zafon is a brilliant storyteller.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.