Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

52 reviews

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: Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

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

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

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

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, Incest, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

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, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, 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, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Religious bigotry

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

Minor: Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, and War

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, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

clemounette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Police brutality

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy