Yes, one occasionally throws one's name into a self-admonition, but not anywhere near this often. This could have been better constructed.
    • 4/5
      I got a copy an advanced reading copy of this book through bookitforwardtours. I have previously read Funke's Dragon Rider (liked it a lot) and Thief Lord (thought it was okay). I have her Inkheart series to read but haven't read it yet. So I was eager to read something new from her. This was a good book, I think it was darker than her other books and meant for a more mature audience (young adult vs. children). Those who like books dealing with fairy tales will love this one.When Jacob Reckless was a boy he found a mirror that could take him to another world; a world he grew to prefer to his own. Now he is older and this time, his brother Will follows him through the mirror. But something horrible happens and Will is injured in an awful way. Jacob starts on a relentless search through this fairy world to find a way to make his brother Will better and to keep Will from becoming the very enemy Jacob fights. This book is darker than the previous Funke books I have read. More at a young adult level than a children's level. The other world that Jacob enters through the mirror is a world at war and is the embodiment of many dark fairy tales. There are many dangers in this other world, and the characters are forced to face many of them. Funke does an excellent job describing and creating this world based on fairy tales. She does a good job making it realistic and keeping the pace of the book fast. There is a lot of adventure and fighting in here, as well as some politics to be dealt with. I love fairy tale retellings and enjoyed all the references throughout the book to various fairy tales.Where I thought the book was lacking was in characterization. Jacob you can understand, but he is not a likable character at all. I never really felt like I sympathized with him and the hard decisions he had to make; but he was interesting. Fox, Jacob's companion, was a much better character. I really felt for her and liked her the best of all of the characters in this book. My biggest problem characters were Will and Clara (Will's girlfriend); neither of these character ever seemed to gain life in the story, they are pretty two dimensional...almost like paper cutouts moving through the plot.The main point of the story is wrapped up well, but there are a lot of little threads left dangling...I am guessing we can expect a sequel to this book.Overall I enjoyed the story. I think people who like dark fairy tale retellings will enjoy the mish-mash of fairy tale references throughout. The book is darker than the previous Funke novels I have read. The world is wonderful and the adventure non-stop. The characters are a bit weak though, you never really are drawn to them all that much. I liked it enough that if a sequel is written I will probably get it and read it.