Reckless Review

For years, Jacob Reckless has been secretly disappearing to another world, a world behind a mirror, a world for which his father abandoned his family. The mirror world is Jacob's escape from reality. It's a place for treasure hunts and magnificent quests. A world where witches haunt the forests and giants and dwarfs roam. A world locked in a deadly war.

Jacob's secret seems safe, until one day his younger brother Will follows him, with disastrous consequence. Faced with a curse that is quickly turning Will to stone, the Reckless brothers are thrust into a race against time to find a cure before Will is lost forever.Taken from GoodReads.

Reckless follows the story of teenage Jacob who regularly escapes into an unknown world for which his father once sacrificed his life and future with his family. Though he's certain it's his own secret, his younger brother finds the mirror, too, and journeys into the dangerous world, leaving not only Jacob's secret in peril, but the life and future of Will, plagued by a dangerous curse meant to destroy his future.

I'm going to have to admit that I bought Reckless almost solely based on the cover because, let's be honest, it's amazingly dark and haunting. Written by veteran author, Cornelia Funke, Reckless is loosely based upon the life and works of The Brothers Grimm. Alive with eerie and haunting descriptions, lyrical prose, and a story with a mind of it's own, I'd be lying if I said I didn't love the world created within Reckless. Perfectly merging fantasy and reality, it's a story that appeals to cross-genre audiences.

All that said though, allow me to be a bit nit-picky about Reckless for a moment. I had a hard time getting into the book for about the first 60 pages or so. The world is so complete with funky names and fantasy/sci-fi details that I'll admit I was a little lost. Once the story got going though, it definitely didn't stop. It also took me a while to empathize for Jacob. I wanted to feel for him, but his character was kind of flat for a while as he pursued life as a treasure-hunter in Mirrorland. His humanity didn't really appear to me until Will was cursed to become a Goyl, though perhaps that was meant to show the transition in his character. I will say that the eventual switch was well done, and I began to like Jacob more and more.

All in all, Reckless is an entertaining read. I enjoyed it after a while, but I will say that for some, I'm sure the premise and idea will be more interesting than the story, itself. I give Reckless a strong 3.5 out of 5, and I'd recommend it to YA fans of fantasy, sci-fi, and dark tales, especially those fond of The Brothers Grimm.