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Loading... The Angel's Game (2008)by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  
Books Read in 2020 (174) Top Five Books of 2013 (758) » 10 more No current Talk conversations about this book. Gripping, spooky, gothic tale. Sequel to Shadow of the Wind, which is very good too, but you can read them in either order. (  ) CaitlinMcC | Jul 11, 2021 |  A great dark read with a plot of lots of twists and turns. The characters and their interactions are mesmerizing. An all together fascinating read. The writing is slow and thorough, but you get hooked, needing to find out how it all ends. I also love the writer/reader angle that is at the center of this book. ( ) MariaGreene | Jun 30, 2021 | David Martin, a writer of penny dreadfuls who aspires to writing literature, is approached by a mysterious publisher offering him a very lucrative commission to write a novel. But is the offer too good to be true? Deliciously spooky. ( ) Robertgreaves | Jun 26, 2021 | Plus a half star which might be credited to the translator Lucia Graves for a fabulous job. The tale is told in the first person but the voice is anything but straightforward; petty and weak willed and unreliable as seen from the inside, yet attracting strong friendships from clearly insightful people. The more I think back over the book, the more I see in it and the more I like it. Full of lots of different sorts of angels. (  ) Ma_Washigeri | Jan 23, 2021 | Not quite as good as The Shadow of the Wind, but a very compelling book. I would recommend it. ( ) loretteirene | Dec 17, 2020 |
 The result is a twisty, sarcastic ode to books, with a satisfying dollop of religious theory thrown in for good measure. On its surface, "The Angel's Game" is a thriller laden with Gothic elements, but readers who need a traditional denouement with answers neatly laid out will come away disappointed. (I definitely had a little moment of "Wait! What? Huh???" at the end.) But while the plot payoff may not be what readers are expecting, the novel itself is such a pleasure to read that the characters could have ended with a rendition of "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow," played on cowbells and a zither, and I would have shrugged it off. “Faust” this isn’t. Ruiz Zafón’s flamboyant pulp epic is something altogether sillier, a pact-with-the-devil tale whose only purpose is to give its readers some small intimation of the darker pleasures of the literary arts, the weird thrill of storytelling without conscience.  Game is a multi-layered confection that combines undying love, magical realism, meditations on religion, the importance of books and a love affair with the vibrant city of Barcelona. Zafon hits the reset button on what it means to be a great writer. His visionary storytelling prowess is a genre unto itself. While much of this novel is highly enjoyable, at some latter point the tongue withdraws from the cheek. In wrapping up a host of absurd sub-plots, somewhere in there the writer loses his sense of humour. When the book ceases to be self-conscious about its own manipulations, it stops being fun. This won’t bother some readers; some will happily dive into the mysticism up to the neck. But others will miss the drollery and sophistication with which the novel began, and for these readers Zafón’s straight resolution will disappoint. Zafon delivers a warning about the dangers of obsession, mixed with an obvious passion for literature and the printed word; his book is also a song of love for Barcelona with all its creaking floorboards and hidden subbasements. A nice fit with the current craze for learned mysteries and for spooks of both the spying and the spectral kind.
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. Close to despair, he receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime--write a book unlike anything that has ever existed--a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home. No library descriptions found. 
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumCarlos Ruiz Zafón's book The Angel's Game was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Sign up to get a pre-publication copy in exchange for a review.  Popular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)863.64 — Literature Spanish and Portuguese Spanish fiction 20th Century 1945-2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.69)
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