Inkdeath is the third and final book in the Inkheart trilogy. This book picked up directly where Inkspell left off, with most of our characters still stuck in the Inkheart book. The land of Inkheart was in chaos, and everything had gone so far out of the control of what the author originally intended. Life for all the characters in this story was threatened by a ruling tyrant, and Mo had to make a deal with Death itself in order to change this cursed story. Sound confusing at all? Well it was!

I’m not sure if something was lost in the translation of this final book, but I found it strange, confusing, and very hard to get invested in. When this trilogy started, with Meggie and her father Mo, I really liked their adventures together. I especially loved Meggie as a young female character who was obsessed with books just like I was at that age. In this volume though, Meggie was basically sidelined, and the story really focused more on her father, Mo, and his adventures and challenges. Just like I said about the last book, there continued to be more of a focus on violence and death, rather than the relationships between the characters. Even Meggie’s parents had a very strange relationship in this book, that was never fully explored. The author character in particular I found incredibly annoying. I’m not sure if this character was supposed to be someone we can relate to, as a creator of stories, but other characters even pointed out to him that he’s not really that great of an author. I feel like his attitude about a lot of things, (ex. never wanting his story to change or grow), is the total opposite of how most people feel about writing and reading.

The plot of this book could have been made more interesting if more time had been spent exploring the relationships between different characters. There were some really great ideas in this book, and some very deep questions asked about what it means to truly write and create a story; what brings a story to life. Unfortunately, none of those questions are ever really answered or explored. By the time I got to the end of this book, I really didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. Most of them, even Meggie in the end, seemed selfish, foolish, and very one-note. This series started out really really fun, but this book left me confused, disappointed, and thankful that it was over.