A review by bgemme
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

4.0

3.5 stars. I was gripped by the story in the very few pages, though this is the kind of book I can't read at bedtime because I felt tense! I loved the characters - flaws and all - and thought it was all great... until I got to the supposedly handwritten letter from Nuria Monfort. I can live with a devil-looking man with burning red eyes, but not with a 100-page "letter" that unpacks all the plot that feels more like narration from an omniscient narrator that retells even events where she clearly wasn't with a great level of detail... in what would have been a very short amount of time, and that would fit, folded, in someone's inner jacket pocket. C'm'on.

Overall, there are probably 100 too many pages in the book, and that letter should have been no more than 10 pages.

Still, I really enjoyed the story and spent a good time in Barcelona with Daniel and Fermin, so I am rounding up rather than down.