Title: The Angel’s Game
Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Publisher: Doubleday
Genre: Literary Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic
Rating: 4 out of 5
From the inside flap:
From master storyteller Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author of the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind, comes The Angel’s Game–a dazzling new page-turner about the perilous nature of obsession, in literature and in love.
“The whole of Barcelona stretched out at my feet and I wanted to believe that, when I opened those windows, its streets would whisper stories to me, secrets I could capture on paper and narrate to whomever cared to listen…”
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.
Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed–a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.
Once again, Zafón takes us into a dark, gothic universe first seen in The Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. Through a dizzingly constructed labyrinth of secrets, the magic of books, passion, and friendship blend into a masterful story.
Three years ago, during the first weeks of my freshman year of college, my mother sent me The Shadow of the Wind after I lamented the lack of pleasure-reading material at the university library, as well as the ease of the classes that allowed me to have enough free time to want to read. The Shadow of the Wind quickly became one of my favorite books, travelling back and forth from college to home and back again each semester. So when Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s next book, set in the same world, was dropped into my lap at the library for processing, I grabbed it and started reading.
The Angel’s Game is not a sequel to The Shadow of the Wind, but nor is it a prequel. They are both set in Barcelona, though in different decades. There are overlapping characters and places, but it is certainly not necessary to read one without having read the other, though The Shadow of the Wind does a better job at explaining the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. At the same time, however, I did find myself wanting to reread The Shadow of the Wind just to check how much overlap there really was since I kept getting glimpses that taunted and teased me – a quality I love about connected books!
Zafon’s writing is as captivating as ever in The Angel’s Game, but I didn’t find myself liking it quite as much as The Shadow of the Wind. David Martin got a bit annoying after a while. I also didn’t like how it crossed the line to fantasy more at the end. I mean, I love fantasy books, and have no problem with urban fantasy (i.e. fantasy set in our modern world rather than an invented land), but Zafon simply didn’t sell it for me. It wasn’t as plausible and I felt that he could have been much more subtle, and therefore more effective, with the fantastical elements. But perhaps I was influenced by the fact that I was finishing it at 2:30 in the morning…
Enough about what I didn’t like, though. I did give it a 4 out of 5. Why? Well, as I mentioned, the writing is absolutely fantastic! It is lyrical and captivating and illustrative and utterly delightful all the while being dark and gothic. What I particularly love about both The Angel’s Game and The Shadow of the Wind is the fact that they are both essentially love letters to books and the people who love books, a category I place myself squarely in the middle of. As I was reading, I kept feeling the urge to just jump up and run to my computer and start writing a story myself! My fingers have been itching to write ever since, which is fabulous! Also, the descriptions of Barcelona and David’s tower house made me start dreaming of moving to Europe just to live in such a fantastic, glorious place!
Has anyone else read this yet? What do you think? It’s so new, none of my friends has yet read it, so I’m dying for another person’s opinion, for someone else I can gush over it with!
(And I know I said that you don’t have to, but I would recommend reading The Shadow of the Wind first…)
Oh, and there’s a wonderful author’s note on the Amazon page for The Angel’s Game!
Your review definitely makes me want to get into this book right away! I have it right here, ready to be opened to the first page, and I’ll get there as soon as I get Christi Phillips’ interview up on the web. Thanks for visiting and commenting on The Devlin Diary review.