The Labyrinth of the Spirits

The Labyrinth of the Spirits

by Carols Ruiz Zafón

★★★★

This is the 4th and final book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.

To begin, The Shadow of the Wind will always be one of my favorite books. It is the first book in this series and a classic gothic novel. At this point, I've fallen so in love with Zafón's characters and his rich descriptions of Barcelona, that I have a hard time being objective about his work. I am more forgiving when there are plot hiccups because I'm already invested in the world he created. That being said let me dive into this latest installment.

The Labyrinth of Spirits picks up shortly after The Prisoner of Heaven ends. Our main protagonist is the troubled Alicia Gris. She's a bit of a femme fatale with her own troubled past and wounds, both physical and mental. The book pulls you in immediately with a scene from Fermin's past, but then we move forward in time and the middle has some pacing issues.

The plot is so convoluted with extra characters and layers upon layers of history that at times it’s hard to follow. I didn’t barrel through it as quickly as The Prisoner of Heaven or savor the atmosphere like The Shadow of the Wind. Instead I found that I enjoyed it most when I could sit and give it my full attention for a large chunk of time. Clocking in at over 800 pages (at least in ARC form), you need to sink into this world to juggle the different characters. Once you do, you are rewarded with slow but sure development. Obviously my favorite moments are when we return to the Sempere family. Once Alicia's path crossed with theirs I felt more connected.

***After this point my review assumes you’ve already read the whole series, but there are no spoilers for this book*** 

There's a moment in the book when Zafón actually explains the arch of the series. It's just perfect and gives an insider's wink to anyone who has read all four books. About The Labyrinth of Spirits he says,

 “The fourth installment, fierce and enormous, spiced with perfumes from all the earlier ones, would lead us at last to the center of the mystery, uncovering all the puzzles with the help of my favorite fallen angel of mist, Alicia Gris.”

It's a perfect summary. Despite the author's sometimes loquacious tendencies and a pile of characters that it's easy to confuse (Gris' detective partner Vargas, her mentor Leandro, Inspector Fumero's apprentice Hendaya, the banker Sanchís and his wife Victoria Ubach, the author Víctor Mataix and his daughter Ariadna, the fumbling stalker Rovira, the journalist Vilajuana, the missing political minister Mauricio Valls, the besotted Fernandito, Daniel's cousin Sofía, and on and on...), the book is still a delight. It's a bit of work, but it's worth it in the end because it ties the whole world together.

I'm so glad we get to know Isabella Sempere's character a little better. Often when we lose a parent at a young age, it's easy to turn them into an idealized saint. Seeing the real person, full of flaws and bad decisions, can be painful, but it's so much more real. We finally have a chance to meet her, full of fire and grit, and hear her story in her own voice. It’s always been a flaw out Zafón’s to paint women as either whores or saints instead of giving them depth. I felt like this book gave us a few that were more developed, although it's certainly still focused more on the men. I wish we'd had a chance to explore the world through Bea's eyes, but we never get that privilege. Instead, the story comes full circle with Daniel and Bea's son Julián. We also spend more time with Fermin, who I've grown to love in all his irreverent glory.

BOTTOM LINE: Heartbreaking and beautiful, the story brings all of his characters together, somehow turning all four books into one complete tale. It's a must for anyone who loves the series. If you're new to his work I’d recommend try The Shadow of the Wind first to see if it's for you.

“At the time I was just a kid and life was still a few sizes too big for me.”

“However many sorrows you drag along with you, you’ll only have walked a few steps before bumping into someone who will remind you that there’s always another person with a far worse set of cards then yours in the game of life.”

“Some would argue that no genre is more fictitious than a biography.”

“With the possible exception of an autobiography,” Mataix granted.

“Learning how to differentiate between why one does things and why one says one does them is the first step toward getting to know oneself.”

“The most sincere pain is experienced alone.”

Marina

Marina
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
★★★

I’m huge fan of Zafon’s work and will continue to read anything and everything he writes. This one was originally published in Spain in 1999, before The Shadow of the Wind, and is just now being released in the United States. I feel like that’s important information to have, because anyone expecting the polished work found in his later novels might be a bit disappointed. This one still has his style of writing, but it is a less mature novel, better in theory than in execution. Really that’s good news because it means Zafon just keeps improving as a writer.

The gothic mystery is about a young boy who gets caught up in the midst of a strange and terrifying world. Along the way he meets a young girl named Marina and her kind father. Honestly the book is really scary, in my opinion much creepier than his later work. There are puppets and experiments on the dead that freaked me out a bit. Also, it bothered me that the first lines set up a mystery that doesn’t really live up to its own hype by the end.

The relationship between Marina and her father and our main character gave the story a depth the story desperately needed. The mystery itself wasn’t as good as The Shadow of the Wind, but you can see the early shades of his later work hiding in this book. The plot deals with the ultimate struggle between life and death. We all fight against it and fight to save those we love. It’s hard to accept our fate or the fate of the people who mean the most to us. 

BOTTOM LINE: This precursor to Zafon’s more famous work is a must for devotees of the author. But if you’re new to his books just skip ahead and read The Shadow of the Wind to see if he’s up your alley.

"Days fell off the calendar like dead leaves."

"During those weeks I learned that one can live on hope and little else."

"The territory of humans is life," said the doctor. "Death does not belong to us."

**I received a review copy for an honest review.

*Read as part of the R.I.P. Challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. I'm late to the fun, but I'm going to do the Peril the First, reading at least four books that fit the R.I.P. description (suspense, gothic, thriller, horror, mystery, etc.)

Top Ten Beach Reads

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Beach Reads (however YOU define a beach read!) For me a beach read isn’t necessarily fluff, but it is a book that hooks you and keeps you entertained while still providing good characters.

1) The Harry Potter series! I love re-reading these on vacation.

2) The Count of Monte Cristo: Couldn't. Put. It. Down.

3) Paper Towns: Road trips, Florida, it's perfect.

4) The Pillars of the Earth: A big fat epic novel that you can sink in

and enjoy.

5) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Sweet story and the epistolary style makes it an easy read.

6) Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series: You can't help but get caught up in these.

7) The Shadow of the Wind: The perfect mystery novel.

8) Maeve Binchy novels (Tara Road, Circle of Friends): Great characters, great stories.

Categories I don't read on vacation:

9) Nonfiction: I love this genre most of the time, but while traveling I usually avoid it.

10) Shakespeare: I read a few of his plays each year, but definitely not on vacation.

Image from here.

Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for my Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger. I started blogging in January of 2010, so I had a lot of favorite books under my belt before then. Actually, most of them are still favorite books!

  

1) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

3) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

4) The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

5) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

6) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

7) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

9) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

10) Persuasion by Jane Austen

A few bonus ones that could have made the list: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The History of Love, The Time Traveler's Wife, Anne of Green Gables, Nine Stories, Empire Falls, Watchmen, Gone with the Wind, Travels With Charley and 84, Charing Cross Road

The Angel's Game

The Angel’s Game

by Carols Ruiz Zafon

★★★★☆

It's hard for me to review Zafon's work, because I love it so much. I see the flaws in this novel, it may be a bit too wordy and the plot becomes convoluted in the second half, but I still loved it. Set in the Early 20th century in Barcelona, The Angel’s Game precedes the events in Zafon’s novel, The Shadow of the Wind, but shares a few of the same characters. David Martin is a poor journalist writing pulp fiction on the side, but he dreams of doing something greater.

Zafon’s style of writing just drips with gorgeous descriptions, devious characters and tragic heroes. His gothic tales are so rich I am willing to forgive much that I would fault another author for. Like so many others, I didn't love this book as much as I loved The Shadow of the Wind, but again, I still loved it. Zafon has a few themes he always returns to in his work: the relationships between fathers and sons, men falling in love women in a higher social class, references to classic novels (Great Expectations, The Count of Monte Cristo), etc. This novel is no exception and it includes all of those things.

**SPOILERS: Where I discuss my thoughts on Andreas Corelli**

This year I re-read both Shadow of the Wind and this book and I’ve found that re-reading Zafon’s work is a lot like re-watching The Sixth Sense, once you know the ending you view the whole thing through a different lens. There’s one section where David meets Andreas Corelli and Corelli talks about his strained relationship with his father. He said he was cast out of his home and I couldn’t help thinking this was a clever reference to his father being “God” and Corelli being the Devil.

Also, I forgot quite a bit about the details of David’s brain tumor. The most fascinating thing about this book is its ambiguity. For some it’s clear Corelli is the Devil and Martin makes a Faustian deal for both his health and what his soul desires. For others Martin is clearly a victim of his own delusions, brought on by his brain tumor. It’s possible his hallucinations are caused by schizophrenia or his brain tumor and the entire character of Corelli exists only in his mind. This is possibly enforced by Martin’s mumbling conversations (witnessed by Fermin) with himself while imprisoned in The Prisoner of Heaven. If it is all in David’s mind, then he’s the one who killed his Publisher’s, not Corelli.

Or it’s possible Corelli used David as a puppet and committed the murders through him and then made him forget them. This might be supported by the moment when David saves Isabella and then leaves her attackers in the alley. He hears later that they were beaten with a pipe, just like the one he was carrying. So that indicates he might have done it but then blocked it out, Fight Club-style. There are so many possibilities!

Another indicator that Corelli really is the Devil, regardless of whether or not others can see him; the first author who lived in the Tower House went through the same thing David did. If it’s all in David’s head then the other author’s story wouldn’t make sense. And we see Christina go crazy and speak to an invisible person, which once again suggests that Corelli is there.

So my conclusion in the end is that I think it’s a combination of both things. I think it is madness, but I think it’s caused by Corelli who really is the Devil. He uses the madness as a weapon to get what he wants from people.

**SPOILERS OVER**

I was forewarned by other fans not to rush through The Angel’s Game, as I was tempted to do. Zafon is an author that should be savored. His novels are so full of his passion for both Barcelona and reading that I found myself wishing I could wander the city's streets after I put the book down. I wish so badly that the Cemetery of Forgotten Books was a real place Now that I have re-read this one I feel like I’ve noticed so many more important details and I understand it much better. I have a feeling my appreciation for it will deepen each time I return to it.

BOTTOM LINE: A beautifully twisted and strange novel, The Angel’s Game will leave you reeling and wanting to start it all over again when you finish. The complicated plot isn’t for everyone, but it’s worth it if you loved The Shadow of the Wind. If you read and enjoy that one then I would recommend both The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven.

“We looked at each other bound by an infinite complicity that needed no words.”

The Prisoner of Heaven

***My review assumes you’ve already read The Shadow of the Wind and there will be some spoilers for that book, but no spoilers for this book***

The Prisoner of Heaven

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

★★★★☆

This is the third installment in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, a series which I adore. All three books are set in Barcelona in the 20th Century and this book picks up just shortly after the end of The Shadow of the Wind (TSTW). Bea and Daniel are married and living with their son Julian. Fermín is about to be married when a stranger stops into the Sempere & Sons bookshop where they both work. His presence stirs up old memories and Daniel finds himself in the midst of a strange mystery once again.

I just ate this one up, 24 hours and the book was done. I loved reading it. As a standalone novel it didn’t take my breath away like Shadow or get inside my brain like The Angel’s Game (TAG), but it is an extension of those books and because of that I love it. It returned me to the city and people I’ve grown attached to and learning more about their world was wonderful. Zafón adds layers and fleshes out the back stories of some of the characters and that’s exactly what I was hoping this novel would do.

This book mainly focuses on Fermín’s history, which was unknown throughout The Shadow of the Wind. It deviates from the style of the first two in a few ways. It’s a shorter and in many ways simpler book. The plot isn’t quote as complicated and it assumes you’ve already been introduced to the characters through the other books. I think that some people are going to dismiss this one because the writing doesn’t have the same eloquence, but I was more than happy with it. It connected some important dots and set up the final book beautifully.

Prisoner is the string that ties everything in the first two novels together. TSTW and TAG can both stand on their own as independent novels. The characters and places occasionally make appearances in the other book, but they do not take over the story. In Prisoner we are reintroduced to the main characters from both books and we learn how their lives are connected and intertwined.

We learn more about David Martín, the main character in The Angel’s Game, and what become of him. We meet Daniel’s mother Isabella, who also appears in TAG. There’s also a slew of new characters introduced in this book: Maurcio Valls, the governor of a prison, Professor Alburquerque, who may one day write secret history of Barcelona and the sinister Sebastian Salgado. Prisoner is also an ode to The Count of Monte Cristo, paying homage to that classic with continuous references.

Unlike the other two novels in the series, this one ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. Nothing awful, it’s just obviously setting up the final book in the series. I didn’t feel like it left me hanging, it just made me excited to read the final book when it is released.

BOTTOM LINE: A great addition to the series. I would highly recommend starting with The Shadow of the Wind; follow it with The Angel’s Game and then The Prisoner of Heaven. All three are wonderful gothic mysteries, and while Shadow remains my favorite, Prisoner fills in many of the missing gaps in the story.

"'I think today will be the day. Today our luck will change,' I proclaimed on the wings of the first coffee of the day, pure optimism in a liquid state."

p.s. If you’ve already read the first two books I would recommend re-reading Shadow before diving into this one. I just re-read it and I’m not sure I would have caught all of the references and remembered all the characters if I hadn’t. I’m also now dying to re-read The Angel’s Game now.

I received my copy from the Publisher.

**Zafon also wrote a short story about the origin of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. It’s called The Rose of Fire and you can download it free from Amazon. It features a maker of labyrinths named Edmond de Luna and a printer named Raimundo de Sempere. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s a treat for die-hard fans of his work.

The Shadow of the Wind

 

The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
★★★★★

The first time I read this book (in 2007) I consumed it. It’s almost 500 pages, but I couldn’t put it down. This time I took it slow. I savored every line and absorbed each character. I paid closer attention and let the mystery enfold me and it was definitely a different experience. It was wonderful.

Set in Barcelona in 1945, the book begins as a coming-of-age tale, but quickly becomes more complicated than that. The story is told from the point-of-view of Daniel Sempere starting when he’s only 10 years old. His father takes him to a secret place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Daniel finds a book by the author Julián Carax. The rest of the story follows Daniel journey to discover what happened to Carax and the rest of his work.

The Shadow of the Wind is reminiscent of old gothic novels. The story is a heady mixture of mystery and romance, political tyrants and broken hearts. I had forgotten how enthralling the mystery is. The twists and turns and unexpected connections Daniel makes as he walks the alleys of Barcelona haunt me even though I’ve returned the novel to my bookshelf.

Zafon’s supporting cast of characters is one of the best parts of the book. There’s Daniel’s father, a quiet man with a kind heart who loves his son. Chief Inspector Francisco Javier Fumero is one of the most vicious baddies in literature; he’s black to the core of his being. Then we have Miquel, Julian’s clever best friend and Nuria Monfort a mysterious woman who seems to know more about Julian than she’s willing to say. Finally there’s Fermin Romero de Torres, perhaps my favorite person in the book. He’s a homeless beggar who has been broken by his past, but still has a future ahead of him if someone is willing to give him a chance. He has a lust for life that is both entertaining and inspiring.

SPOILERS

One of the things I love about this book is the way Daniel’s life mirrors Julian’s. They both fall in love: Daniel with Bea, the sister of his best friend and Julian with Penelope, the daughter of Don Ricardo Aldaya who has become Julian’s patron of sorts. They both have obstacles to that love: Bea is engaged to another man and the Don doesn’t want Julian to be with Penelope (though Julian doesn’t know why).

Soon Julian begins to see Daniel as the only way to redeem himself. He feels that his life and his love have been wasted, but if Daniel can be happy then it will all balance out. At the same time, Daniel is consumed with solving the mystery of Julian’s life and can’t really move forward with his own until he has done that.

SPOILERS OVER

About halfway through the book I thought maybe I had overestimated my love for it. What if it wasn’t as good as I remembered? What if it didn’t live up to my expectations? Luckily any doubts that I completely love it were dispelled when I reached the end. It’s just as brilliant as I remembered and remains one of my favorites. It’s not just an enthralling story or the captivating characters. Those are both great things, but the main thing I love is the writing. Zafon has a masterful way of turning everything to poetry. He takes my breath away with his descriptions and his love of reading emanates from every page.

BOTTOM LINE: Read it, just read it. If you love gothic mysteries (like Rebecca) or wonderful characters or good writing, there’s something for everyone and you should read this book! 

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”

“Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not for the merits of who receives them.”

“I had never known the pleasure of reading, exploring the recesses if the soul, letting myself be carried away by imagination, beauty and the mystery of fiction and language.”

“Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later – no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget – we will return.”

“Making money isn’t hard in itself; what’s hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one’s life to.”

“War has no memory, and nobody has the courage to understand them until there are no voices left to tell what happened.”

p.s. Anyone curious about Zafon’s work should definitely start here. If you read this one and love it, I’d recommend reading The Angel’s Game next. It’s loosely connected to this book, but takes place a couple decades earlier in Barcelona. Also, he has a new book, The Prisoner of Heaven, coming out in July! I can’t wait.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED, the winner is ANNIEB!

I love this book so much I'm giving away a copy.

To enter, just tell me one of your all-time favorite books in the comments and leave your email address. I'll pick a winner by the end of the week and I'll email that person and update this post with the winner's name. Then I'll mail them the book, sorry US mailing addresses only this time.