#The Shadow of the Wind

[home-ward]

dark spring days // from my camera roll

ig: hmmurraywriting

[yoestuveaquiunavezfrases21]

1852- Los libros son espejos: sólo se ve en ellos lo que uno ya lleva dentro.

(La sombra del viento - Carlos Ruiz Zafón)

[clockworkbee]

Historical romances, stories of young, innocent love, clandestine meetings, that longing for a kiss, then parting of ways, that train taking one of them far away, writing letters and waiting for them, letters lost or left unread, a lover holding the other as a brutal wave makes them lose their balance, sticking together through the best and the worst of it—stories that break your heart but leave you smiling through the tears.

[marzipanandminutiae]

The fact that I will never read The Red House by Julián Carax is homophobic

[ijustkindalikebooks]

“I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind.

[ninadove]

Cursed author Julián Carax and the Very Mysterious Guy desperately trying to burn his books

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[themelodyofspring]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

August 01, 2022 - August Goals

[mokosza]

[thegirlwiththelantern]

Insta: @ littlepiscesdreaming

[anemonecoronaria]

SPOILERS

The love I hold for Miquel Moliner is the one he should have had, he deserved so much better than Nuria and Julian and the absolute shamelessness they had, especially when it came to his death. I can’t believe how much this man sacrificed for so little in return and for such an awful life, he needed better friends.

And Julian didn’t really love Penelope as much as he loved the idea and memory of her, because what he did was cheating (even if Penelope was actually dead by that time but he didn’t know that). You come back to Barcelona under the pretence that she’s still alive and awaiting your return, and in the mean time shamelessly have sex with a woman who has an unrequited love for you? It’s callous and disrespectful, and I’m shocked how the narrative glosses over this. I feel so bad for Nuria.

The only decent person in that backstory was in fact Miquel Moliner. That’s not to say that I don’t absolutely love Julian Carax and Nuria Montfort, they are excellent characters. I can appreciate the tragedy of the whole thing, and do understand why the author chose to craft his story that way, but I can’t get behind the love story between Julian and Penelope, to be honest. Whatever love he held for her, I think it was borderline obsessive, especially into adulthood, otherwise it was so clunky. I think that could have been improved upon, and Julian Carax spends a lot of time unpresent in the book, when he could have showed up more, he held a certain menace and gravitas that was lacking by the end.

However, I can overlook all of this in favour of the ambience, enchanting prose and gravity of this book. Zafon was a phenomenal writer; I could feel the brilliance of the Spanish language beneath the English translation. The characters also had so much heart and were very vivid and memorable. I think The Shadow of the Wind has a soul, which not many works of art do. If I have a criticism, it was that much was left to be desired from the female characters. All of them were two dimensional and boring, and Nuria Montfort was by far the most complex, and even then she was surface level and lacking.

My thoughts are very jumbled at the moment but despite the flaws, the fact that this novel has a heart and soul that many other books lack, raises it very easily. I fell in love with it from the very first page and this is making me ignore the glaring flaws, even if I’m not blind to them, they add to the beauty of the book in a way that’s very rare. An overall charming and gorgeous read, definitely one of my absolute favourites.

[nightwingsaregoths]

The Shadow of the Wind would have ended 15 years early if it wasn't for Nuria Monfort's abominable taste in men. She's a womantragedy who went through too much and she hasn't felt a requited love for her entire love life in the book. Her Remembrance of the Lost section of The Shadow of the Wind is singlehandedly one of the best parts of the novel. There is no more cheesy comedy, but only a passionate love that she could never escape from, and all the dangers that went with it. Nuria </3

[clockworkbee]

For some reason, books with books inside them, especially the ones without a title on them and/or anonymous authors, are almost always intriguing.

[marzipanandminutiae]

I feel like the shadow of the wind would be a much shorter book if Bea were allowed to punch people

[izzythehutt]

Now that I'm going to Barcelona I've been thinking about re-reading The Angel's Game, which is one of my favorite books ever but feels rather macabre since it's the equivalent of "Yay! I'm going to walk the streets where my fav fictional writer David Martin lost his mind!"

[ninadove]

Heartbreaking: local character does not magically acquire knowledge of the plot when you read their story a second time