থেকে Kirton in Lindsey, Gainsborough, North Lincolnshire DN21, UK
Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of my favorite authors for a reason - he knows how to start a story out, how to give it "flavor". The beginning of The Midnight Palace has a deadly chase, a set of babies crying and the backdrop of Calcutta in the early 1900's. Mix in rain, a good dose of mystery and a smattering of horror and you have a perfect beginning to a book. Sheere and Ben are twins, but they do not know of one another due to an incredible tragedy in their background. Both are raised in different styles, Ben in an orphanage and Sheere as a sort of gypsy, but their worlds collide on their 16th birthdays. Something that Zafon does so well is create gothic settings and they were in abundance in The Midnight Palace. From the house Sheere has been searching for to the old train station, I never stopped feeling as if I needed to look over my shoulder. This isn't sweet romance-y paranormal young adult fiction, this is a bit edgy, ghost-horror stuff. And it's thrilling. While I didn't enjoy The Midnight Palace(Niebla #2) as much as I did The Prince of Mist (Niebla #1), I did enjoy it and found it difficult to put down - even at night when every little sound had me looking around the room. My only regret is that I'm unable to read the books in the language they were originally written. That said though - the translation is magnificent, as all of Zafon's books are, and there is more than one phrase that had me reading and re-reading it, enjoying the beauty of the writing. Though this is an older book in its original language, it's fresh and something new to read in the YA genre and I welcome it.