Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

L'Ombra Del Vent by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

59 reviews

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

Superbement bien écrit. Les premiers chapitres sont tellement beaux que je les ai lus par petits bouts, pour les savourer pleinement.

Les éléments gothiques sont parfois trop présents à mon goût. De plus, certaines scènes m'ont fait tellement peur que j'en ai fait des cauchemars (d'où les 4,5 étoiles et non 5).

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

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dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Decent storyline, but includes heaps of misogyny and violence against women. Perpetrators of violence against women are portrayed in a sympathetic light, and their behavior is largely ignored or excused. Women are also objectified and sexualized constantly. 2 stars.

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Very melodramatic. The main character Daniel is overly emotional and falls in love with almost every woman he meets and they in turn are charmed by him. 
Every woman falls madly in love with Julian and is obsessed with him.
The criticisms that are thrown at romantic novels by female authors all apply here. 

While the writing is poetic and evocative, the story lacks much meaning. Yet the author upholds the plot like it is the most sacred of texts. Maybe it was the audio I listened to with piano interludes that made it even more overdramatic. 

Perhaps if you enjoy gloomy mellow drama you might enjoy this, but I don’t. I especially didn't like that the author describes women as sexual objects, plot devices, or the butt of jokes. 

There are so many endings and epilogues, it was worst than the last Lord of the Rings. 

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mysterious medium-paced

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 3 stars
Characters: 2 stars
Plot: 4.5 stars

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

This book was very good when it was good, but honestly dragged a bit in some places. The story and mystery is great, but there felt like there was a lot of filler. Also, I was often ripped out of the narrative when we were listening to a part of the story from a particular character's perspective and suddenly zoomed out to third person omniscient giving us information that the character we were following could not know. Sometimes that sort of thing works, but it didn't really feel like it worked here. I also wish we'd spent a little more time getting to know Bea. There were also a few annoying loose ends.
Wasn't... Fermín wanted for murder? Clara just disappeared into nothing. even though I expected her to at least have some baring on the plot at some point.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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