Advance Booking

SHADOWS OF MYSTERY

I read a couple of positive reviews about Zafon’s book Angel Games on many blogs, and when my friend raved about this book to me, I thought I’d give it a try. I’m so glad I did, because this is one hell of a book; I’d definitely count it among my Top 10 reads of the year.

Ten-year old Daniel Sempere’s father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Barcelona, an immense library which probably contains every book published. Daniel is allowed to choose one book to keep, and he chooses Shadow of the Wind, by an obscure author, Julian Carax. Daniel is drawn by the book and its mysterious author, when he learns that some stranger has been seeking out all books of this author and burning them; a faceless fiend who has taken the name of the devil in Carax’s novel. Daniel digs into the past of this author who has gripped his imagination, but each revelation brings more questions than answers.

This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.

If anybody had told me that this was a book about a book, I might have been more energetic in my efforts to track it down. I read this book in fits and starts because of a hectic schedule, but that gave time for the story to sink in. The translator, Lucia Graves, has done a fantastic job; there was no awkwardness in language I have seen with some translations. The characters are very well-constructed, and I especially loved Fermin, the beggar that Daniel brings home, who becomes his ally in the Carax search. The writing is beautiful and evocative, and conjures up the image of Barcelona as a city of shadows, a city steeped in twilight, so to say. It’s a Gothic novel steeped deeply in history, a tale of Daniel’s obsession with a stranger whose life starts to mirror his own.

I was totally drawn into Daniel’s search and totally entranced by the setting of the story. The book has an eerie mysterious feel to it, and I got goosebumps at quite a few places. There are a lot of threads, stories within stories, some of which are left untied. Others are tangled up, leading to plot twists that kept me to the edge of my seat. Every turn the story takes is a revelation that comes crashing down on you, from Fumero’s origins to Carax’s and Penelope’s relationship. Zafon writes to an intelligent reader, one who doesn’t need the whole story spoon-fed to him, one who is capable of filling in the blanks. This liberty to the reader to give wings to his/her imagination is one characteristic of the book that I loved. To quote Winston Churchill, the story is a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. The search for the key makes the book a great read. Definitely a book on my reread list.

THE SAGA ENDS

Finally, finally, I’m done with the Twilight series. The long haul is over, and I am so glad that Bella is off my back at last.

After hemming and hawing about the marriage thing throughout Eclipse, Bella finally gets hitched to Edward, and they are off to their honeymoon somewhere in the Pacific. But all is not fun and games for the newly married couple, as Bella gets pregnant. The half-vampire, half-human child grows at an abnormally fast rate, putting fragile Bella’s life in danger. Elsewhere, a rejected and dejected Jacob fumes around, but rushes to Bella’s side once he hears about her situation, leaving his werewolf pack behind. When the baby is born, Bella thinks her life will finally be normal again, but she is so wrong. Poor self-sacrificing Bella must put herself in the line of fire (again), to save the person she loves most.

Breaking Dawn is split into three parts, the first and third narrated by Bella, and the second by Jacob. I found the third part the most interesting, as Bella changes from the wishy-washy narrator she’s been for three whole books, into a more confident person. Her voice was the least irritating in the third part, and I enjoyed her narration for a while. I thought Jacob’s narration would be decent, but it was a little fake. It was like Meyer just watched a couple of action movies to prepare for writing in a guy’s voice; she didn’t really have a grip on the character.

One thing that bugged me was the mess of contradictions associated with each character. Worst of all was Jacob: one moment he is rushing to tear Edward’s throat out, the next he ditches his pack to protect the blameless Cullens. Meyer gave everybody their happy ending: right triumphed wrong, everybody lived happily ever after. So who cares if characters did major volte-faces from one page to the next? And the ending; what an anticlimax! She built it up so much that I was really looking forward to this huge vampire war and clash of the titans, and then suddenly, everything just goes phoosh. My crackler of an ending turned out to be a damp squib. Well, I shouldn’t complain. If there had been a battle, the book probably would have been 7000 pages long, instead of 700.

I’ve been asked this question many times: if you didn’t like the books, why did you keep reading them? My answer to them is this: if I had quit midway, I would have been told that I stopped just before the truly awesome parts, that the next book would have blown my mind away. And I couldn’t have contradicted them. Now that I finished the series, I can say with conviction: there were NO truly awesome parts, not for me.

I met AnimeGirl a.k.a. Alex from AnimeGirl's Bookshelf through BBAW, as she was my interview swap partner, and it's my pleasure to have her guest post for us today. Alex is a big romance reader, and she shares with us some of her thoughts on the genre.


When Hazra was kind enough to ask me to do this guest post and talk a little about a genre I love dearly, I was very excited – few things get me talking as much as romance novels – but then I faced a bit of a writer’s block, I had too many things in my head and wasn’t sure where to start.

Romance is one of those book genres that you either love or you love to hate and I was lucky enough to read my first romance story when I was still young and hadn’t become quite too cynical about what romance meant – you know, beyond princes and princesses, frog kissing and fairy dust – and in many ways in changed my life.

In ‘Real Life’ I’m quite pragmatic, I’m not really touchy feely, and even a bit cynic about most things surrounding relationships and human nature but when it comes down to love there is this small part of me that goes that to that first story and the many I have read since, and that little part is what keeps me hopeful.

Now, Romance is a genre that houses many other genres. Within the broad scope of romance novels you can find criminal thrillers and books about lawyers and doctors or professional players of any sort of sport, fairy tale retellings, comedies, dramas and tragedies, historical, contemporary or futuristic, paranormal, fantasy or simply rooted in reality: there is something for everyone in romance.

That’s one of the things I love the most about Romance, you can find something to suit your taste. Even as a modern woman very much living in the 21st century, I still turn to romance for comfort and find stuff to relate to even in stories set in the past, in places I’ve never been to and even with lands and creatures that don’t exist.

The sad part of this though, is when you encounter what I called a Book Snob. If you ever have encountered a Book Snob you know what I’m talking about. Book Snobbiness spreads far and wide, there are Book Snobs who trash talk fantasy or sci fi, saying that such genres are for kids or geeks; there are Book Snobs that claim that Y. A. books are silly and shallow; and then there are the Book Snobs that look down on Romance Novels.

People who don’t actually follow the genre seem to have this idea that a romance novel is some trashy, pink book with Fabio on the cover and a happy ending but, and though happy endings are a bit of a requirement, that image isn’t quite how things are. As in everything, in Romance Novels you can find the type of trashy books – with bodice rippers and super alpha heroes that border on abusive and heroines that are too stupid to live –that give romance novels a bad name, but you can also find awesome books that are smartly written and compelling, books that boldly go to a familiar territory and yet make everything seem new and brilliant even if the plot is familiar – I always say that there is only so many things under the Sun, basic plot-lines repeat endlessly but it’s how each author approaches said basic plot what makes the difference – and what gets you emotionally invested in all sort of stories and pairings.

This is not to say that we romance readers think stories as they happen in the books are the norm in real life, we are very much aware that it is just a book but the emotional punch is still there. Romance novels give the idea that relationships can be fulfilling and rewarding, filled with love and respect and in most cases they affirm the idea that women are important – in today’s romance novels, even historical ones, is rare to find a hero that by the end of the book doesn’t see his heroine as his equal, as someone worthy of respect; and it’s even rarer to find an heroine who does not her own value by the time we reach the epilogue.

More than that, romance novels provide a safe heaven where everything is possible, where you can hope and dream. Sure, many of them novels will never be considered classics, and there always be book snobs that will think they aren’t even real books but I don’t think I – or anyone I know how loves this genre for that matter – will ever truly care about that. And, save for the occasional super fabiesque cover, I feel no shame whatsoever to stand tall and say: “I’m a Romance Reader”. To some it might not be as high minded as reading Nietzsche or a depressing literary novel, but hey, we all need our share of fun. Don’t we?

Now, what about you? Any romance readers out there?

Second Helpings sees the return of Jessica Darling, along with the motley crew that makes up Pineville High. This wasn’t as simple a read as the earlier one, but decent anyways.

After having her heart broken by Marcus “Krispy Kreme” Flutie, Jessica Darling spends her summer holidays far from Pineville High, at a creative writing program. She has a crush on her teacher, which comes to nothing. Back in school, she has to avoid Flutie while obsessing about him, decide if she really will go to Columbia, wonder about the mystery Gossip Girl, while dealing with her running-fanatic dad, obnoxious sister and the inanities of the Clueless Crew.

When I reviewed Sloppy Firsts, I wondered if all the angst wouldn’t be overkill. It was, kind of, but not as bad as I thought. The book was a little too long: angst stretched out over what seemed like a billion pages made me a little headachy. Jessica is moody and mopey, but at least she realizes that she is Persona Negativa, that she whines more than she smiles. As much as she analyses everybody else, she also analyses herself. She also does a lot of things new: she takes a stand and speaks her mind more often, instead of just searing page after page of her journal. On rare occasions that she feels happy about something (her fervent wish to get into Columbia, her niece’s arrival, her bonding with her grandmother), her lucidity is a nice read. The final couple of pages, that is Jessica’s graduation address, I really loved; it echoed my feelings exactly.

“I believe that what we get out of life is what we’ve set ourselves up to get, so there’s no such thing as an inconsequential decision. Our destinies are the culmination of all the choices we’ve made along the way, which is why it’s imperative to listen hard to your inner voice when it speaks up. Don’t let anyone else’s noise drown it out… The real world, whether we like it or not, is right here, right now. All of this, every day, is important. Everybody matters. Everything we do has an effect on others, directly or indirectly, whether we realize it or not… For better or for worse, you have helped me become the person I was always meant to be: me. Yes. Me.”

BLACK RAGE

Why is it that the sophomore book in a series usually falls flat compared to the first book? I was eagerly looking forward to the second book, and I was quite disappointed in it.

In The Struggle, Elena rages at the sly, cruel Damon for bringing despair into his brother, Stefan’s life. She searches for Stefan and finds him nearly half-dead, and gives him some of her own blood to revive him. Damon pursues Elena with a vengeance, wanting to steal her from Stefan. Meanwhile, Elena’s high-school nemesis Caroline is also up to something sinister.

As I said, I was really disappointed in this book. For one, the writing is kind of juvenile and unpolished; it’s as if the book was written in a terrible hurry. Also, I developed a hearty dislike for Elena. I find many similarities between her and Bella, and you know how much I dislike Bella. The strength and spunk Elena showed in the first book seems to be missing, and all she is capable of is crying or making empty threats to Damon (seriously, how does she expect to make him “pay for what he has done”?) Stefan doesn’t really have much to do, and I felt that Damon’s evil nature could have been explored some more; I couldn’t really fit Ian Somerhalder’s calculating Damon from the TV series with the book’s slightly insipid one. The book feels like a rickety bridge between the first and third books, with not much of a strong story, and a little too much of whiny love. It ends on a cliffhanger as well, and I really hope that the third book turns out to be better.