Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

44 reviews

grace_may's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Incest, and Violence

martharosen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Violence, Classism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Blood, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Grief, Antisemitism, Child death, and Death of parent

setrahyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

1. this book would not pass the bechdel test.
2. the twist almost made me shit myself. 
3. “the day was turning out to be longer than The Brothers Karamazov” is so funny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Excrement, Homophobia, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexism

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Stalking, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Blood, Emotional abuse, Torture, Cursing, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Antisemitism, Bullying, Rape, Abortion, Classism, Racial slurs, and Adult/minor relationship

luise96's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Child death

chalkletters's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

1.5

The Shadow of the Wind is one of those books that seems to always be featured in book shops. I must have picked it up a dozen times to read the blurb or the first page but never quite got around to actually buying it. It’s a book about books, and while those appeal to me as a reader in theory, they are often slightly disappointing in practice.

Such was the case with The Shadow of the Wind. While the cemetery of forgotten books is a fascinating concept, Carlos Ruiz Zafón spends hardly any time there. The Shadow of the Wind isn’t so much a book about books as a book about one author and his mysterious backstory. Except, some of the mystery, specifically Lain Coubert’s identity, could be guessed hundreds of pages before it was officially revealed.

Daniel and Julián simply aren’t that interesting as characters, unless you find adolescent male romances particularly compelling. Sadly, the women they fall in love with aren’t very well fleshed out, they exist mostly as aloof and unattainable examples of femininity, which is tiresome. Carlos Ruin Zafón does much better with the minor characters: Daniel’s father is sympathetic, Fermin’s story is unexpected, Bernada is sweet, and I could go on. In terms of building a large and interconnected cast of characters, Carlos Ruin Zafón has succeeded, but the story he chooses to tell with them isn’t all that inspired.

The Shadow of the Wind’s prose is very nice, there were several poetic descriptions of Barcelona, usually at the beginnings of chapters, as well as some lovely atmospheric moments throughout. It does veer towards pretension at times, but not enough to ruin the reading experience.

Overall, The Shadow of the Wind is solidly written, and has good moments especially in Carlos Ruin Zafón’s minor characters, but the main story wasn’t something I’d especially recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Police brutality, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Child death, Animal cruelty, War, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

okarenhelena's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Torture

Moderate: Incest, Miscarriage, Rape, Child death, Homophobia, Stalking, Blood, and Infidelity

Minor: Pregnancy, Mass/school shootings, War, Excrement, and Forced institutionalization

frenandjen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Stalking, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Transphobia, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Torture, Body shaming, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

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

lovelessreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

What a book. It took me around 100 pages to get into the it because the pacing is excruciatingly slow, but it was absolutely worth it. The story was completely unpredictable and really fun, and nerve-wracking at certain parts, to read. 10/10 would reccommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Violence