Just finished reading "The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.... HUNH????

[Arcadie]

Can anyone help me make head or tail of what is supposed to have happened at the end of that book? Or shall I just enjoy it as a "parody of the Wilkie Collins/Charles Dickens" genre (as the critics tell me to)?

Oh! Oh!

I read this recently, and thought it great. I haven't got any WC/CD to compare it to, but it definitely counts as gothic, a novel of ideas (suppose he would be flattered by comparison with Umberto Eco) and a thriller.

As for the ending, it was a bit peculiar, but I think he exorcised this particular devil. Perhaps he was purer in heart than the other DM, a bit like many knights after the grail were doomed to fail because they were not pure enough. Cristina is defintely dead, though.

Does that help?

God; it was awful; God awful - cliches and coincidence galore. I really enjoyed Shadow of the Wind but this was like the editted bits thrown together with the devil as some glue. Pah. Won't be reading any more.

Read Q by Luther Blissert - it's fabulous and a real eye opener.

I loved Shadow of the Wind and nearly bought this as my holiday read. Sounds like it's a good job I didn't bother!

I quite liked it, but it is basically a holiday/ by the pool read.

FreeButtonBee, now I disliked Shadows of the Wind in comparison to the Angel book. I can't remember everything that annoyed me, but I do remember thinking that the older-girl/woman character (was she disabled) was drawn in a rather misogynist way - a shallow can't-be-bothered-to-make-her-better-or-more-interesting way, and that annoyed me.

What with her and Cristina, who else reckons the author has (or ventriloquises) a Madonna-whore complex?!

Wasn't it Clara in Shadow? She was blind as I recall.

There were definitely parallels between the Clara/Cristina figure. In fact in a couple of places I wondered if Zafón had just decided to rewrite the same book.

Ohhhh, Arcadie, what a beautifully cynical comment! Respeck!

I've read both shadow of the wind and The Angel's Game and really thought they were both page turner and really enjoyed them... that is right up till the endings, both books had the most awful endings. Being let down for the second time with the ending of the angels game, now refuse to ever read another Zafon book again.