The Midnight Palace (1994)

The Midnight Palace is okay -- very readable, with a few creepy moments, and an interesting choice of setting, along with a decent sense of place to go along with it. I just found it sort of ridiculous, though, I'm afraid: it was fun, but I giggled at some bits that were supposed to be climactic or scary. Some of the characters are interesting, and I'd want to know more about them, but it just gets completely over the top, focused as it is on the kids and on the supernatural aspect of the story.

Normally, obviously, I love the supernatural parts of a story the most, but that was the part that felt contrived: the setting of Calcutta, the adult characters, they didn't feel contrived. But the 'ghost story' aspect just really didn't work for me.

The way the story ends is rather similar to Zafon's other book for young adults that I've read, so it lost impact in that way, too. Most people seem to prefer this book to that one, but I think I preferred the first book -- maybe because less was explained. ( )

Very nice tale. Also very typical of this author and the good quality of the translation. I highly recommend this book as another ripping yarn from the pen of Mr Zafon!

1. This book is, in no way, shape, or form, related to The Prince of Mist, which Goodreads claims is Niebla #1.
2. I am not sure what to think about the story contained herein; I am not sure why Zafón chose the frame he did; I am not sure what I think about the intersection of a subcontinental Indian setting and some very European tropes; I am really upset about the treatment of the female characters in here.

And I don't think I care enough to poke at the things I am not sure about. ( )

Calcutta, the 1930s. We are introduced to ‘The Chowbar Society’; a self-proclaimed band of teenage detectives and orphans living at St Patricks; a refuge for abandoned children lying deep within the ancient City of Palaces. Amongst them are Ben and Sheere, twins separated at birth in order to protect them from an evil force that once upon a time threatened their doomed parents and now, the teenagers themselves. The combination of Zafón’s electrifying imagination and Lucia Graves’ impeccable translations are always an absolute treat. As I learnt back in June, Lucia (Robert Graves’ daughter don’tcha know) translates Zafón’s drafts and redrafts as they are churned out, making for such fluid, thoughtful English prose that we forget this is translated fiction at all.

The Midnight Palace is big on the action and entertainment, call it a more exotic and much darker ‘Secret Seven’ or ‘Fab Five’. Good battles an Evil that is really quite monstrous (even by adult standards) and the wildly different yet fairly stereotypical teenage characters; i.e. the ‘artist’, the ‘hero’, the ‘geek’, etc, allow the reader to become all the more invested in Ben and Sheere’s story, however implausible it might be.

That said, although entertained, by the end of this short read I felt a distinct something lacking. First of all, I love India but, despite being set in Calcutta, there was hardly any flavour of it here. Living in such an insular teenager world with (despite the situation) all its petty little nitpicks, it might as well have been set in Barcelona for all we saw of the great city itself. And, after all is said and done, I’m afraid the main problem I had with this book is that I am simply not the target audience. The plot is so simple to the point of being contrived. The characters so stereotyped to the point of being corny. And the loose ends….well loose ends don’t usually bother but, well, let’s just say I let them bother me in this case.

Would I consider YA novels in the future? You’d be hard pressed to convince me. However, I’m never completely closed up to anything really….anyone got any suggestions?

http://relishreads.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/the-midnight-palace/ ( )

I didn't realize until right before I started reading that the book was set in India. That's a change from other CRZ novels but I thought his Calcutta was as lively as his Barcelona always is. And the young adults in this story--residents of St. Patrick's Orphanage--who are on the cusp of being released into the world, are interesting characters who show remarkable bravery and friendship throughout the story. And simply, this is the story of a past which has literally come to haunt two children, sixteen years after they were orphaned.

This was indeed a perfect fall read, a ghost story with heat that made me forget the chilly gloom outside.

http://webereading.com/2012/10/rip-vii-read-12-midnight-palace.html ( )