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The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Start date: May 1, 2025

Finish date: May 31, 2025

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: New School Group Read - May 2025
[close] New School Group Read - May 2025

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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

Jun 04, 2019 Carrie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: beautifully-moving, books-about-or-mentioning-books, death, favorites, gothic, murder-mystery, historical-fiction, historical-mystery, father-son

The Shadow of the Wind is haunting, passionate, sinister and beautifully worded. A mystery shrouded in mysteries. I feel as if I should be honored to have gotten to read it.

18 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2016 RJ - Slayer of Trolls rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As Daniel searches for the author of a book that has touched his young soul, he peels back the layers of the author's life and learns how much the written word can touch others and change lives. Comparisons between Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Gabriel García Márquez are not unfair or unjustified although Zafon has a long way to go to equal the Nobel Prize winning Gabito. Zafon takes the long way through his story, spending time exploring the background of each character and place we encounter, lovingly ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2007 Haze rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, 2025-books-read

Okay, this book. It’s very meta, it’s very drama, it’s very thrilling, and I’m here for it! However, I have to admit that I find it a little melodramatic at times, and I find it really hard to relate to the characters. This is also a reread, and I remember loving it the first time and rating it 5 stars. This time I feel like I’m only going to give it 4 stars.

To be fair, it is a very good book, written very well with an incredible plot. I love how meta it is; the story within the story, the paral ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 01, 2016 Phoebe rated it it was amazing

Delightful, picaresque, over the top gothic adventure that also feels real and penetrating in its descriptions of the Spanish Civil War. Compelling all the way through, though the very end is a bit much -- perhaps in the tradition it evokes. I read the Lucia Graves English translation, which is well done.

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Oct 30, 2010 Ketutar Jensen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series

OMG! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! I was crying in the end, and that usually is a good sign ;-)

Carlos Ruiz Zafón has managed to create a wonderful story, and the different narratives give so much more depth and color and flavor to the story... In the end I liked many characters I hated in the beginning, because their choices and actions and thoughts were explained as the same happenings were explained by the different people involved in them... and...

Oh, just read it! :-D

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Aug 15, 2009 Melissa rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, global, mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 30, 2010 Julia rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, history, scifi-fantasy, audio-books, politics

Lyrically written, and a good tale full of compelling characters set in a time/place about which I know very little. Surreal in the best way possible.

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