Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - The Shadow of the Wind

Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

9 reviews

voraciousreader10's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

theglossreview's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No

2.0

Atrocious. “The Shadow of the Wind“ is nothing but a series of horrible events. The plot seems like a competition between the characters: “Whose misfortune is the worst?”

There is barely a content warning to be found that does not apply to this book. The story is full of graphic portrayals of all kinds of violence and abuse. None of the characters are likeable. In the case of “The Shadow of the Wind“, this is a blessing, since everything that happens to the characters is bad.

The sexism and misogyny is blatant throughout the book. It would have been one thing to portray these as part of the era in which the book is set, but “The Shadow of the Wind” contains multiple characters whose only role is to enact and spew sexist, misogynist poison. This is taken so far that several characters introduce themselves through bigoted statements, as if this philosophy was the most important and first thing you need to know about them. This book does not pass the Bechdel test. The book is barely worthy of the phrase “portrayal of women”, since there are only portrayals of objects of desire, self-sacrificial lovers and devout mothers.

Before you read this book, please take a look at the content warnings to see how vile it is. I’m shocked and disappointed to see that the average rating is above 4 stars. The content of the book deserves zero stars, however, the well-constructed mystery and beautiful writing elevate it to 2 stars.

Content Warnings