I agree with everything everyone is saying! In contrast to my first blog I was getting really fustrated with how slow the beginning was to me. All of a sudden I hit a point where I couldn't put the book down. Krystal made a good point saying how the plot kept twisting and as soon as you thought you knew what was going to happen something else would. Funke does an amazing job at capturing your attention in these runaway children. I believe Megan Snyder blogged earlier about Prosper being the protagonist. I never really thought about how other children could relate to him until she said something. Children do go through so much these days and within this character children can relate. By the end of the book they too could realize how important family and siblings are. Funke also does a great job of detailing everything so greatly. She gives so much detail that it allows your mind to imagine the scene so perfectly. You can not only imagine the scenes but almost smell them. I never expected the runaways to actually somewhat befriend Victor in the process. I still have a few pages left to go and I cant wait to finish!