Reviews

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

pureimagination1317's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

Ruiz-Zafon has a style that is all his own. He writes beautifully, emotionally and makes it all very relatable. I love the way his characters are forced to reflect upon themselves in a brutally honest light. Very good follow up to “Shadow of The Wind.”

nachtvlinder's review

5.0

Ik hou wel van dat mysterieuze sfeertje, en er zit een uniek soort suspens in dit boek. Het is meeslepend. Combineer dat met een schrijfstijl die leesbaarheid en esthetiek opmerkelijk goed samenbrengt, et voila, you have my attention :-)

kroudebu85's review

4.0

Descriptive, mischievous, eerie, and twisty turvy. Everything a mystery book should be.

paienpoesie's review against another edition

4.0

I have always been hard on Ruiz Zafon's plots since I didn't feel like he was offering me something new to read. Maybe the first time he did, but not after you have read a couple of his novels. He always writes about the same lonely corrupted characters, who talk about heartbreaking nonsense while suffering for hundreds of Barcelonan pages. And that really pissed me off, because I think he's fooling us selling the same to us over and over again. His magisterial formula.

But I had to read The Shadow of the Wind for school long ago, and I really liked it. Maybe I am so easily sold to beautiful atmospheres or I am an tough romantic, but the inevitable happened. It was more complex, and I really enjoyed the book. Despite of that, so many years have passed since I read The Shadow of the Wind without the intention of reading The Angel's Game. I had the good taste of those pages still on my mind, and I didn't want to ruin it (with a 2nd part, which is even worse as we all know).

I can't tell what drove me to read The Angel's Game now, but again, something incredible happened: I liked this book much more than its predecessor, although I never thought that possible.

Maybe because I felt irremediably in love with his main character, David Martín. He was so harsh, so natural and such a loser. Why someone on Earth would not love him. The book wouldn't work as well as it does if the main character were different. He simply fits so well in everything in this damn book.

I heard such bad reviews of this book, maybe that was a point too.

Also, I have found serious improvement in Ruiz Zafon's style. He was used to write for children, and the lack of resources was easily discovered through the pages of his previous novel, thing that doesn't not happen in this one. I really like the way Ruiz Zafon writes now.

And well, the plot. Stuck on his traditional ones but I am kind of flexible now about this. The supernatural mixing up with the mundane is always fascinating, although I always ended up complaining. I really love to complain, as you can see. Maybe because it wasn't too trasngresor I don't put the 5-star-thing on it.

bredel's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

4.25

reading_sunflower07's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

jmlizardo's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

mamaxke's review

3.0

i enjoyed this for the most part. as it was going it felt a tad slow, but it was still fairly beautiful to read...

beaureads's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

gaufregirl's review

3.0

I enjoy Zafon's writing. His dialogues are sharp and his character development is strong. I enjoy reading about writers - even if, in this case, the story is a stretch of the imagination to say the least. We visit again the Cemetary of Forgotten books and when our protagonist takes a supporting cast member later in the book, I began to wonder if we would be seeing Zafon's next book about the book this character bonds rescues. It was a love story with murders galore and characters who are eternal (or, if not, who transcend ageing). Kind of reminds me of Huis Clos by Jean Paul Satre. "L'enfer, c'est les autres" except, in this case, it is never ageing when everyone around you does.