The Golden Yarn by Cornelia Funke: Beautiful Dark Fairytale!

The Golden Yarn 

by 

Cornelia Funke

Spoilers. Hey, Jacob isn’t dead. That’s always good. Though bets on how long that’s going to last are ranging from five minutes to a few days. Magical Indiana Jones just can’t go five minutes without nearly dying. Still, managing to not die in the last one doesn’t mean that Jacob gets a free pass for the rest of the book. The third one picks up exactly where the second left off, with Fox and Jacob trapped temporarily on our side of the mirror. Their plan is to travel back to Jacob’s old home and return to the Mirror World there. At least until Jacob is ambushed by an elf who wants his and Fox’s first born child, Clara is put under the sleeping beauty curse and Will goes through the mirror in hopes of finding a cure. Man these books don’t pull any punches whatsoever.

Characters

Jacob: I love how Jacob is constantly half dead to the point where I think he’d be surprised if he was ever at full health. Equally I love how there’s a ton of sub plot going on in the world that Jacob could not care less about. ‘oh, the world is being taken over by Goyles? I think I’ll just distract myself by finding some ancient magical artifact or something’. I love how it makes the world feel so much bigger than just Jacob’s adventures.  

Fox: I love Fox so much! She can turn into a fox and she’s so fabulously sassy and strong and yet a completely hopeless romantic who is totally ‘not’ in love with Jacob. Like at all. Nope. Not even a bit.

Okay, okay but it’s seriously hilarious how Fox and Jacob’s relationship is built on mutual exasperated rescuing.

Will: I’m pretty sure Will could charm a rock if he tried. Course he kind of does since he effortlessly gains the trust and (dare I say) respect of Nerron the Goyle antagonist from the last book. I actually liked him a bit better in this book, not that I disliked him in the last two it’s just he didn’t serve much of purpose. This is the first time he does something active. Even if he’s being totally used by the bad guy he’s still cool.

Like

They were in magical Russia!! Heck yes! I love magical Russia. I used to read this book about Russian myths and I adored it. There was a myth about a girl made of snow and I distinctly remember a Prince who was completely incapable of following his guide’s instructions. I loved getting a few references to the old stories. It was just fun.

The book has Funke’s drawings again: I was incredibly sad when the second book wasn’t illustrated by Cornelia Funke and I’m over the moon at their return in the third. 

How cool is that though! Being an author who illustrates her own work! Total life goals if I do say so myself.

Kindly allow me to rave about the world building: Because it’s absolutely beautiful. I mean there is a world that is built on our myths and legends and magic, yet they have their own secrets their own myths and even their own crazy conspiracy theories. Like Sanderson or J. K. Rowling the worlds feel huge! Bigger even than the ‘real’ world sometimes. But my favorite part is how small Jacob technically is. Usually in these huge words we are given the impression that the main character is very important, even the most important. But Jacob is just a treasure hunter trying to stay out of the wars and the ancient rivalries. It’s beautiful.

Dislikes

Kinda sorta the love triangle but also kind of not: In all honesty it was probably one of the best love triangles I’ve read. All three characters were well rounded with their own personalities and their own goals aside from winning the love of the object of their affection, you know all that good stuff. But even though it’s constructed remarkably well, I found it to be a bit out of place. Call me crazy but a love triangle just didn’t seem to fit in with the tales of dragons, talking animals and ancient fairies. But that’s probably due to its unfortunate association with terrible contemporaries or romances. Still I suppose it can be classified as a personal issue.

Despite that, admittedly tiny, complaint I love these books! They are seriously beautiful! The worldbuilding is amazing, the fairytale aspect is quite possibly one of the best I’ve ever read and the characters are awesome! I love them their amazing! I can’t wait until the next one comes about. It’s called the Islands of Fox! Oh my gosh I hope Fox gets to be the main characters.