The Angel's Game

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It happens rarely that I come across two excellent books in succession, but that’s exactly what happened this August. I almost feel like I can stop reading for the year, because it’s unlikely I’ll find a third gem that can match, or surpass the craftiness of either Cutting For Stone or The Angel’s Game.

I am not the greatest fan of mysteries with a touch of paranormal, but Zafon wove his story so masterfully that, at the end, I’m not really sure if anything paranormal really happened, or it had all been the split-personality case. Except, of course, the epilog, which is as paranormal as it is sad, and a nice touch to crown the tale.

The main characters are drawn so vividly, you could almost feel them, as if they were three-dimensional. The dialogues are witty, sarcastic, funny, sad and with the concealed menace, depending of the situation. Zafon pulled me into the story from the first few lines, and held me fully immersed until the very end.

The audiobook I listened to was superbly read by Dan Stevens, who made all the characters and the city of Barcelona come alive.

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