Reckless ~ Book Report

WARNING- This is a book report not a reveiw. There might be spoilers!

Reckless

By Cornelia Funke

                                    
Original Language: German

Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company

Publication Date: September, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-316-05609-0

Page Count: 394

Series: Book 1 of 1; unknown if series



Genre: Romance, Dark Fantasy



Reckless is about a young man named Jacob Reckless, who travels through a mirror into a land he discovered when he was younger. Goyl, fairies and all sorts of other fantasy creatures inhabit this land. Jacob's main mission throughout the book is to save his brother from being transformed into the jade goyl and reuniting with the girl he loves that he hadn't seen in years.

Reckless is in third person. The protagonist is Jacob Reckless. Other main characters include Will Reckless, Clara, and Celeste (almost always called Fox). This book has a really dark air to it. Almost the entire book makes you think that the pages are black.

The book starts off with twelve-year old Jacob who woke up at night and walked to his father’s abandoned office. A piece of paper fell out of a book on airplanes onto the ground. On it were sketches, but nothing meant anything to him other than the few words that were on the flip side. THE MIRROR WILL ONLY OPEN FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE HIMSELF. He turned around and was met by his own distorted reflection. He closed his eyes and tried to find a lock or latch. It took him a minute before he understood. He covered his reflection head and found he was not in his father’s office anymore. Suddenly the cobwebs fell on him with a hoarse growl. It was animal like, but looked like an older man. He was smaller than Jacob. When Jacob reached for his neck the creature bit him. Before the creature could get him, Jacob pressed his hands over his scared reflection face. Jacob decided that Mirrorland was his secret.

Next Chapters takes place 12 years from then.

Will has found Mirrorland and has been scratched by a Goyl, a humanoid creature with rock for skin.. The Dark Fairy has put a curse on the Goyl injured. All scratched by the Goyl will slowly become Goyls themselves. Will has been and now the green lines are starting to show. The Jade Goyl, Will might become it, will make the King Goyl invincible. Clara comes through the mirror to. Clara is Will’s girlfriend. Will’s Goyl disease was almost incurable. Only the Dark Fairy can help him and it will be hard to get to her.

First they went to the child eating Witch’s House (the one from Hansel and Gretel) because in her garden grow the only berries that could cure Will. They couldn’t find them. In the forest, the Tailor (who makes clothes from human skin) attacks.

Next they went to the Red Fairy, the Dark Fairy’s sister, to find out how to kill her sister. Fox, Jacob’s friend, and Clara become friends. They find a dwarf named Evenaugh Valiant. They need him to get to the Fair Realm. Once they get there, the Red Fairy tells Jacob to put Will to sleep as to slow the process. Then she told him how to stop her enough to get her to tell them the cure. Jacob gives Will the plant to make him sleep and shortly after that Will is taken by the Goyls. The Dark Fairy told them about the Jade Goyl or Will. Jacob, Clara, and Fox go to the Goyl City to rescue Will.

Clara and Fox have to stay outside the city when Evenaugh and Jacob sneak in. They get captured along with the girls. Evenaugh gets them out and they go the Empress’s palace because the Goyl king is going to be married to a human girl as a peace offering. Will by that time has already turned full Goyl. Jacob then turns the Dark Fairy into a tree because he used the Fairy’s true name. She pleads for help. Jacob asks her to turn Will back human but she says she can’t. Will remembers Clara and Jacob so everything works out except for the fact that using the Fairy’s true name numbered his days alive.



I thought this book was okay. It was very fast and it feels like you missed a book. It got better in the end though. Another book is sure to come. This book didn’t seem to be written by Funke, but that may be due to her new translator. Not as good as the other Funke books but still enjoyable.