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A review by km0220
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4.0
By the time I was halfway done with the book, I almost managed to convince myself that I didn't like it. The story started off really well, became tedious around the halfway mark, and then redeemed itself as it approached the end.
I noticed that reviews for this book were mixed, which is not altogether surprising. The book is definitely way more dense and dark than "Shadow of the Wind" and the protagonist is much less likable that Daniel Sempere. Actually, I found myself missing Daniel tremendously as I was plodding through the middle part.
But the main reason I have for giving this book a high rating is the narrator David Martin. He is tormented, unsympathetic (for the most part), and sometimes downright cruel. It is pretty easy to disagree with almost all his decisions and choices. But I can imagine he was a really great character to write and, despite myself, I enjoyed reading the perspective of this complex and dark protagonist. To put it simply, it was a nice change reading about a sort of "anti" hero!
I loved all the colorful secondary characters in "Shadow of the Wind" and I felt that this book fell short in that regard. To be honest, I didn't find the players in the book very interesting, perhaps with the exception of Martin's assistant Isabella (side-note: she and Martin have some great conversations!). There wasn't a lot of character development and maybe that's why I really could not bring myself to care about any one of them. And maybe I am just dense and totally unromantic, and hence didn't get any of the "subtle" hints in the story, but I have no clue as to why or how [SORT OF SPOILER!] Martin and Cristina fall in love! Speaking of which, I found Cristina painfully tedious and feel as if all she did was slow the pace of the story.
But despite some flaws, I liked the book a lot and will probably go back and re-read it at some point. I am excited about reading "The Prisoner of Heaven" next! I love Fermin!!! :-)
I noticed that reviews for this book were mixed, which is not altogether surprising. The book is definitely way more dense and dark than "Shadow of the Wind" and the protagonist is much less likable that Daniel Sempere. Actually, I found myself missing Daniel tremendously as I was plodding through the middle part.
But the main reason I have for giving this book a high rating is the narrator David Martin. He is tormented, unsympathetic (for the most part), and sometimes downright cruel. It is pretty easy to disagree with almost all his decisions and choices. But I can imagine he was a really great character to write and, despite myself, I enjoyed reading the perspective of this complex and dark protagonist. To put it simply, it was a nice change reading about a sort of "anti" hero!
I loved all the colorful secondary characters in "Shadow of the Wind" and I felt that this book fell short in that regard. To be honest, I didn't find the players in the book very interesting, perhaps with the exception of Martin's assistant Isabella (side-note: she and Martin have some great conversations!). There wasn't a lot of character development and maybe that's why I really could not bring myself to care about any one of them. And maybe I am just dense and totally unromantic, and hence didn't get any of the "subtle" hints in the story, but I have no clue as to why or how [SORT OF SPOILER!] Martin and Cristina fall in love! Speaking of which, I found Cristina painfully tedious and feel as if all she did was slow the pace of the story.
But despite some flaws, I liked the book a lot and will probably go back and re-read it at some point. I am excited about reading "The Prisoner of Heaven" next! I love Fermin!!! :-)