Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Prince of Mist

"Ruiz Zafón's visionary storytelling prowess is a genre unto itself."--USA Today Return to the mythical Barcelona library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this posthumous collection of stories from the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind and The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón conceived of this collection of stories as an appreciation to the countless readers who joined him on the extraordinary journey that began with The Shadow of the Wind. Comprising eleven stories, most of them never before published in English, The City of Mist offers the reader compelling characters, unique situations, and a gothic atmosphere reminiscent of his beloved Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet. The stories are mysterious, imbued with a sense of menace, and told with the warmth, wit, and humor of Zafón's inimitable voice. A boy decides to become a writer when he discovers that his creative gifts capture the attentions of an aloof young beauty who has stolen his heart. A labyrinth maker flees Constantinople to a plague-ridden Barcelona, with plans for building a library impervious to the destruction of time. A strange gentleman tempts Cervantes to write a book like no other, each page of which could prolong the life of the woman he loves. And a brilliant Catalan architect named Antoni Gaudí reluctantly agrees to cross the ocean to New York, a voyage that will determine the fate of an unfinished masterpiece. Imaginative and beguiling, these and other stories in The City of Mist summon up the mesmerizing magic of their brilliant creator and invite us to come dream along with him.

Stories

The City of Mist

Shidehdeishidi

Ayesha ahmed

Scintillant! A stunning story; partly mystery, partly supernatural and all enchanting. Although it's young adult fiction which is not really what I am interested in, it was an addictive page-turner.

Olivera Mitić

I honestly didn't expect it to end like this. I thought there would be a happy end and everything would be solved, but seems like I was wrong.
I' m not gonna go into too much detail about why I didn't like it too much, but it was merely because I didn't enjoy the plot and most of the action. Some things weren't explained at all. I loved the first half, tho. 
I am for sure going to check out other books by Zafón.

1943, Angleterre. Fuyant la guerre, la famille Carver - les parents et leurs trois enfants, Max, Alicia et Irene - se réfugie dans un village de bord de mer. Leur nouvelle maison appartenait précédemment à un riche couple qui a quitté le pays après la mort de Jacob, leur petit garçon. Peu après son emménagement, la famille Carver est confrontée à de troublants événements. La maison de la plage paraît hantée par le souvenir de Jacob. Les films que le jeune garçon a tournés avant de mourir et que la famille Carver a retrouvés dans la cave réveillent des ombres inquiétantes. Quelque chose ou quelqu'un rôde entre les murs, une ombre cruelle et insatisfaite. Max et Alicia commencent à enquêter sur les circonstances obscures de la mort de Jacob. Roland, un adolescent du village, les aide dans leurs recherches. Il les entraîne dans des plongées exploratoires autour d'un cargo qui gît dans la baie après avoir été victime d'une tempête des années plus tôt. Autour de cette épave, tout respire le mystère et la peur : les poissons ne s'y risquent jamais, des ombres paraissent à l'affut derrière les cloisons rouillées et dans les coursives délabrées... Et c'est Roland qu'elles épient, Roland dont elles veulent se saisir. Qui accumule les pièges mortels autour du jeune homme ? Quel secret entoure Roland pour qu'il soit l'objet d'une si terrible haine ? En interrogeant le grand-père de Roland, Max et Alicia exhument involontairement les secrets du passé. Un passé terrible dont émerge un être machiavélique, le Prince de la brume... Doté de pouvoirs diaboliques, le Prince de la brume peut emprunter toutes les formes et tous les visages. Il est le maître d'une troupe de grotesques statues à demi-vivantes qui ont élu domicile dans le jardin de la maison des Carver... Le Prince de la brume réclame le paiement d'une dette contractée peu avant la naissance de Jacob. Une dette dont Roland est le prix... S'ils veulent sauver leur ami, Max et Alicia doivent affronter l'être maléfique sur son territoire : dans le jardin des statues vivantes mais aussi dans le terrifiant cargo enseveli sous les eaux.

roman

Le prince de la brume

Jurassic Jones

Une histoire fantastique qui ce situe pendant la seconde guerre mondiale. On suit Max et Alicia qui vont vivre des aventures très compliqués et horribles. J'ai bien aimé l'ambiance que l'auteur place tout au long du roman, on sent l'angoisse et le frisson monté au fur et à mesure. La fin est vraiment très tragique et m'a tiré une larme mais j'ai trouvé que la fin mais du temps à venir et elle tire trop en longueur. Tout comme le début qui mets beaucoup trop de temps à ce mettre en place. C'est une bonne lecture mais qui n'aura pas réussit à me convaincre totalement.

Amy Brown 

YA fiction, but has been on my bookshelf for so long I thought it deserved to be read before leaving the premises. An easy read.

Beth Bartholomew

Having loved The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, I thought I had to give his first novel a go. It seemed like a good read for Halloween and certainly had some spooky parts!

The book was about Max and his family moving from their busy lives to a quiet seaside town during the war. They think they are getting away to safety, but everything is not as it seems in their new house. This is a horror, but I think it only partially focusses on this genre, I would also say it has elements of mystery in it. You know the plot is working towards a big reveal, which I always like in a book.

This is a very short story so everything is very quick and there isn’t much tension. At times I felt like the narrative could have drawn-out the suspense a little more. There was some spooky parts involving statues and clowns that certainly freaked me out a little, but they were over before they began. I know this is the nature of a smaller book, but I’d have liked to of read more about the situations the characters found themselves in.

We mainly saw the characters of Max and Roland, a boy he befriends in the town. It’s all about them, with the help of Max’s sister, trying to get to the bottom of the strange things that are happening around them. I didn’t dislike this storyline, but it was a bit odd. Roland obviously quite liked Max’s sister so it felt a bit third wheely in terms of a friendship, which made it read a little awkwardly.

Generally though, I love this author’s writing style. He has a beautiful way with words and he knows when to stop too. I definitely enjoyed this quick little Halloween read and I’d advice it to fans of the genre.

The Prince of Mist

Reviews