Recklessby Cornelia Funke

Beyond the mirror, the darkest fairy tales come alive. . . .For years, Jacob Reckless has enjoyed the Mirrorworld’s secrets and treasures.Not anymore.His younger brother has followed him.Now dark magic will turn the boy to beast, break the heart of the girl he loves, and destroy everything Jacob holds most dear. . . .Unless he can find a way to stop it. (goodreads.com)

I stood in a mass mob to get this book at BEA. I was super excited about a new Cornelia Funke novel and I braved my claustrophobia and my fear of mass crowds to wait in line to get this book signed at BEA 2010. I stood there with Miss. Remmers and I finally met Stephanie of Stephanie's Written Word for about 30 seconds as I jumped in and out of the mass mob.I hate waiting in lines and I tend to not follow the crowds to get things, but in this case, I was so excited about a new book by this author that I went against my nature and did it.Holy cow, am I disappointed.This book looks pretty, but by golly did I not like it. I did not like it a lot. I said to my husband at one point, "I feel like I am reading a self-published novel, not one by a renown author!" (Not to knock self-pub'd books, but they do have a pretty bad reputation. I hope you know what I mean!) The characters are flat. I didn't care one bit about any of them. Except maybe Fox. The book is rushed, the world isn't built up or explained at all. The description is... lacking.And fortheloveofgod.... could there be any more "inside voice" italicized lines! Gah! Gah! Gah! GAH!!! Every second sentence was italicized to show what Jacob is thinking whether we need it or not. There was this inner dialogue throughout the entire story that was driving me MAD. It was completely and totally unnecessary and repetitive. I almost put this book down in disgust until I realized how far I had read. The large print, super huge margins and extra spacing made this book appear a lot bigger than it actually is. 400 pages, sure, when you have maybe 25 words on the page (slight exaggeration there, but it's close!).I was almost certain this book was going to be my first DNF for the year, but I carried on. I was curious about the idea of the story I just couldn't stomach the execution of it.The one plus side to Reckless? I got some pretty souvenirs from my BEA 2010 trip.I honestly wish the inside was as exciting as the outside of this book. So very, very, disappointing.