I’m super late with writing this review, I’ve been having a difficult time finding the motivation to work on my blog the past few weeks, I guess just haven’t been in much of a writing mood. I’m hoping to turn that around because I like blogging about books and being part of the book blogging community.

A few weeks ago, I finished reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. This is one of the books that I picked up at the used bookstore a few months ago and I’m glad that I didn’t let it this book sit on my shelf unread for years because I really enjoyed it.

The description on the back of the book says “Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.”

The Shadow of the Wind is about Daniel, a boy growing up in Barcelona in the 1940s and 1950s. Throughout the book, we get to see Daniel go from a young boy who is still dealing with the loss of his mother to a young adult who finds himself entangled in a mystery that runs deeper than anyone could have imagined. We get to see Daniel learn about love and loss while he attempts to untangle the mystery behind the destruction of Julián Carax’s books.

I really enjoyed this book because it was an amazing mix of mystery and adventure. The mystery of what’s been happening to Julián Carax’s novels is fascinating and every clue reveals another person’s story and it leads the reader one step closer to the dark and twisted truth. The search for this dark and twisted truth leads Daniel, and the other characters, on a dangerous adventure throughout Barcelona where they face a variety of villains and their own demons.

I really liked the characters in this book. There were times that I found Daniel to be annoying, but I think the reason for this is because Daniel is a teenager who was in way over his head, and he really doesn’t know what to do or how to handle the situation. Fortunately, Daniel had his friend and mentor Fermin to help him on this adventure, because without Fermin, I don’t think Daniel would have gotten very far. Fermin is an interesting character because he’s wise and eccentric. He also likes to tell stories and share his wisdom with Daniel and the reader also gets to benefit this.

There are a handful of villains in this book and the main one is Fumero. I don’t want to say too much about Fumero, but I will say that he is a very evil person and his involvement makes the story very intriguing. There are also a lot of characters in this book who could be considered villainous, but when you consider the reasons behind their actions it makes you wonder whether they’re actually villains.

I think my favourite part of the book was all of the amazing lines and quotes in it. I liked the writing so much that I plan on writing at least one, possibly two, separate quote blog posts on it. The Shadow of the Wind has a lot of great lines about why books and reading are amazing, and in a sense, The Shadow of the Wind is a book about why books are special, important, and powerful. There are also a lot of great lines about life and love that I really enjoyed that I want to write about in more detail later on.

The one thing that made this book slightly confusing was the, for lack of a better term, “bookception.” The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is about Daniel who reads The Shadow of The Wind by Julián Carax. Both books have a number of parallels and the lives of Daniel and Julián also have a number of parallels. Also, to make things more confusing, the mysterious person who is destroying Carax’s works is basing himself off of one of the characters in The Shadow of the Wind. So to summarize, The Shadow of the Wind is a story about a book called The Shadow of the Wind and the storylines in The Shadow of the Wind parallel the storylines in The Shadow of the Wind. Does that make any sense? I know, it’s pretty confusing when you think about it.

I gave this book four out of five stars on Goodreads. I think the reason for this is because I was in a bit of a reading slump when I picked up this book and as a result, it took me a while to get into. I’m fairly certain though that if I would have picked up it up when I was not in a reading slump, I would give it five stars because the story and the characters are just so memorable and intriguing. To balance this out, I’ll give the book four and a half stars out of five.

Rating 4.5/5 Stars!