The Shadow of the Wind

I generally do enjoy the writing style, despite some odd passages which I'll provide the benefit of the doubt due to translation. There's an incredible gothic atmosphere, elevated by the often lovely descriptions and utter commitment to the goofy ass plot. But on that topic... this had zero grip on me aside from aesthetic appreciation. While cliches are not an inherent issue, this felt quite uninspired. And it should be telling that I'm a sucker for many of the devices here - like, the idea of the cemetery per se is completely up my alley. I just didn't enjoy the characters I guess? The protagonist was uninteresting enough plus some side characters made me want to chuck the book at the wall, in simple terms. Plus if my thick head can easily predict the “twist”, you know it's incredibly blatant.

In short - superficially quite neat yet the melodrama and storyline don't work for me. Feel like if I read this a while back I could've loved it, so I'm disappointed I didn't leap at the bandwagon sooner. Oh well.