The Shadow of the Wind

I generally do enjoy the writing style, despite some odd passages which I'll provide the benefit of the doubt due to translation. There's an incredible gothic atmosphere, elevated by the often lovely descriptions and utter commitment to the goofy ass plot. But on that topic... this had zero grip on me aside from aesthetic appreciation. While cliches are not an inherent issue, this felt quite uninspired. And it should be telling that I'm a sucker for many of the devices here - like, the idea of the cemetery per se is completely up my alley. I just didn't enjoy the characters I guess? The protagonist was uninteresting enough plus some side characters made me want to chuck the book at the wall, in simple terms. Plus if my thick head can easily predict the “twist”, you know it's incredibly blatant.

In short - superficially quite neat yet the melodrama and storyline don't work for me. Feel like if I read this a while back I could've loved it, so I'm disappointed I didn't leap at the bandwagon sooner. Oh well.

Pocos libros me obsesionan, pocos son los que logran robarme el sueño y este libro logró lo que no sentía hace tiempo.

Las palabras de Ruiz Zafón son espectaculares, se puede sentir que cada palabra ha sido escrita con una maestría y genialidad única que sólo vi en autores clásicos. Su narración es hermosa y la historia es cautivadora, tanto como lo fue “La sombra del viento” (Julián Carax) para Daniel Sempere. Además, con este libro, uno revive el amor por los libros y de pronto, uno recuerda que son más que pedazos de papel, sino, como dice el mismo autor: son espejos.