The Petrified Flesh (Mirrorworld #1) by Cornelia Funke & Oliver Latsch (Translator)

My Rating: 5 Stars

Engaging, addictive and amazingly written, Reckless had me glued to its pages! I’ve read Inkheart a few times and I can’t help but simply fall in love all over again with the writings of Cornelia Funke.
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Once upon a time, a young boy named Jacob discovers this alternative world where he may escape his troubled past. For years he jumps back and forth between worlds becoming a master in finding lost enchanted objects until that faithful day, the day his little brother Will follows him into this magic world. But appearances are deceiving: this world is a very dark and dangerous place where happy endings aren’t waiting in the end of the story. When Will is viciously attacked, Jacob races to save his brother life before he becomes a blood-thirsty monster with skin made of stone. 

I can’t get enough of the dark-fairytale world, Mirrorworld. It’s scary, creepy and it is really the worse that can happen in the stories that are supposed to end with “and they lived happily ever after”.  It reveals the true meaning of the stories that we all know so well, in my opinion. There are new characters, new monsters but at the same time there are also those beloved characters from Grimm Fairytales, so it creates some familiarity. 

The style of writing is amazing. I would have read it in German if I knew the language better, but with the English translation I still got to understand and really feel the story.

About the characters, Jacob is definitely the type of character that I enjoy reading about. He demonstrates his love and worry through actions and not words and although sometimes it seems like he doesn’t care at all, his actions show the bravery one needs to have while facing adversity. He is a great anti-hero with all the qualities and flaws that come with the title. However, Will is the opposite of his brother, and I think the intention was to have on one side the boy that suffered through hard times and tries not to grow attached to people, whereas on the other side, the young, innocent, untainted boy that just wants his brother’s attention. They complete each other perfectly and together they have this amazing brotherly bond that I couldn’t get enough of.

An amazing book that I will definitely re-read soon and that I recommend to all the fans of a dark world of tales!​

​Thank you NetGalley, the publisher Breathing Books, and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book. ​

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