Reviews tagging 'Violence'

La Sombra Del Viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

104 reviews

voelve's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

cheyrohm's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Confused by the number of five star reviews on this. Did we read the same book? Although it has a couple of exciting parts, most of the plot is obscured by overly flowery prose. I just wanted the author to get to the point already! 

And the misogyny... Ugh. I get it's set in the 40s/50s but there is literally not one female character in here that is described by something other than their beauty, youth, or fertility. Gross. And they exist solely to develop the character of Daniel, of course.

Also, the mystery is finally revealed by way of...someone writing it all out in a letter? Now that's a cheap writing trick if I ever heard one. Seems like the author didn't know how to wrap it up so threw this in at the last quarter of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Police brutality

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

toldinstories's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Death

Minor: Incest

jeanniea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Great storytelling. Similar storytelling style to that of erin morgenstern. Story picks up about halfway thru. I enjoyed the ending of the book! There were a few unexpected surprises in the plot.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

brittishrcoming's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Blood

nightlight9's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Police brutality

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Homophobia, and Incest

xlaraxk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Torture

astrocate's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Le mie opinioni sono di certo influenzate dal fatto che ho letto questo libro non per volontà personale ma per obbligo scolastico; in ogni caso, ho trovato il volume piuttosto noioso e non ho riscontrato alcun interesse nei confronti degli avvenimenti dei personaggi, la cui caratterizzazione ho trovato piuttosto blanda, fatta eccezione per la figura di Fermìn.
Ci sono stati dei passaggi e delle idee narrative particolarmente interessanti, come quello della biblioteca dei libri dimenticati, che però non sono stati approfonditi a dovere.
La storia di Juliàn Carex sarebbe stata di certo più avvincente se raccontata in modo diverso e più breve.
Il libro è descritto come un mistery, ma in realtà il lettore si ritrova con ben pochi elementi, e vengono svelati colpi di scena impossibili da prevedere e a tratti forzati, come

la fratellanza fra Juliàn e Penélope

.
Un'altra cosa che non mi ha convinto è la questione delle età: alla fine del libro

Daniel dice di avere un figlio di dieci anni quando ha quasi trent'anni. Quando si è sposato, dunque? A diciotto anni, prima di prestare servizio militare? Con Bea, una donna che conosceva così poco?

. 
Non mi è parso particolarmente realistico, così come non mi è parsa realistica la faccia tosta del protagonista nell'andare a chiedere a sconosciuti informazioni su Carax, e la disponibilità dei suddetti nel fornirgliele.
In sintesi, i presupposti del romanzo sono molto avvincenti, con uno sviluppo che, a mio parere, lascia un po' a desiderare.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, and Racism

schwabbelliese's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

 Zafón writing is captivating as well as thoghtfull and even funny at times. This (his first) novel shows that he has talent.
What I did have issue with was the overall pacing of the book. It is, to put it simply, just weird. The time span inbetween events is often hard to follow and fully comprehend.  And I just feel like that is super unnecessary.

The novel was definitly drawn out too long for a plot that wasn't really that complicated.

It was also rather obvious that the bookburner was Carax all along

. While large parts of incidental and semmingly unneccesary mentions/descriptions or conversations certainly the worldbuiling and add character to Zafóns 1960's Barcelona, the book could have been at least 50 pages shorter without forfeiting any of it's charm.

The female characters were rather out of touch and of little depht or impotance. Mostly just existing so the male charcters could fawn over them for reasons that if existent at all, aren't illustrated very well. And even tough it seems obvouis that Zafón uses a specific image of or attitude towards women to embed his story even deeper in it's historical setting, he still could have put more effort in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, and Excrement

Minor: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, and War

wiktoria88's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Police brutality

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Blood