Esta es la segunda parte de la trilogía de la ciudad blanca. En esta entrega seguimos a los personajes que ya conocemos en la primera entrega, acá ya sabemos cómo se fue dando la recuperación de Kraken y se presenta otro caso que también tiene cierta relación con él. La forma de contar la historia actual y que la vayan entrelazando con la historia de hace algunos años, me gusta mucho y creo que la autora lo maneja súper bien. Otra cosa que me parece muy buena es el conocimiento de la historia, así como también disfruto con todos los lugares que se mencionan en el libro. Algo que hice fue abrir el Google Maps y moverme en la ciudad como se menciona en el libro, eso sumado a la ambientación que ya te da la autora, te termina de envolver en la historia. Me parece que tiene buenos giros y que la historia o fue pensada entera y luego se partió en 3 libros; o en su defecto, se ha tenido mucho cuidado de que los detalles encajen.
Lo que no me gustó tanto fue la "facilidad" con la que "derrotan" al culpable. Y en esta a diferencia de la primera, te dejan un cliffhanger fuerte como para que necesites leer la 3era, y así lo haré.

Está bien, aunque el primero me gustó más. Parece que se repiten algunos patrones. Lo cual no tiene que ser malo, pero me parece que en esta ocasión hay menos profundidad en todo, personajes, argumento, complejidad del misterio...
Aún así, lo he disfrutado y voy a por el tercero.

4,5

No está mal pero el primero es mucho mejor.
Los diálogos siguen sin ser naturales pero la historia es lo bastante entretenida como para perdonarle algunas cosas.

4’5 en realidad.
Una novela realmente adictiva que me ha provocado unas enormes ojeras.
Me ha gustado bastante la trama aunque sí que siento que se ha repetido un poco la del primero pero aún así la ha manejado muy bien.
Muy recomendable este libro pero de momento me decanto por El silencio de la ciudad blanca.
A ver el desenlace...

El segundo libro de la trilogía y no decae


seldom a book makes me angry enough to write a review, but i guess this is a warning to potential readers: too much drama, and VERYYYY bad misogyny.

i unfortunately picked up this book not really knowing it's part of a trilogy - i was under the impression it was part of a longer series about the same detective (think Poirot , for example) where you could read the books standalone. this is just a preface so that anyone reading this review is aware of that first. i blame the synopsis of the Bulgarian edition for this.

my issues have nothing to do with that - ironically, i had no problems understanding what happened previously, rather my issue comes from the overexplaining. i'm glad in some ways that i had no previous context, because i feel like if i were a return reader, i'd get a little annoyed by all the references to the previous story - it felt a little bit like the author didn't trust the reader to remember Anything. aside the fact i couldn't care less about the characters themselves except the victims, i have to say Ayala is an awful profiler. i guessed a lot of the twists (which in my opinion were actually very good! i loved the mystery!) LONG before he did, and could tell much about the suspects before he did as well. he's not good at what he does, nor did i get an impression he particularly cares about anything but himself.

my main issues with this book are: i hated the personal melodrama, and i DESPISED the writing style. i kept reading because i wanted to know the mystery of the murder, it was really interesting, and very well-laid out. i'd say about 200 pages of the 400 in this translation i read were unnecessary and hollow. i simply couldn't be bothered to care about the main characters' personal drama and story, and i felt it was way too awkward and in your face for no good reason. that, however, could be from the fact that i hadn't read book 1 and the synopsis of the translation i read emphasized the murder a LOT more than the drama, so take that with a grain of salt.

and still, i felt like Kraken didn't care about anything, at all, except his own feelings, his own experiences, what he does or doesn't deserve, or what he feels guilty or not about. he justifies himself constantly, and the narrative excuses him for everything he misses or does wrong.

and oh, the writing. unfortunately, it reads like a cis-heterosexual man trying his best to sound like a film noir. it was uncomfortable. i'm not a child, and i've read my fair share of both erotica AND terrible writing (esp descriptions of women) but this was so bad i honestly just don't want to pick up unfamiliar authors ever again. it was shallow, objectifying, and unnecessary. the descriptions of "curves" and "ample bosoms" (indirectly from the translation i read), or about Ayala's "nether regions" were pretty revolting.
i was also very angry by the fact that the only positive female characters' interaction between each other was ENTIRELY about Kraken, and in scenes where they reference each other it's about him, too. it really felt like the two probably lovely women had nothing else in their lives besides him, and i mean NOTHING. also, the situation with him selling/giving away his girlfriend's (or, whatever they are in the end) pregnancy away without her knowledge or consent was only addressed in one scene and never again in this book. how is he allowed to hold his daughter in the delivery room? and why on earth was Alba found in the EPILOGUE? she felt like an afterthought. i really think her disappearance should have been given more attention.

the dialogue in many places also felt very overexplained and like the characters were all reading from a psychology book. i understand maybe their profession made them more able to understand their own feelings, but none of their actions spoke to this maturity. it felt very much like "look at how MATURE and GOOD WITH EMOTIONS these people are!" with nothing to back it up. it felt really... awkward.

everything felt like quite a severe case of internalized misogyny honestly.

overall, possibly a good read for returnees for this author, but otherwise i wouldn't recommend it - the murder mystery is interesting, but you have to sift through too much garbage to get to the good parts.

Intriga, drama, amor, celos, familia, amistades... Enganche total

4,5* ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

¿Me ha encantado? Sí
¿Tanto como el primero? Sí

Me ha volado la cabeza literalmente. Me flipa cómo todo está relacionado desde un principio, como la autora juega con nosotros y al final cuando te muestra la verdad, que la has tenido enfrente todo tiempo, te quedas con la boca abierta.

Fantástica. Sigue creándome la necesidad de volver a sitios preciosos conocidos y desear conocer los que aún desconozco. Bien narrada y mejor documentada, pude prever algunos momentos e identidades, pero es una delicia de principio a fin. Ya estoy con el siguiente y último libro de la trilogia: Aquí termina tu caza, aquí comienza la mía.