The Labyrinth of the Spirits - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

[Jason]

Book 4 in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books Series though they are also stand alone books and can be read in any order, though they all must be read.

This one is my favorite. The story slowly morphed from book to book, finally ending in a conspiracy and murder mystery. Barcelona is even worse than Gotham City. I honestly hated having to put the book down and go to bed. I found every excuse to pick up the book and start reading. These characters are more than characters in a book. After a 4 volume saga, these are friends, or enemies, and even family. I almost jumped off the train after book 2, but am very glad I didn't.

The last 50 pages or so are the slowest of the book but wraps everything up.

I have not loved every book in the series, but all books must be read.

Quote from The Labyrinth of the Spirits

The Shadow of the Wind
"The first volume would focus on the story of a reader...: on how, when he was young, he'd discovered the world of books - and, by extension, life - through an enigmatic novel by an unknown author concealing a huge mystery, the sort that leaves you drooling at the mouth. All that would provide the foundation for building, in one stroke of the pen, a novel that would combine all known and unknown forms."

The Angel's Game
"The second volume, replete with a morbid, sinister aftertaste, seeking to goad the mainstream reader, would narrate the macabre wanderings of an ill-fated novelist... who would chart, in the first person, how he loses his mind, and drags us along in his descent into the hell of his own madness, thus becoming an even less reliable narrator than the Prince of Hell, who would also stroll around the novel's pages. Or perhaps he wouldn't, because it would all be a game in which the reader is the one who must finish the jigsaw puzzle and decide what kind of book it is."

The Prisoner of Heaven
"The third volume, assuming some charitable reader has managed to survive the first two and not decide to board a different tram heading for a happy ending, would save us momentarily from the underworld and offer us the story of a character, the character par excellence and the voice of the official conscience of the story... His story would show us, with picaresque spirit, how he became the person he was, and his many misadventures in the most turbulent years of the century would reveal the lines connecting all the parts of the labyrinth."

The Labyrinth of the Spirits
"The fourth installment, fierce and enormous, spiced with perfumes from all the earlier ones, would lead us at last to the center of the mystery, uncovering all the puzzles with the help of my favorite fallen angel of the mist... The sage would contain villains and heroes, and a thousand tunnels through which the reader would be able to explore a kaleidoscopic plot resembling that mirage of perspectives I'd discovered with my father in the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books."

[Joy D]

Nice review, Jason! Thanks for the info on all four books. I have only read the first one so far.

[Amy]

Jason, I am trailing behind you at 38%. I am truly delighted that you have loved these books and series, and especially the last. I thought it was a great review. I am enjoying seeing it all link together. Can't wait to use the link the you sent me.

[Jason]

Ill be very disappointed if this is never made into a mini series.