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What Members Thought
Oy - what a disappointment. I would have given this book one star, but I really enjoyed the first 250 pages, and then things started to go downhill after there. Too many twists, too many angles, and too many storylines made this book end up to be a real mess. What a shame - I absolutely loved Zafon's first book, Shadow of the Wind, but I almost wouldn't be able to tell that he wrote this book, too, if it wasn't for the writing style and the inclusion of the Cemetary of Forgotten Books in the plo
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This book would have been 4 stars had it not been for the ending. Certain questions are unanswered and the final chapter is just, well, stupid. Up until then, however, I was enjoying this book and Zafon's writing. Zafon employs almost all of the classic Gothic traditions: a lost manuscript, a rambling, old mansion where one room still contains the belongings of its previous owner, hidden chambers, damsels in distress, and more. Parts of it were predictible but I enjoyed finding out if I was righ
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I really enjoyed the first three quarters of this book. It was a well setup story, and I was really excited to see where it was going. The setting of this book was the same as Zafon's other book I read, The Shadow of the Wind. The two books had a really similar feel: dark, and full of intrigue and suspense. They both had themes of the magic and power of books and scenes taking place in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and the Sempere and Sons bookstore. However, unlike The Shadow of the Wind, wit
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really enjoyed this book, and its vivid descriptions of a goth Barcelona. A couple of aspects of the mystery were a little predictable, but the lovely writing style kept me hooked.
A prequel of sorts to Zafon's earlier book, The Shadow of the Wind (but you can read either one without having read the other). This time he absolutely nails the dark and eerie mood of a gothic Barcelona. I found myself getting chills just from some of his descriptions of place. Our hero is David Martin, a writer of pulp novels, whose life begins unraveling after he agrees to write a book for a mysterious publisher. About 1/2 way through, the story really spins out of control, and I felt the end
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This was such a different story for me. But, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
This book made me feel like riding a roller coaster. From bored to excited to irritated to curious and finally sad that it had to end. It can't compared to Shadow of The Wind obviously, even though some of the characters were the same. It had more open ended questions and many uncertain feelings. But I like it nonetheless. And when I thought I'm gonna hate Isabella until the book ended, turned out I fell for her after half the story. Now can't wait to read the third installment of this series.
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I'm still confused with this book. Was Corelli real or his idea of the devil.
It took me forever to get into this book. It did get better as it went and I truly love Zafon's lyricism and imagination. His setting in Barcelona is so rich and descriptive - I felt like I was there. I adored the first book in this series (it's one of my desert island choices). This one was just TOO dark for me and frankly I didn't like the protagonist that much. ...more
It took me forever to get into this book. It did get better as it went and I truly love Zafon's lyricism and imagination. His setting in Barcelona is so rich and descriptive - I felt like I was there. I adored the first book in this series (it's one of my desert island choices). This one was just TOO dark for me and frankly I didn't like the protagonist that much. ...more
May 27, 2009
Rachel
marked it as to-read
Jun 30, 2009
Polly-Alida
marked it as to-read
Jul 16, 2010
Windy
marked it as to-read
Dec 24, 2011
Doina
marked it as to-read
Jan 18, 2016
Christy McKenna
marked it as to-read
Aug 01, 2016
Jillian
marked it as to-read
