The Angel's Game

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book as much as I liked Carlos Ruiz Zafon's previous one, Shadow of the Wind. Lots of potential, great beachy/summer read, but not without many flaws. Definitely not a great tome of literature, and I'm at a loss as to why so many people wish to compare it to Umberto Eco and Alexander Dumas. Not nearly as cheeky and funny as Dumas, not nearly as puzzling and plot-twisting and intelligent as Eco.

Contrary to a few other reviews, I found the first 2/3 of the book ho-hum, and only was the last 1/3 interesting, tighter and more action-packed. Many complained of being lost at the end, so maybe I paid extra careful attention, and it made sense to me.

As with the previous book, there was only one really great character that stuck out - Isabella. She came to life, and crackled on the page (though Fermin from "Shadow of the Wind" moreso). Her personality came through in her dialogue, her actions, she just shone. But everyone else was so mundane, and too much alike.

Pros: lots of great lines that beg to be underscored, but when is that the story, and when is that just the author trying to make a clever point? Love the setting itself - author, books, bookstore. Interesting plot twist, just enticing enough to make this a page-turner.

Cons: Extremely flowery prose, too much space dedicated to setting the atmosphere, over and over again, to the sacrifice of the action. A character walks into a room, and we get a description of the floor, the ceiling, the right wall, the left wall, the far wall, the doors, the windows. He walks into the next room, and again another paragraph dedicated to describing the floor, ceiling, walls, windows, and everything in between. I also found something off about the writing, which might just be a translational issue.

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