I honestly dont know if I'll ever find the words to fully describe how much I loved this book. I actually put off reviewing it for two months after finishing, because I didn't even know what I'd say. That I was fully and completely sucked into the dusty and magical Barcelona described in it? That I read a hundred pages or more every day? I read whenever I could - at school, while eating, before bed, in the bus stop late at night, with only the light from street lamps to help me along. I even read while texting. (My best friend Han can confirm this.)
I was mesmerized.
I've never read a novel so...so splendidly COMPLETE, so massive as this one. I'm scrambling for the right word, and by massive I don't mean 1000 pages. I mean it's got EVERYTHING. It flows easily and masterfully from historical fiction to comedy to political satire to?? Slice of life-y relatable vibes?? To fluffy romance?? To tragically doomed romance???TO HORROR???? After finishing it I felt like I'd read a whole library, not a single book. It's just so..so MUCH. I laughed and cried and gaped and felt everything the characters did. .
The Shadow of the Wind is a love letter to books, to the lives they touch and the people they bring together or tear apart. To the power they hold to do all this. It's beautiful and moving and filled with all the pain and dirt and horror life holds. It's even vulgar sometimes. But I wouldn't get rid of a single word. After all, it's not every day you get to read a whole library in just over 500 pages.