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theglossreview's review against another edition
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.
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
Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, War, and Classism
leahrenz's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This isn't my sort of book - historical fiction, mystery, metafiction, fatefully doomed romances - but it came as a recommendation so I thought I'd give it a go.
The writing style walks a dangerous line between vivid and beautiful description and pretentious sentimentality. I have a real aversion to flowery writing, but I let myself be convinced by Zafon's verbosity, which only occasionally grated me.
The writing style walks a dangerous line between vivid and beautiful description and pretentious sentimentality. I have a real aversion to flowery writing, but I let myself be convinced by Zafon's verbosity, which only occasionally grated me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
chalkletters's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
The Shadow of the Wind is one of those books that seems to always be featured in book shops. I must have picked it up a dozen times to read the blurb or the first page but never quite got around to actually buying it. It’s a book about books, and while those appeal to me as a reader in theory, they are often slightly disappointing in practice.
Such was the case with The Shadow of the Wind. While the cemetery of forgotten books is a fascinating concept, Carlos Ruiz Zafón spends hardly any time there. The Shadow of the Wind isn’t so much a book about books as a book about one author and his mysterious backstory. Except, some of the mystery, specifically Lain Coubert’s identity, could be guessed hundreds of pages before it was officially revealed.
Daniel and Julián simply aren’t that interesting as characters, unless you find adolescent male romances particularly compelling. Sadly, the women they fall in love with aren’t very well fleshed out, they exist mostly as aloof and unattainable examples of femininity, which is tiresome. Carlos Ruin Zafón does much better with the minor characters: Daniel’s father is sympathetic, Fermin’s story is unexpected, Bernada is sweet, and I could go on. In terms of building a large and interconnected cast of characters, Carlos Ruin Zafón has succeeded, but the story he chooses to tell with them isn’t all that inspired.
The Shadow of the Wind’s prose is very nice, there were several poetic descriptions of Barcelona, usually at the beginnings of chapters, as well as some lovely atmospheric moments throughout. It does veer towards pretension at times, but not enough to ruin the reading experience.
Overall, The Shadow of the Wind is solidly written, and has good moments especially in Carlos Ruin Zafón’s minor characters, but the main story wasn’t something I’d especially recommend.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War
aydaybay's review against another edition
There are more problems than I realized upon a first read. I couldn't get past how misogynistic the main character was and how much he fantasized about the women he encountered. And it was EVERY woman. Also, the fact of the underaged sex when he was 19 years old grossed me out. Even if Bea was unhappy with her fiance, he did everything possible to coerce her rather than trying to help her. I couldn't get past the line about her being 17 right before they had sex. The people aren't as dynamic as I had remembered. The good people were basically angels in Daniel's eyes while the villains were as evil a person as you could possibly get. I understand why I enjoyed it before. But there are things upon further reread that I just can't look past.
First Read (2018):
Without a shadow of a doubt, this is my favorite book of all time. I have never felt this passionately about a book before in my entire life. There were so many twists and turns. The characters had so much depth and I never wanted this book to end. I'm so happy that I read this book and that I can now recommend it to others. This book is absolutely beautiful.
First Read (2018):
Without a shadow of a doubt, this is my favorite book of all time. I have never felt this passionately about a book before in my entire life. There were so many twists and turns. The characters had so much depth and I never wanted this book to end. I'm so happy that I read this book and that I can now recommend it to others. This book is absolutely beautiful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Police brutality
justabridge's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I am really sad to have not liked this one - I’d heard such good things about it, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I’m finding I really don’t enjoy protagonists in gothic novels; of the ones I’ve read, they tend to be bystanders, quite inactive in terms of the plot, and quite limp in terms of personality and internal drive. Daniel really hit these boxes, and so I struggled reading from his perspective.
I also found the story quite confused - did it want to be Daniel’s story? Or did it want to be Julian Carax’s? The book was trying to be both separately instead of blending the two, and so you ended up with huge chunks of exposition (sometimes 30-50 pages (ish) at a time), and it didn’t really feel like the characters had to work for the mystery or the payoff.
What really made this hard to enjoy for me though, was the relentless violence and constant oversexualisation of women. It was all the time, in pretty much every chapter, and felt so unnecessary. I think the only woman whose breasts and general sexual allure weren’t discussed in detail was Daniel’s mother, and she was dead prior to the book starting. And the casual beatings, the sexism, the slut-shaming, and other much heavier violence sprinkled throughout...it really didn’t feel like the female characters in this were allowed to be people, and it completely alienated and exhausted me while I was reading. Perhaps to some extent the attitudes were ‘historically accurate’, but I think that parameter was hit and bulldozed through very early on.
It is a shame, because the writing style in this was beautiful, the descriptions of Barcelona were so evocative, and I loved the setting of the Cemetery or Forgotten books. These things we just overshadowed by everything else.
I also found the story quite confused - did it want to be Daniel’s story? Or did it want to be Julian Carax’s? The book was trying to be both separately instead of blending the two, and so you ended up with huge chunks of exposition (sometimes 30-50 pages (ish) at a time), and it didn’t really feel like the characters had to work for the mystery or the payoff.
What really made this hard to enjoy for me though, was the relentless violence and constant oversexualisation of women. It was all the time, in pretty much every chapter, and felt so unnecessary. I think the only woman whose breasts and general sexual allure weren’t discussed in detail was Daniel’s mother, and she was dead prior to the book starting. And the casual beatings, the sexism, the slut-shaming, and other much heavier violence sprinkled throughout...it really didn’t feel like the female characters in this were allowed to be people, and it completely alienated and exhausted me while I was reading. Perhaps to some extent the attitudes were ‘historically accurate’, but I think that parameter was hit and bulldozed through very early on.
It is a shame, because the writing style in this was beautiful, the descriptions of Barcelona were so evocative, and I loved the setting of the Cemetery or Forgotten books. These things we just overshadowed by everything else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Police brutality
Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent