manish003's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
One among the few best books i have read todate. I read this wonderful book containing nearly 600 pages through my practicals and end semester exams for it's enchanting grip too strong to escape. The prose is beautiful. Words of Carlos Ruiz Zafon felt like butter and i felt like a hot knife cutting through it while reading them. I started loving this book even before crossing 20%. Inspired me to research more about the author, sad to know that he died only recently. Will try other books from Cementry of forgotten books series but now i will read some light hearted book next.
This is a book of suspense, thrill and mystery. This is book of love and also heartbreak. It is about hope and optimism while also about living in the past and self hatred, and all other fealings love can inspire. It is not a single love story but multiple. It also has more than one protagonists. It has well sculpted characters each unique in their own way. Most in one way or another has a sad backstory. This book happens in the midst of and the years following the spanish civil war, focussing on state of Barcelona. Really loved the ending. Read it yourself for you may experience the beauty of the book and understand me who is trying in vain at a loss of words to describe its beauty.
"There are worse prisons than words"
- I don't think so
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Infidelity, Torture, War, Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, and Police brutality
This book is not for those who hate good books.chalkletters's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Death, Police brutality, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Child death, Animal cruelty, War, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy
aydaybay's review against another edition
Spoiler
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.Spoiler
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.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, and Adult/minor relationship
justabridge's review against another edition
- 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 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.
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Homophobia
Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt