A review by levitatingnumeral
Las luces de septiembre by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
3.0
I expected much more from this book, considering it's Zafón's third and El Príncipe de la Niebla was really pleasant in spite of his not yet so developed writing, but El Palacio de Medianoche... Well, it was okay.
I would probably have enjoyed it much more if I hadn't known Carlos' other writings, for I noticed so many persistent patterns in this story: women are always the object of love, the little boy is always the hero (in the Niebla trilogy), the answer to one's questions will always come when two people have a serious conversation that will also reveal that some of the information we already knew was a lie...
But not only that: his writing style was not spectacular as it usually is, the story didn't develop at all in the first 150 pages, the mystery was so not mysterious and the characters were rather shallow.
Although he didn't manage to master the entrelacement technique in this book, for sometimes there seemed to be enormous time gaps in some of the storylines, this isn't in itself a bad book. It's average.
If one likes reading okay books, this is a good read, but if one is more selective and expects a lot from Zafón (as I do, knowing La Sombra del Viento), then I don't recommend this.
I would probably have enjoyed it much more if I hadn't known Carlos' other writings, for I noticed so many persistent patterns in this story: women are always the object of love, the little boy is always the hero (in the Niebla trilogy), the answer to one's questions will always come when two people have a serious conversation that will also reveal that some of the information we already knew was a lie...
But not only that: his writing style was not spectacular as it usually is, the story didn't develop at all in the first 150 pages, the mystery was so not mysterious and the characters were rather shallow.
Although he didn't manage to master the entrelacement technique in this book, for sometimes there seemed to be enormous time gaps in some of the storylines, this isn't in itself a bad book. It's average.
If one likes reading okay books, this is a good read, but if one is more selective and expects a lot from Zafón (as I do, knowing La Sombra del Viento), then I don't recommend this.