Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Shadow of the Wind

I think I overhyped this in my head, unfortunately. While it’s still a 4⭐️ primarily because of the feat it is to write so many plot lines and books within books, my enjoyment during it was just *fine.* One thing that kept coming back to irk me were the romantic relationships — I didn’t buy into any of them enough for how much they completely controlled where this story went. I know Daniel started out young in the beginning of the book, but even towards the end, I can’t tell you how many times I rolled my eyes at him. As Isaac Monfort says, Daniel is an idiot for most of this long book.

For all of my complaints, however, I was still impressed by this. I loved the writing style, the discussions on books and what they mean to each person, and the stories within stories within stories. After the first few chapters, I wondered how everything would come together without it feeling almost too fantastical. But it did. And the last ~10% or so when everything came out / came together? I literally gasped at 👀that👀 reveal.

Also — the audiobook is great! There are fun little interludes.

Content Warnings

_qwert's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

ka_cam's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I read this while I was sick with covid which maybe impacted my experience, but I didn’t love it. It was too slow and exposition-heavy to be a compelling mystery for me, and the constant misogyny and violence against women characters (and their flatness in development) was a big turn-off for me.

Content Warnings

chrisljm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

1. this book would not pass the bechdel test.
2. the twist almost made me shit myself.
3. “the day was turning out to be longer than The Brothers Karamazov” is so funny.

Content Warnings

mikarala's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book was hard for me to rate. There are definitely some real strengths: I think the writing style is beautifully lyrical and engaging, the plot is overall really good, some of the characters are really entertaining, and I enjoy the setting of post-Civil War Spain. However, I do think there are some pacing issues (the first half is quite slow imo), there's no fresh takes of the themes or interesting messages, and I never really fell in love with any of the characters, or even really had strong feelings towards them. What got me really turning the pages in the second half of the novel (which was much quicker paced than the first) was just an eagerness to figure out what was going to happen. And while that's certainly not an issue, it's not what I look for from a book and it prevent me from rating it higher even though I highly recommend reading this.

Ultimately I feel like this is a story that follows the conventions of story-telling extremely well, but without any very interesting twists to make it unique.

Content Warnings

district_of_jyoti's review against another edition

Go to review page

The book was a bit too convoluted in plot, and I struggled to find sympathy for any of the characters, except maybe the father, because they were all creepy men who only knew of one reason for women to exist. I wanted more of the disappearing book and author plot, and the mysterious man, but it was taking too long to get there.

Content Warnings

kinddog2073's review against another edition

Go to review page

Writing was "pretty" though deeply mysogynistic, up to and including indelicate treatments of paedophelia, incest, and other minor, unnecessary descriptors exclusively applied to women. Horniest and most unreasonably stupid (even for a horny adolescent) main character I've read in a while.

Content Warnings

More...