Friday, June 17, 2011

Book review: The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

My summary:
In Calcutta in the 1930's a soldier is fleeing with two precious bundles in his arms. He has to make it across town and deliver the two bundles somewhere they're safe, death is on his heels.


Now sixteen years have passed since that dreaded night and evil is back in town but why is it after the twins?

My thoughts:
This is the third novel I've read by author Carlos Ruiz Zafón and while I have enjoyed all three of them I feel like he found a receipt for success and decided to stick by it. The Midnight Palace was a nice and at times chilling read but I feel that it bears a lot of resemblance to both The Prince of Mist and The Shadow of the Wind

The main character in this story grew up  in a orphanage in Calcutta and he and his friends there started a secret society. Since there is a small society involved the story has several different characters, each of them brought something to the story and non of them felt like they were added just as a filling.


Readers who haven't read the two books I mentioned in this short review will probably enjoy this book  a lot more than I did.
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Book trailer:

The cover:
Ominous - who's that scary guy coming right at us! A great choice of cover for the story.

My rating of this book:
3 stars out of 5

Want to know more?
Add The Midnight Palace to your Goodreads wish list.

Visit Carlos' homepage 

The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Published: May 31st  2011
Pages(hardcover): 304
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316044733 (ISBN13: 9780316044738)
Full disclosure: 
ARC received from the publisher via NetGalley.  

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.  

6 comments:

  1. I must read one of his books soon. I keep meaning to and then I get sidetracked by other books.

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  2. Ohhhh, I want it badly. I love his voice, I just hope his YA voice is just as good

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  3. i have exactly the same feeling about Zafòn. i loved THe Shadow of the Wind to pieces, but Angels Game while it engaged me was just so... hollywood!the ending was terrible! I am willing to give this one a try though. and I would recommend the music composed by Zafòn himself. it can be found in his homepage.
    thanks for sharing. Have a nice weekend : )

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  4. I read The Shadow of the Wind last year and quite enjoyed it. I think I might give this one a read. It does sound interesting. :0)

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  5. I love Carlos Ruiz Zafon but it does seem a bit samey doesn't it? And look at the video! It's all getting a bit flash for my liking :-D

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  6. I went over and checked out the book at my vendor and think I would really like the Prince of Mist, as well as this one. I do not have a problem with an author finding a "formula" for lack of a better word that works for them. There are many series that I read and if examined closely the same could be said for a lot of them. I find if I enjoy an author's writing style and want to read more, a new title with character changes and a little mix up in the plot works fine. Again, like all things books are very subjective to what an individual reader enjoys. Thank you so much for sharing about this interesting book and author today.

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts =)