the first chapter introduced so much suspense that i was hooked right away. it's a dark, rainy night and there's a stranger in the yard staring up at meggie's bedroom window ... (cue the suspenseful music.)
after chapter one i was slightly disappointed. the suspense didn't build up, in fact it dissipated. the plot took too long to unfold. but once the plot did unfold, it was great. and it had some awesome characters to make up for the slowly unfolding plot. my favourite characters were dustfinger and basta.
dustfinger is a sad lonely man. ever since silvertongue pulled him out of his story, he's been homesick and desperate to get back. he's got it into his head that silvertongue can put him back into his story ... but silvertongue just isn't doing it. so, pretty much everything dustfinger does is fueled by his desire to get back into his story; it's the only thing he wants. dustfinger made me really sad. i don't want to give away the ending(s) so don't read the end of this paragraph is you want to keep it a secret ... we find out that dustfinger's ending is really sad in his own story and at the end of this story, he still doesn't get back to his story but he's still desperate to get there, even though he knows he won't get a happy ending.
basta on the other hand isn't so sad to be out of his story. in fact, his whole life revolves around his evil master capricorn and basta loves him unquestioningly--like a dog loves his master. but basta is just as much a tragic character as dustfinger is, you see, capricorn doesn't love basta. capricorn doesn't even hate basta. capricorn nothings basta. capricorn wouldn't even notice if basta disappeared and never came back, he wouldn't care. but basta is devoted to capricorn nonetheless and everything he does, he does to get capricorn's approval, which he never gets. isn't that sad?
the most annoying character, hands down, is mortimer--or silvertongue. mortimer is a book doctor who accidentally discovers his magical ability to pull things out of stories. it's kind of sad that when he pulls basta, capricorn, and dustfinger out of one story his wife and two cats disappear into it to replace them. after this happens, he's so afraid of it happening again that he never reads aloud ever again. that's pretty much the most annoying thing in the world, right there. dustfinger constantly hounds mortimer to read him back into the story but mortimer won't even try because he's afraid of what might happen. also, he never tells meggie what's going on because he's afraid ... of what? i'm not sure. maybe he thinks she can't take it? that's annoying because whether or not she can take it, she's going to be right in the middle of it within one or two pages so why send her into it totally ignorant? anyways, mortimer is always pretty much paralyzed by fear and that just makes me totally lose interest in him. i don't mind characters who are afraid because fear is understandable but when that fear paralyzes them ... that's annoying.
that being said, the book is awesome!! read it! it's got fascinating characters. it's got maddening characters ... like mortola. ugh! i couldn't stand her! and it's got such endearing characters like farid and fenoglio. don't wait until the movie comes out, buy the book and read it! it'll make you laugh and cry and you'll love it.
i loved farid :). there isn't a lot about him in this book, but i hope he shows up a lot in the sequel.
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