MY LATEST BOOK REVIEW:
THE ANGEL’S GAME – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
All of the hype about this book got me hyped. I brought the heavy, hardback tome home with anticipation. Like all book worms, I long for nothing more than to get lost in the pages of a big, bold, new world. Sometimes my husband has to send out a search party to bring me back from the clutches of a story’s pages and wean me, kicking and fighting, into reality.
I quickly sat down to read the first 30 pages and thought, okay, I see what the author’s doing here, and brought the book to my car the next day, plopped it down in the passenger seat and shut the door, thinking with satisfaction, that I was above the hype. A few days later for some unknown reason I felt compelled to bring the book back into the house and circled it suspiciously for a few days. I reasoned with myself, it’s not like I loved the character (yet) or the story (yet), while the book just stared back at me poker face, with the suggestion of a smile. “Be practical,” I told myself, I took the time to hunt it down, so I may as well give it a second shot, so I did. When I shut the pages the next time it was with indignation. I couldn’t believe I was falling for the hype. And then whammo, just as it happens with all crushes, I soon realized, I was in love with this book.
It’s such a seductive story, complex and flirty with both floral and full-bodied gothic notes from the regions of Barcelona and France. Just when I think I have it figured out, I realize I don’t and am so glad that I don’t. There’s nothing better than going on a pleasurable reading adventure and not knowing what’s coming next.
The story begins, my friends, (pause) ---you see, this here is a sure sign of being hooked---when you start thinking in the accent and cadence of the narrator. The story unfolds in the Barcelona headquarters of The Voice of Industry, a place seething with journalistic envy.
Seventeen year-old, David Martin gets a chance at writing a story and quickly gains a following. But, David longs to write something of substance. Soon, a mysterious admirer leaves a calling card, an invitation that will place him at the crossroads of mystery, tragedy and romance.
Gothic mansions, towers, labyrinth-like libraries and mysterious strangers, both sinister and angelic quickly appear, and everyone seems to have an ulterior agenda. Choices are presented, and ambition, loyalty and goodness are served-up on the same platter. The story continues to open as you delve deeper and more inextricably into its clutches. The question is--- how will you get out? Is there another door? Are you in a house, a library, a castle or another reality?
Zafon has won me over; I am a minion now too. I’m sure his fans out there are thinking with amused-smug expressions, was there ever any doubt? I know that when I am done I am going to go out and pick up his other two books, preferably the hardcover editions, because they are such gorgeous books. The three novels are interrelated and can be read in any order. I haven’t finished yet, I am half-way through, but Zafon’s pen is so masterful, there’s no doubt in my mind I won’t love the ending.
Stephen King calls it, “One Gorgeous Read.” Elle Magazine says, it’s, “Diabolically good.” The New York Times Book Review calls it, “Magic.” And that about sums it up.
By the way, does anyone have the key or know the location to that wonderful library of Forgotten Books? I promise I won’t give away its whereabouts!
All of the hype about this book got me hyped. I brought the heavy, hardback tome home with anticipation. Like all book worms, I long for nothing more than to get lost in the pages of a big, bold, new world. Sometimes my husband has to send out a search party to bring me back from the clutches of a story’s pages and wean me, kicking and fighting, into reality.
I quickly sat down to read the first 30 pages and thought, okay, I see what the author’s doing here, and brought the book to my car the next day, plopped it down in the passenger seat and shut the door, thinking with satisfaction, that I was above the hype. A few days later for some unknown reason I felt compelled to bring the book back into the house and circled it suspiciously for a few days. I reasoned with myself, it’s not like I loved the character (yet) or the story (yet), while the book just stared back at me poker face, with the suggestion of a smile. “Be practical,” I told myself, I took the time to hunt it down, so I may as well give it a second shot, so I did. When I shut the pages the next time it was with indignation. I couldn’t believe I was falling for the hype. And then whammo, just as it happens with all crushes, I soon realized, I was in love with this book.
It’s such a seductive story, complex and flirty with both floral and full-bodied gothic notes from the regions of Barcelona and France. Just when I think I have it figured out, I realize I don’t and am so glad that I don’t. There’s nothing better than going on a pleasurable reading adventure and not knowing what’s coming next.
The story begins, my friends, (pause) ---you see, this here is a sure sign of being hooked---when you start thinking in the accent and cadence of the narrator. The story unfolds in the Barcelona headquarters of The Voice of Industry, a place seething with journalistic envy.
Seventeen year-old, David Martin gets a chance at writing a story and quickly gains a following. But, David longs to write something of substance. Soon, a mysterious admirer leaves a calling card, an invitation that will place him at the crossroads of mystery, tragedy and romance.
Gothic mansions, towers, labyrinth-like libraries and mysterious strangers, both sinister and angelic quickly appear, and everyone seems to have an ulterior agenda. Choices are presented, and ambition, loyalty and goodness are served-up on the same platter. The story continues to open as you delve deeper and more inextricably into its clutches. The question is--- how will you get out? Is there another door? Are you in a house, a library, a castle or another reality?
Zafon has won me over; I am a minion now too. I’m sure his fans out there are thinking with amused-smug expressions, was there ever any doubt? I know that when I am done I am going to go out and pick up his other two books, preferably the hardcover editions, because they are such gorgeous books. The three novels are interrelated and can be read in any order. I haven’t finished yet, I am half-way through, but Zafon’s pen is so masterful, there’s no doubt in my mind I won’t love the ending.
Stephen King calls it, “One Gorgeous Read.” Elle Magazine says, it’s, “Diabolically good.” The New York Times Book Review calls it, “Magic.” And that about sums it up.
By the way, does anyone have the key or know the location to that wonderful library of Forgotten Books? I promise I won’t give away its whereabouts!
Follow me on Facebook. Love to hear your comments.
