I've had Shadow of the Wind collecting dust on my bookshelf for the past three years and just now decided to read it. Was wanting to get more into the Gothic Literature genre as a self-made goal for this new year and I'm glad I finally read it as it's a great read that I enjoyed more than I was originally expecting.
Summary: Book centers on a young man, Daniel Sempere, who comes across a forgotten book called the Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax inside a secret library called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. He becomes so enamored by the book that he spends years of his life to track down its author, who appears to be either elusive or doesn't exist at all. Which sends him down a spiral of questions, violence, and buried secrets of his life, relationships, and the city itself within the shadowed walls of Barcelona.
Liked: The writing itself was far more poetical, lyrical, and free flowing than other first-person narrated books I've read in the past. Especially when it came to descriptions of the atmosphere and set pieces for certain scenes. Every little description being given to the weather, the lighting, characters, and the eerie vibes really added a whole new layer to the visual imagination of a 1900s war-torn Barcelona.
Pretty much every character introduced within the narrative of Shadow of the Wind were interesting and had their own distinct personalities that set them apart from each other in fun and (sometimes) grotesque ways. Even when certain characters, like the narrator, had traits I found annoying, it didn't really bother me to the point of fully disliking the character. Since their flaws are fully presented bare within the narration of the book and doesn't try to sugar-coat it or wave it away as a character making one mistake but being perfect otherwise. No, every character has their own flaws that make them far from perfect but make them very human that has to own up or deal with the consequences of their mistakes. Which I really appreciated from a realistic writing perspective.
I can't say fully if I'm a fan of mystery books as a genre as I haven't really read all that much in the whole uncovering the truths type of stories. But, either away, the mystery in the Shadow of the Wind was compelling and interesting all the way through. With revelations actually making me do a double-take and being kind of stunned when certain events took place, which hasn't really happened with other books in quite a while. Also, the mystery itself being centered on books, the powers/misleads of storytelling, and just the characteristics of writing itself was appreciated by someone who's always loved books at a young age.
Disliked: The only thing I can think of that I didn't really care for towards the late second half of the book (No Spoilers) is that answers are given to the reader by another character, who's not the narrator, in a long stretch of another side plot. This felt a little weird to me as the mystery elements seemed to be getting revealed in a nice pace with the overall flow of book. But when answers are just kind of dumped all at once, it just felt a little rushed, and kind of wished the plot points were either stretched out or placed within the main character's path of finding answers. Didn't ruin the book for me as I already figured out most of the answers before the exposition dump but felt a little off to the overall well-paced storyline.
Conclusion: Was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this work overall and can't wait to dive further into the other cemetery books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon in the future. I think there's three other books and I don't know if they're considered sequels? Or if they're standalone set in the same universe kind of thing? But will be taking a look at those sometime if the writing quality is as good as the first book was. highly recommend this one if you're looking for some well-written gothic mystery literature! (4/5)
by TheDeadReader_