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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
The writing is delicious, and the story exciting. I can see it being a movie -- a scary one!
Gothic horror, romance, crime, mystery, this book has a bit of everything. You may think that sounds like a bit of a mish mash, but I was pleasantly surprised and thought that all the different elements fit well together. It was a page turner with plenty of twists and turns and was it a happy ending or not....I'll let you decide.
2021: What the actual fuck just happened in this book?
Okay, so presumably you've made it here because you just finished [b:The Shadow of the Wind|1232|The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)|Carlos Ruiz Zafón|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597921581l/1232._SY75_.jpg|3209783], had a great time, and decided to add The Angel's Game to your TBR. I am here to say STOP, DO NOT DO THAT, STAY AWAY ENTIRELY! I have never been so whiplashed by a sequel / prequel of a book I truly loved.
The first act of The Angel's Game sets up an interesting premise, although I have been fatigued by the number of novels based on religion that I've read recently. I thought that perhaps that frustrated me more than usual here, until I reread a passage that reminded me that no, this was worthy of frustration: "The main pillar of organized religion, with few exceptions, is the subjugation, repression, even the annulment of women in the group. Woman must accept the role of an ethereal, passive, and maternal presence, never of authority or independence, or she will have to suffer the consequences. She might have a place of honor in the symbolism, but not in the hierarchy. Religion and war are male pursuits. And anyhow, woman sometimes ends up becoming the accomplice in her own subjugation." Cool.
I was left with the impression that this would be a similar story to SotW, simply with a new narrator. I would define Daniel of SotW as a reliable narrator and a genuine good person that I spent the novel cheering for. I would define David of TAG as the antithesis of that. It just makes no sense why any of the characters who are involved in the "mystery" central to the book would even open up to David - he gives them no credible reason to trust him.
David's a full on creep to Isabella, his "assistant", a 17-year-old who LITERALLY shows up out of nowhere, ready to cook and clean for him, requiring no payment. Then, his best friend's driver's young daughter, who he's in love with, ends up marrying his best friend because David didn't "make a move". A couple chapters later, she divorces the bff and absconds with David abroad, because she "couldn't image life without him". Excuse me, what?! -1 for (you guessed it) not passing the Bechdel test.
As Zafón's describing one of the most pivotal scenes in the book, in which [REDACTED] drowns, he intersperses the fast paced scene with a weird tense: "I remember that I began to run." Sure, the whole narration takes place in the past, but nowhere is it indicated that David is remembering this story, or that he's recounting it to someone else. These inconsistencies appear throughout the book, and threw me off every time.
The third and final act of this wretched book involved David killing every single person he's met in the book (either by murder or manslaughter) and then the reveal that two different sets of characters are, in fact, the same people, oh and btw David is now immortal. The end. What a mess.
Okay, so presumably you've made it here because you just finished [b:The Shadow of the Wind|1232|The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)|Carlos Ruiz Zafón|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597921581l/1232._SY75_.jpg|3209783], had a great time, and decided to add The Angel's Game to your TBR. I am here to say STOP, DO NOT DO THAT, STAY AWAY ENTIRELY! I have never been so whiplashed by a sequel / prequel of a book I truly loved.
The first act of The Angel's Game sets up an interesting premise, although I have been fatigued by the number of novels based on religion that I've read recently. I thought that perhaps that frustrated me more than usual here, until I reread a passage that reminded me that no, this was worthy of frustration: "The main pillar of organized religion, with few exceptions, is the subjugation, repression, even the annulment of women in the group. Woman must accept the role of an ethereal, passive, and maternal presence, never of authority or independence, or she will have to suffer the consequences. She might have a place of honor in the symbolism, but not in the hierarchy. Religion and war are male pursuits. And anyhow, woman sometimes ends up becoming the accomplice in her own subjugation." Cool.
I was left with the impression that this would be a similar story to SotW, simply with a new narrator. I would define Daniel of SotW as a reliable narrator and a genuine good person that I spent the novel cheering for. I would define David of TAG as the antithesis of that. It just makes no sense why any of the characters who are involved in the "mystery" central to the book would even open up to David - he gives them no credible reason to trust him.
David's a full on creep to Isabella, his "assistant", a 17-year-old who LITERALLY shows up out of nowhere, ready to cook and clean for him, requiring no payment. Then, his best friend's driver's young daughter, who he's in love with, ends up marrying his best friend because David didn't "make a move". A couple chapters later, she divorces the bff and absconds with David abroad, because she "couldn't image life without him". Excuse me, what?! -1 for (you guessed it) not passing the Bechdel test.
As Zafón's describing one of the most pivotal scenes in the book, in which [REDACTED] drowns, he intersperses the fast paced scene with a weird tense: "I remember that I began to run." Sure, the whole narration takes place in the past, but nowhere is it indicated that David is remembering this story, or that he's recounting it to someone else. These inconsistencies appear throughout the book, and threw me off every time.
The third and final act of this wretched book involved David killing every single person he's met in the book (either by murder or manslaughter) and then the reveal that two different sets of characters are, in fact, the same people, oh and btw David is now immortal. The end. What a mess.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sieht man dieses Buch im Vergleich zu „Der Schatten des Windes“, kann ich verstehen, dass man etwas enttäuscht ist, daran reicht es auch in meinen Augen nicht heran und wer sich eine gleichwertige oder noch bessere Fortsetzung erwartet hat, bekommt hier nicht, was er sucht. Für sich allein genommen ist dieses Buch aber wieder ein sehr mysteriöser und spannender Roman im typischen Stil von Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Wieder spielt der Friedhof der vergessenen Bücher eine Rolle, wieder spielt die gleiche Familie eine Rolle, sonst haben die Geschichten aber nichts miteinander gemein. Dieses Buch spielt in einer früheren Generation und es behandelt ein eigenständiges Thema. Mir hat es sehr gut gefallen. Ich habe zwar erst 3 Bücher von Carlos Ruiz Zafon gelesen, doch ich bin großer Fan seiner Geschichten und werde die weiteren Teile der „Friedhof der vergessenen Bücher“-Reihe auf jeden Fall lesen.
8/15/21 - I didn't enjoy this nearly as much. The start and end are good, the middle just dragged on for way too long. Changing from 4 star to 3 star. The first one is SO much better.
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I wasn't sure I'd read this right after the first, as the first made my head hurt, but I decided to go for it. This book was not as good as the first, but still a wonderful story.
What I didn't like most about this one, is there's an element of supernatural to it, that wasn't in the first book, and I didn't care for that at all. I liked that the first book was plausible. The writer definitely has a way of making you have not a clue what is going on and not expect what is when it finally gets there.
It was a good read, but I prefer the 1st.
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I wasn't sure I'd read this right after the first, as the first made my head hurt, but I decided to go for it. This book was not as good as the first, but still a wonderful story.
What I didn't like most about this one, is there's an element of supernatural to it, that wasn't in the first book, and I didn't care for that at all. I liked that the first book was plausible. The writer definitely has a way of making you have not a clue what is going on and not expect what is when it finally gets there.
It was a good read, but I prefer the 1st.
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I read this series out of order, and so came to this novel last, and already knew of David's fate through Fermín's account. Knowing the ultimate ending, perhaps, I had a hard time becoming involved in the story. What's more is David's version of events doesn't correspond at all with what Fermín tells us -- David is an incredibly unreliable narrator. This made it even more difficult for me to buy into David's story and at several points throughout the novel I caught myself thinking "That is ridiculous" or "That's not what happened." Perhaps it was my own fault for reading the third book before this one.
The magical realism in this novel is also much more evident. In general, I have difficulty enjoying this genre, and loved the other two books in this series so much because it was very subtle and I felt as though the plots did not rely on this magical aspect to progress. The supernatural in this novel is far more obvious and it made me question David's credibility even more.
As all of Zafon's novels, this one is beautifully written. The descriptions are rich and vivid. It is dark and gothic, but it is also dense and complicated. At times I confused the characters and felt that the mystery of Marlasca was left largely unresolved as David fled (or maybe didn't flee) the country.
The strength of this novel is in the prose. It gets three stars for providing me with a bit of an origin story for the characters I love most (i.e. Daniel Sempere) and for the writing. As a standalone story, I am very disappointed in The Angel's Game; the rest of the series really carries it along.
The magical realism in this novel is also much more evident. In general, I have difficulty enjoying this genre, and loved the other two books in this series so much because it was very subtle and I felt as though the plots did not rely on this magical aspect to progress. The supernatural in this novel is far more obvious and it made me question David's credibility even more.
As all of Zafon's novels, this one is beautifully written. The descriptions are rich and vivid. It is dark and gothic, but it is also dense and complicated. At times I confused the characters and felt that the mystery of Marlasca was left largely unresolved as David fled (or maybe didn't flee) the country.
The strength of this novel is in the prose. It gets three stars for providing me with a bit of an origin story for the characters I love most (i.e. Daniel Sempere) and for the writing. As a standalone story, I am very disappointed in The Angel's Game; the rest of the series really carries it along.
Rereading this, even though it likely has little to do with Prisoner of Heaven.
It was ok. There were times that were good, and other times it was painfully slow. I was quite confused at times too.
After loving Shadow of the Wind I was very eager to read this book and I am happy to say it did not disappoint. Whilst I did still enjoy the first novel more overall, I did appreciate the way in which the pseudo-sequel/prequel was darker and left more questions open to the interpretation of the reader at the end. The writing is as beautiful as the first book and the characters are compelling. I will certainly read the remaining books in this series before too long.