I was drawn to the book that I saw standing in Waterstone's, the cover looked so mysterious and almost-philosophical that I felt compelled to purchase this. It was a great blind purchase based on the book cover which I do not regret at all.

The book combines many genres from Gothic mystery to romance, with hints of Victorian-19th century literature style embedded in Zafón's writing style which I found rather a breeze to read through when getting into it; people at first might find it a challenge to get into the book but gradually, it becomes much easier to read. Zafón doesn't seem to have a weak genre and handles the range of scenes very well; putting in a few emotional pages which did touch me successfully.

The plot does seem a little thin but Zafón has successfully used the 'horse and carrot' routine very well. He feeds us, the reader, little bits of information as he goes along, increasing the suspense that we just have to carry on reading! This has lead to a fantastically dramatic book, he has introduced so many characters that they all interweave into the plot which made the suspense even worse as we try to figure out the mystery. Towards the end, we begin to realise that Zafón has expertly put together the plot so well; we find out what exactly happened to Carax and recognise that actually, Daniel has followed in his favourite's author footsteps without realising.

Zafón has crafted the characters with much love and care that when I was reading the book, he made the characters seem one-dimensional at first but after through several scenes/episodes he does explain why this character has come to be so. I particularly enjoyed it when he did a very thorough description of Julian Carax's mother, who was stuck in a marriage she didn't like with a cold and unfeeling husband and explained how it came to be like that, and displayed the mother's suffering in an extraordinary detail that left me wanting to hear more about the mother. He has created such a fantastic range of characters, every one of them had an interesting story to tell, whether it was something they'd been through or the development of how they became to be, like for example, I liked how he developed Clara and Daniel's relationship. It was approached delicately, and on the side he explores the character Clara so well. He does write about the human condition so well that I was able to connect with some of the characters.

At 506 pages, this is not a book that you can just get through in couple nights, this requires commitment to finish it!

In all, it is a very captivating read that will grab your attention with its very dramatic plot, characters seemingly shallow but with rich depth and personality; it will keep you up nights, no matter what you do. If anyone is interested, there is a prequel to this book called The Angel's Game which was released quite recently.