Books and Jams Readalong discussion

We did it! What are your overall impressions of this book? Would you say it was worth the hype? Anything surprise you? Was it better or worse than you expected? How do you feel now that you're done? Overall rating? Any other thoughts?

I really loved this book; it felt like true storytelling at its core. I loved the writing. As cliche as it sounds, I felt it was very atmospheric and haunting. When I got to about 20%, I texted my brother (who shares my love of literature) to ask him if he'd read it and to tell him that he should. It felt like this would be an all-time favorite 5-star read for me.
As I continued reading, it became a 4/5 star read for me, I think because the voices of the different characters weren't different enough. There were a couple of times that I had to go back a little bit to see which character was talking. I'd like to see more character development so they'd be more distinguishable from each other. However, I still really enjoyed it.
I do have to say it was a little jarring at first to encounter the sexualization of women and the characters' views of gender roles. I wouldn't say the book itself is sexist by modern values but I would say that the events and characters' perspectives were. I had to adjust to reading it in the context of a book set in the early 1900s in Spain.

I liked the plot, characters and atmospheric writing style of the book.
Daniel, Fermin and Beatrice were my favorite characters and I am really happy that they had a happy ending. Daniel's father was also a dear one.
I did not like the portayal of Inspector Fumero because he seemed like a villain unbelievable/over the top skills and connections.
I had a feeling that Julian was the one destroying his own books but I never thought that he and Penelope were half siblings.
It was a very successful historical fiction book because it described the time period, buildings, society and especially the city of Barcelona.
The mystery aspect, on the other hand, felt just a little bit behind after the first quarter, mainly because of the slow tempo.
Therefore, I also rated the book 4 stars.

Yay, finished this book on vacation. Overall was 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for GR.

I enjoyed this book much more when I relaxed my expectations of it being a plot driven mystery. The characters and storytelling were good, but the mystery part was slow in development and execution although it did have good surprises and resolution in the end.

Random thoughts:

1) Did Julian ever find out Penelope was his half sister? Seems like he didnt or if he did he didnt care...the story focused on her as his love interest, not their sibling relationship.

2) I have a love/hate relationship with his style of major plot reveals in large sections from single characters. For example, the Nuria Monfort section was a compelling read for the content but sylistically I felt it was a bit of a cop out to not integrate those details into the story.

3) The foreshadowing of Daniels impending death in all caps at the end of a chapter was odd...but definitely compelled me to keep reading.

4) I didnt see Julian coming as Lain Coubert. I thought it was Jorge, defending his sister.

5) I loved the rich culture of love and appreciation of books. As someone who could spend days lost in a used book store I really appreciated that part of the book. I really want someone to take me to the Cemetery and let me adopt a book! :) . It was interesting that he also included an anti-example of book obsession in the mix...Julians need to destroy every copy of his book in existence vs Cemetery of Forgotten books that tries to save them. I felt like there was a missed opportunity where Julian tries to find all of his books in the Cemetery....but perhaps that is in one of other books in the series.

I finished this book this morning. And like most of you I really enjoyed it, but had a lot of problems with the pacing. I think the historical descriptions of the war and it's affect on Barcelona were somewhat interesting, but really took me out of the story. That may be where the pacing went off for me.

I loved the atmospheric writing though. It definitely felt a bit dark and a bit gothic. I imagined almost everything happening at dusk with fog in the air. The bits that were a bit creepy were a perfect addition to the overall feel of the mystery.

I loved that there were some twists and turns I wasn't expecting, even though I'd read it before!! It was a few years ago and I'm super forgetful. haha. I love trying to guess what's going to happen or who people are and then finding out whether I'm right or wrong. I loved that Julian and his dad had some reconciliation when he came back to Barcelona.

I ended up giving this book 4 stars.

All right, so I finished the book at 12:02 and had to wait until after church to discuss it... The beginning of the book for me was a 4 star-ish read, and then later on I kept bumping down the rating in my head, which is weird I know but I much preferred the story when Daniel was young.

There is just SO much misogynous behavior and objectification of women in this story from everybody but Daniel's father. It practically glorifies rape culture. (view spoiler)[All the women are terribly treated, Nuria is raped by a Miquel to whom she goes back later on and justifies it 'because he was drunk' (when she says no to a boss later she's fired, naturally). Julian's father is basically exonerated in the last part of the book when he begs forgiveness from his son and mentions he has been seeing Sophia since they've parted company. *eyeroll.* Yeah, that doesn't make ME forget that he beat her and forced himself on her and we had to read about it in excruciating detail. Bea's father beats her and locks her up until she runs away, throwing herself into (eventually) at least somewhat relative safety. But then Daniel's father basically tries to reconcile with Bea's father towards the end, and the author tries to show him in a better light... Let's not even bring up Julian's Penelope, of whom the author ended up doing the "Star Wars thing." Oh yeah, and Penelope's mother, who endured her husband cheating on her with maids and Sophia and who knows who all else and probably a lot more besides. (hide spoiler)]

So yeah, 1940-50s, I know, I know, just, throw me a bone here? Please? Give me at least one woman who has a happy life who isn't dead?

Then Fumero.... I just didn't understand his character's motivations for hunting Julian down. He seemed so evil it was almost insane which I guess was the point, but I like my villains to be a little more multi-faceted? I suppose that's why the author brought up Fumero's messed up childhood so often.

Finally, the way the mystery is "solved" was grating to me. I mean, it's like everything Daniel and Fermin have tried to do is swept under a big convenient hand-waving info dump letter. Gotta trust your MC and readers more than that!

So now I almost don't want to read the next book in the series. If I do, it'll definitely be an inter library loan!

Jill wrote: "All right, so I finished the book at 12:02 and had to wait until after church to discuss it... The beginning of the book for me was a 4 star-ish read, and then later on I kept bumping down the rati..."

Such a good point about all the women in this book. I think I realized that while reading, but not fully.

I wasn't thrilled with the long letter at the end that ended up giving all the answers either. Seemed very convenient after Daniel and Fermin's years and years of obsessive hunting.

I'm not sure about continuing on with the series either. I haven't heard much about the next books and have no idea what directions they will go. I think I own the next one though so I'll give it a shot...someday.

I ended up giving this a 4/5 star-rating, mostly because of the writing style...and my love of character-driven stories. I agree with most of what you all have said in your reviews.

The only thing that I can add is something that struck me as funny. As a parent, I don't think I would feel as willing to expose my son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books as Daniel is. I mean, didn't this thing almost get Daniel killed??? :)

I know that this was a special circumstance and not ALL of the forgotten books would be so dangerous, but still. I'd have second thoughts about letting my child loose in a place like that. LOL

Well, at least the Cemetery also led Daniel and Julian to become friends...as well as solidify his relationship with Bea.

Andrew wrote: "Yay, finished this book on vacation. Overall was 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for GR.

I enjoyed this book much more when I relaxed my expectations of it being a plot driven mystery. The characters a..."

I think, Andrew, that Julian did finally understand that Penelope was his sister, but I *think* Daniel implied that he figured that out on his own. I don't think anyone told him, if Fumero did during their fight, it was not specifically stated.

Remarkably, I have a lot of the same thoughts and observations! I read SotW in 2016 and again in the summer of 2018 to refresh my memory before reading Labyrinth of the Spirits. I didn’t need to. Rereading Prisoner of Heaven May have helped but I’m not rereading that book!

SotW is a 4. It’s fun but basically, Carlis Ruiz Zafon just isn’t that good of an author.

Male and female characters are not developed. I reread the book to try to keep them straight. Women are badly mistreated as others have said.

Nuria’s letter bugs me but not as much as it bugs some other people. If you take out that it is her letter, then it reads like a present tense discussion of the events. I’m ok with that.

But, CRZ can’t move from one time period to another like smoother authors. So he needs the device of Nuria’s letter. In Labyrinth he does this again in a blatant manner and I didn’t like that.

He also can’t end a book so he writes epilogues that complicate matters. For instance, again in Labyrinth there is a character whose story could easily end four times but he drags it out.

He is a fun author and these are enjoyable books, not great books. They are easy and fast reads. But there are action sequences that are hard to follow. Just think of them like comic books.

You can read SotW as a stand alone. Angels Game stands alone too. It is the ravings of a very sick character. You don’t need it to follow the other books but you can read it if you want.

If you read PoH then you should read Labyrinth soon after.