The Shadow of the Wind
By Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, 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.
I cannot remember what combination of books I entered into the AI generator in order to come up with The Shadow of the Wind - possibly Murderbot? Possibly the Vorkosigan series? Anyway, the book is fine, although I wouldn't call it a slam dunk for me since it relies on that oh so obnoxious plotline I so decried in the other "tracking down the story behind the mysterious book" book I read: a couple of young idiots bang ill-advisedly and accidental babies ensure, creating all kinds of plot problems. In this case, not one but two teenage couples go at it like rabbits, only to - somehow - wind up pregnant. How could we have predicted this?? And of all loves, teenage melodrama love is the most irksome to me.
Daniel, our narrator spends the first quarter of the book mooning after an older (like, early 20s) blind woman, whom he accidentally sees having sex which destroys him and then we basically never see her again in the book. It was at this point that I honestly wanted to stop reading - what was the POINT? Why introduce these characters who come in then leave, having almost no impact on the plot or characters at all? I guess it was to foster a sense of atmosphere, but for real, the greatest impact it has on Daniel or the primary plot line is that when sobbing to himself in the doorway he finds a homeless man that he takes home and gives a job and this guy turns out to be like, the second main character.
The book picks up speed again as we progress further into the mystery of Julián Carax and why someone wants to burn all his books (especially considering they were never that popular to begin with). We're given little hints and clues, but then the whole mystery takes over and is unraveled all at once in the form of a letter/novella from one of the other characters.
It's interesting, I will certainly give it that - it's very well written, and atmospheric, and the characters are all intriguing and captivating, and there's some humor in it as well, and the mystery is mysterious. But after we find out what happened, I couldn't help but feel... flat. We're taken abruptly out of Daniel's POV and swept into the past to find out what makes Julián tick, and, well, he's not really someone I care about, as a character. We're told about his difficulties with his "father" a hatter who knows he's not his biological parent. There's a long period where his father apparently hates him and resents him and beats on him and refuses to talk to him, but then later they're apparently on good enough terms that Julián finds shelter and care at the house. Everyone keeps talking about Julián's talent and women fall all over him, but he barely seems to merit it. I have absolutely no idea why everyone is so captivated by him, he barely demonstrates a personality beyond "absolute mania for this specific sixteen year old girl".
Heavy spoilers below, so beware:
Of COURSE the lovers were separated by cruel fate, aka an overbearing father, just as they were about to escape. Julián comes back when teased with information about his long lost beloved (he could have come back AT ANY POINT, you understand but it's nice to be asked, first). When he finds the coffins of not only his short term lover but also their child, naturally, he goes haywire and begins burning all copies of his books everywhere, ever, since... it's ridiculous that he was writing books while she was dying on the floor from her stillbirth. I mean, fair shakes, but still, what's that old joke? Men would literally rather burn a warehouse of books to the ground then go to therapy. Julián is so unhinged that multiple people literally die rather than tell him he was banging his sister. He comes by it honestly, I suppose. No one in this book has any sense of proportion except Daniel's father, maybe, who seems nice.
Note: I wrote most of this review in May, then promptly stopped reading any books for the challenge, possibly because I was so burnt out by the last two, and possibly because I wasn't having any luck finding ones for the remaining prompts that were enjoyable. So if this review doesn't make a ton of sense, that's likely why.
15: A Book That An AI Chatbot Recommends To You
