Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

43 reviews

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: Police brutality and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

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

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: Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Torture, and Violence

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

kinga1204'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Incest, Murder, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Transphobia

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

panatheart's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Transphobia, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, and Incest

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

florafauna's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Incest, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Death, Homophobia, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Minor: Chronic illness, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Outing, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Torture, and War

jmconway's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

4/10 - Underwhelming. The reviews of this book are so good, but I just couldn't get into it. I think the story is really interesting but it's quite waffley at times, and really didn't need to be 500 pages. I also found that there were some bits that REALLy didn’t age well even though it’s not that old. I tend to rate mostly based on enjoyment and unfortunately I was pretty bored by this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Rape

Minor: Suicide

sherbertwells's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-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

2.0

On the streets of fascist Barcelona, a boy unravels the mystery behind his favorite book. Some stories can survive the fact that their authors don’t really understand women; in this one the plot threatens to buckle under its own accumulated misogyny.

“I imagined Julián Carax at my age, holding that image in his hand, perhaps in the shade of the same tree that now sheltered me. I could almost see him smiling confidently, contemplating a future as wide and luminous as that avenue, and for a moment I thought there were no more ghosts there than those of absence and loss and that the light that smiled on me was borrowed light, real only as long as I could hold it in my eyes, second by second” (147)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: War, Racial slurs, and Forced institutionalization

cryptogay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

Despite myself, I love this book. It is very much a book by Zafón, and has all of the flaws and difficulties of his writing, which I could certainly list for you in warning. 
The themes are very similar to that of Marina, and in many ways this feels like a retelling of that same story. A deep, ghostly, otherworldly mystery is the centerpiece, a young man who falls in love easily dedicates himself to trying to unravel it. The women are pale, beautiful, and largely absent. A kindly and broken hearted father figure is present, but rarely spoken to. It all takes place in an older, more secretive, more ruinous version of Barcelona. The protagonist is reflecting on and writing down the experiences of his youth many years later. It becomes somewhat easy to predict aspects of the mystery, if you've read Zafón before. 
But, his writing is a pleasure to read, his skill in crafting suspense and mystery keeps you reading, and much of the horror is genuinely chilling. The story is intricately crafted, but somehow seems to have sprung up naturally. The humanity of other people is a strong focus. Its an interesting book, and one I cannot help but feel an affection towards. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Miscarriage, and Xenophobia