Beejay read and liked Suzy's review of The Shadow of the Wind:

"For a book heralded as an 'international sensation', it fell short of my expectations. For a book, period, it is reasonably addictive and memorable.

My main complaint is the portrayal of females, especially the supposed 'main characters'....more For a book heralded as an 'international sensation', it fell short of my expectations. For a book, period, it is reasonably addictive and memorable.

My main complaint is the portrayal of females, especially the supposed 'main characters'. They seem to be the same femme fatale in different bodies, flaunting different eye colours - an object of masculine desire and ultimate sacrifice. Beyond that, they serve only as catalysts. Kill off the sweetheart, so the man has a purpose. Kill off the mother, so the son has a quest.

The romances are also stilted and highly suspicious. How is it that a man can love a woman to the point of madness, wait for her seventeen years after only an 'emotion-loaded' glance and a quickie? An idea which does no justice to either sex. Parts of this book read like portions cut from those lurid romances with swooning raven-haired beauties and muscular dukes. Others are so insightful and REAL, that you wonder if there aren't two authors. The descriptions of 'that' book - the first to ever mean something - in particular, and the effect it can have on an 'untouched' heart...should be enough for "Shadow of the Wind" to leave an impression. (less) "

Beejay read and liked Daniel's review of The Shadow of the Wind:

"After reading The Shadow of the Wind, I was left with somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, this is such a beautifully written book, and is in essence an ode to literature. On the other hand, there are some serious flaws which distracts from the ...more After reading The Shadow of the Wind, I was left with somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, this is such a beautifully written book, and is in essence an ode to literature. On the other hand, there are some serious flaws which distracts from the whole experience.

The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is Zafon's skill in artistic writing. It reminds me of why I love to read in the first place, and makes me wish I could write as beautiful as this. The book contains lots of memorable quotes as well, definitely a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

So after about 50 pages in, I was ready to love this book as I seldom loved another book before. But as the story progressed, that resolution started to diminish slowly but surely. Ironically, one the more obvious flaws is Zafon's overuse of stylistic writing. It seems like everyone acts or talks in a very elaborate manner, even in the simplest of situations, and this can really become tiresome after a while.

The plot also isn't as ingenious as the hype would make you believe. Zafon does a good job creating a sense of mystery early on, and there are obvious parallels between the main character Daniel Sempere, and Julian Carax, the writer whose past he is trying to uncover. But ultimately, the stories of Daniel and Julian are seperate ones, and they just happen to interconnect with one another more by chance than by design.

By far the most troublesome flaw is the way the mysteries are "resolved". All too often, answers are given by having some side character or another tell his or her story for pages. Nowhere is this more evident than at the end of the book, where literally every single detail is revealed in the form of a (very) long letter, even details which the writer of the letter never could have known, since she wasn't even involved in those events. It's as if Zafon did not have a clue or the motivation to write a logical conclusion, and decided to just dump all the information in one place.

With a bit more attention to actual plot and character development, this could have been one of my favourite books. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed reading the Shadow of the Wind. It's just a shame that it falls some way short of its potential.(less) "