Reviews tagging 'War'

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

55 reviews

forestsapphicc1's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I adore Zafons writing. He uses words to paint vibrant but also dark pictures amd makes it an incredible journey to read The Shadow of the Wind. However...did he really have to include incest? It's such a beautiful story, but that storyline just put a damper on it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Incest, and Hate crime

Moderate: Sexism, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Child death, Pregnancy, Murder, Miscarriage, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

lidia138's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Incest, Murder, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Torture, War, and Terminal illness

kcbbooks0125's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Chronic illness, War, Violence, Transphobia, Torture, Police brutality, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Gun violence, Death of parent, Sexism, Murder, Lesbophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, and Cursing

kato_dg's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

parkyparkpark's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Child death, Confinement, Vomit, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, War, Violence, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Gore, Grief, Dementia, Sexual content, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Stalking, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

mixyplixl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Death of parent, Child death, War, and Torture

hmlongstreet's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

This book is long... and it took me forever to read. I have had this book since 2019 and I had just lost motivation to read it, as it dragged in some points. The book was also just genuinely long (or long to my standard as I never read books more then 450 pages). It is also one of those books with small words and small margins. However once I got back into it I could not put it down. All I can say is, oh my goodness this book is spellbinding. It is so beautifully written, that I found myself rereading a lot of paragraphs, just admiring the sentence structure. The long story was worth it though, as everything comes together to create a satisfying ending for the story. Every character in the novel gets an in-depth back story, which deepened my understanding of each characters personalities. So much detail is put into every line, which makes it such a gorgeous read.

Also, every character is connected. All of them.

 

Some issues I had personally were that since the story takes place in Spain, street names and locations are mentioned rather often and as a native English speaker I had one hell of a time trying to pronounce them. Some phrases were also left in Spanish and certain references were made that I just didn't understand. Maybe I should brush up on some Spanish history. Halfway through I did end up switching to an audiobook to pick up the pace of my reading (I am a rather slow reader) and was heavily embarrassed at how I had butchered names and places pronunciation.

I plan to read the rest of the books in the series as well, but I highly recommend this book it is just amazing!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Murder, Domestic abuse, Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Police brutality

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Death of parent, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Confinement, Abandonment, Bullying, and Stalking

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: Murder and Violence

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

Minor: Torture

obohobo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Stalking, Torture, and War

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: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Hate crime, Misogyny, and Excrement

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