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Title: A blot on Inkheart
Review: I loved Ms. Funke's previous work the Thief Lord (although the ending was somewhat abrupt) and that is what led me to this book. Given that she demonstrated a fine ability to craft likable and believable characters in her earlier work, I am going to have to attribute this horribly stilted and pedantic piece to the work of the translator. I tried many times to plough through this story but kept getting turned off by how trite and one dimensional the characters seemed and how stilted the dialogue was. The idea is a magnificent one but it cant get out because of how poorly this was done. The only other example of ruining a perfectly good story with atrocious dialoge that comes to mind is Lucas's final three films. The concepts are lofty and the vision is there but the actors deliver their lines without any feeling. Sorry Ms. Funke -- you flunked.
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