Iako je roman namijenjen mlađoj populaciji, lijepo je čitalačko osvježenje za one koji nisu čitali Safonove romane.

Il Principe della Nebbia è il mio primo approccio con lo stile narrativo e le storie di Zafòn. La storia è ambientata nel 1943 e il protagonista è Max, un ragazzino di 13 anni la cui famiglia decide di trasferirsi in un paesino sul mare per sfuggire al pericolo della guerra. Il luogo che, in apparenza, si presenta piacevole, con una bella spiaggia, un mare azzurro e le casette color pastello, vedrà il protagonista e la sorella maggiore Alicia affrontare un'estate in cui tenteranno, riuscendoci, di risolvere un inquietante mistero.

Gli elementi per una storia accattivante ci sono tutti: una famiglia dal destino infelice che ha abbandonato, 10 anni prima del loro arrivo, la casa in cui Max e la sua famiglia si trasferiranno, l'orologio della stazione le cui lancette vanno all'indietro, un gatto dagli occhi gialli e l'aria sinistra che la sorellina Irina insiste per portare subito nella nuova casa, e poi uno strano recinto con delle statue, raffiguranti dei circensi ed un pagliaccio, collocate alle estremità di una stella a sei punte inscritta dentro un cerchio e, infine, una nave rimasta sul fondo dell'oceano.

È l'estate dell'amicizia con un ragazzo del posto, dei segreti custoditi da tutta una vita e mai confessati, di un passato oscuro che ritorna a galla e chiede di saldare un conto rimasto in sospeso. Zafòn è bravo a creare atmosfere angoscianti e a fare percepire una presenza non meglio identificata che aleggia attorno alla casa e incombe sul destino dei protagonisti. Chi è il Principe della nebbia? Da dove viene e cosa vuole con tutte le sue forze?

Sebbene sia una lettura rivolta principalmente ad un pubblico di ragazzi, lo stile dell'autore non è mai banale pur essendo scorrevole. Si prova qualche brividino e si rimane incollati alle pagine per sapere come andrà a finire l'oscura vicenda di cui si va scoprendo un tassello alla volta e le cui carte vengono rimescolate per portare fuori strada sia i protagonisti che il lettore. Avrei preferito un finale diverso, ma credo che quella che si presenta come una "storia di paura" (ma neanche troppo!) abbia un messaggio più profondo da veicolare: anche quando il Male vince, è l'amore a vincere su tutto.

مقدمه ای برای آفرینش شاهکارش سایه باد
در مقایسه با مارینا ضعیف تر بود پایانش هم مثل مارینا بود.
امیدوارم سایه باد هم پایانی مثل مارینا و شاهزاده مه نداشته باشه

The latest of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's works to be translated into English is also the first book the author had published. It was originally intended for teenagers, but this edition is clearly being marketed towards the author's adult fans; it has the same cover design as his adult titles, and a preface explains that it is designed to be enjoyed by readers of any age. I didn't go into this with high expectations, and I expected it to be kind of immature, but I still found it very disappointing.

The story begins promisingly. A young boy, Max, moves with his family from the city to a seaside town. He quickly learns that the previous owners of his new home were dogged by tragedy, and on top of that, he finds a sinister walled garden full of statues in its grounds. He's particularly spooked by a clown statue, and during his exploration of the garden, he notices that this figure appears to have moved slightly since his arrival, changing its pose to a beckoning gesture. (Great detail - would have scared me as a child.) He then befriends a local boy called Roland, who takes him diving around the wreck of a sunken ship; and from Roland's grandfather, the only survivor of the shipwreck, Max learns the story of the nefarious Cain, the Prince of Mist. The stage is set for a chilling tale about a ghost ship, a powerful villain, mysterious disappearances and so on - technically, this should make a fantastic spooky story.

However, the book soon begins to get quite silly and more and more plot holes and unanswered questions pop up, until it all becomes totally unbelievable and rather boring. For instance... Who or what is Cain and how has he attained his power? How do he and his troupe turn themselves into statues and why is this the only way for them to survive the sinking of their ship? Is Cain's cat meant to be a manifestation of him, and if so, how can he also be the statue, and if not, how did it alone survive the disaster intact? (The whole 'evil cat' thing is such a boring cliché anyway, and really put me off from the start.) If 'Jacob' was old enough to be filming with a video camera alone prior to his change of identity, how on earth can he not remember anything before his parents' death? I KNOW you can't expect a young adult book to explain everything exhaustively, but when I think of the detail and care so obviously put into the better examples of children's literature I can call to mind, that isn't really an excuse for the plot to be SO underdeveloped.

The other thing that really grated was the indeterminate sense of time and place, which was confusing as I couldn't see any reason why the story shouldn't be definitively set in a real country, at least. I don't know if details have been changed here to make the story more easy to relate to for English-language readers; if so, this was a mistake. Finally, there's also the fact that the adult characters are constantly referred to by their full names - don't ask me why, but this is one of my biggest pet hates when reading. I'm still interested in the author's work and will probably read any further adult novels translated into English, mainly on the strength of The Angel's Game. But I will be giving his YA fiction - a category I believe the forthcoming Midnight Palace falls into - a miss.

3.5 stars.

n  “In an infinite universe, there were too many things that escaped human understanding.”
n

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Um… so no one thought to ring the police or tell any grown-ups what just happened? We’re just going to look back on it as if it was just a crazy summer mad-cap adventure? Um…

High Points.
Max. I’ve been acquainted with a lot of Maxs recently and I have to say… it’s a good name. Beach houses. Roland. Alicia. Cats in wardrobes. Genuinely creepy. Beautiful writing, seriously this book was cinematic.

“Sunbeams filtered through the water in veils of nebulous light that swayed gently with the motion of the waves and the surface was transformed into an opaque dancing mirror.”

See?!
I took down so many quotes from this book, it was gorgeous. The sea. Statues. Family mysteries. Old film projections. Creepy history. The prince of mist.

Low Points.
I won’t go on about this too much because there are spoilers poised ready to explode like a particularly vicious game of Minesweeper.
But… well, when you finish a book with about fifteen questions (no joke, I have them written down in front of me) that you want to ask so you understand it… well, it’s not good.
There was so much that didn’t get explained and the story was so great and so different and mysterious and intriguing and everything. This book needed a good 150 pages more to really get into the story and do Mr Zafon’s ideas justice.
Because, I’m sorry to say, there were so many gaps in the plot.
Also… I’m 87% sure there would have been a massive investigation into what happened in the last 30 or so pages. I mean… it’s kind of a big deal.
And it wasn’t as if it was subtle.

Hero.
OK Max, you had the right idea in this book. You were extremely aware that you weren’t getting the whole story and you stood up for yourself when you thought you were getting short changed.
We had that in common… I mean, we’ve finished the book now and I still have questions.
Lots of them.
But ignoring that, I really liked you. I liked that you loved films and that you were a great little brother and that you were a bit disgruntled with being third wheel.
I also liked that you didn’t freak out and go catatonic when all the mental stuff happened in the end.
Because that’s what I would have done and the book would have been extremely boring if I had been the heroine.
I also liked that you got out of breath when you rode your bike up the hill.
Because that is me.
So if we were to be friends, and I hope we will be, we could just maybe go for a leisurely walk. Maybe even up a slight incline if we’re feeling a bit adventurous.

Theme Tune.

Death of a Clown by The Kinks.
Not really anything to do with this book but, well, I really hate clowns.
Also, I had no idea what other song I could use for this book.
Also (x2) I love The Kinks.


Scaredy Cat Level.
Off the chart.
I know a lot of people will be like ‘Um, Jo, it’s 200 pages long and it’s about circus performers and sunken ships and beaches… how can you be creeped out by this book?”
Well, my friends, I’ll tell you.
Gather round, grab a brew, pull up a pew and I’ll tell you a story about Jack A Nory.
Um, actually… I won’t.
I don’t mean to mislead you… this story will be why this book really freaked me out.
n  STORY TIMEn (which, when I’ve reached my eventual point, may contain a smidgeon of a spoiler)
For as long as I can remember I’ve had an irrational fear of ships… big ships. Especially when they’re out of water (You should see me when I watch the Titanic…:-|).
Coming from a city and avoiding the Manchester Ship Canal like the plague, my fear was manageable. I could quite happily avoid seeing them.
That was until I went to university.
You may or may not know that I went studied in Bangor, North Wales. It’s a lovely university in a ‘city’ (because it has a cathedral and a university… that’s it) that is famous for having the second longest pier in Wales and producing Aled Jones.
Yes… n  thatn Aled Jones.
The university is known for famous alumni such as Helen Fielding (also, apparently, Bridget Jones herself) and Danny Boyle (We had the same lecturer… so technically I’m going to win an Oscar… right?).
And it can boast some fantastic honorary fellows such as Richard Attenborough, Rhys Ifans, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Philip Pullman (been in the same room as him twice and yes, fangirled myself out) and… and Carol Vorderman.
It is also known for fantastic degrees in psychology and marine biology due to its location and the close proximity it has to the Menai Straits. (I did English with Film Studies because I like to be different, obviously… also science and I fell out when I was 17.).
But anyway, getting to the point, at least 75% of my closest friends take/took marine biology and a lot of their course is practical.
So they like to dive, in lovely exotic places like Egypt and just off Puffin Island.
And they like to take pictures.
Of huge ships… underwater.
And my Facebook feed is inundated with them when they come back from a dive.
And it’s pretty much my worst nightmare.
Also, on the train journey from Chester to Bangor (I’d say around Flint or Rhyl, if you know the area) there is this mahuuuusive beached ship that you can see from the train. I always ask my friend to tell me when I can look out of the window again but, because she’s sadistic and cruel, she always says ‘Oh… you can look out now’ and I do and BOOM.
There’s a ghost ship in my eye line.
I’m not a fan of big ships.
Or clowns.
But surely I don’t need to explain that do I? I mean… you have eyes right?
So when they’re all swimming around in the hull of a possessed sunken ship with a clown who can seemingly hold his breath longer than Mr Threepwood… yeah.
I wasn’t pleased, I’ll tell you.

Normal people Most people will think that isn’t scary at all… but I’m not normal most people.

Recommended For.
People who love beautiful, atmospheric writing. People who don’t mind a lot of some unanswered questions. People who don’t look at statutes and immediately think “Oh my god, is that going to come alive when I turn my back?”. People who aren’t afraid of boats/clowns/clocks. People who aren’t scared of that Dr Who episode (Blink,is it?) that I haven’t seen but my friend told me about... urgh. People who are quite happy to paddle in the sea as opposed to diving amongst ship wrecks on their jollies.

This book was sent to me as part of a book tour with the brilliant and lovely UK Book Tours.


You can read this review and lots of other exciting things on my blog here.

El príncipe de la niebla es una conocidísima y famosísima novela de Carlos Ruíz Zafón, premiada por el Premio Edebé Literatura Juvenil en 1993. Es una de las típicas lecturas obligatorias de instituto y que tenía muchísimas ganas de leer por su fama. Tengo que decir que la he leído en una tarde y que, aunque me ha gustado bastante, esperaba algo más.
Empezaré diciendo que evidentemente esta novela es para lectores jóvenes, de entre diez y trece años. Es una novela muy sencilla, con una prosa más sencilla aún y con una historia bien elaborada pero contada de forma simple. Y no es nada negativo, porque está dirigida a un público determinado. Pero a mí como eso me daba bastante igual, la cogí y me puse a leerla.
Me gusta mucho la prosa de Zafón, es bonita, utiliza un vocabulario cuidado y también me gusta cómo nos narra sus historias. En este caso de una forma más infantil, pero aún así con los toques de su autor.
La trama me ha gustado bastante, sobre todo el final y desenlace de la misma, pues no me lo esperaba para nada. Sin embargo, en el desarrollo de la trama han habido cosas que no me han convencido. Había muchas escenas de relleno y a veces el autor se salía un poco de la línea de la trama y me aburría.
Me ha gustado mucho la originalidad de la historia. Que sea realista, con sus pequeños toques fantásticos, y su toque oscuro que rodea a cierto personaje. También hay un áurea de misterio que me ha gustado y que me ha convencido.
En general ha sido una novela que me ha gustado bastante, que obviamente no he disfrutado como si tuviera doce años, pero que me ha gustado y me ha hecho pasar un buen rato.
Muy recomendable si tienes entre diez y trece años, te va a gustar y te va a enganchar mucho.

Tiene bastante el espíritu de La sombra del viento. Las últimas páginas son para sufrir. En resumen, me encantó.

Цікава історія

Chyba mi się podobało??

4,5

n   —Este otoño cumpliré setenta y dos años y, aunque me queda el consuelo de que no los aparento,cada uno de ellos me pesa como una losa a la espalda.
La edad te hace ver ciertas cosas. Por ejemplo, ahora sé que la vida de un hombre se divide básicamente en tres períodos. En el primero, uno ni siquiera piensa que envejecerá, ni que el tiempo pasa ni que, desde el primer día, cuando nacemos, caminamos hacia un único fin. Pasada la primera juventud, empieza el segundo período, en el que uno se da cuenta de la fragilidad de la propia vida y lo que en un principio es una simple inquietud va creciendo en el interior como un mar de dudas e incertidumbres que te acompañan durante el resto de tus días. Por último, al final de la vida, se abre el tercer período, el de la aceptación de la realidad y, consecuentemente, la resignación y la espera. A lo largo de mi existencia he conocido a muchas personas que se quedaron ancladas en alguno de esos estadios y nunca lograron superarlos. Es algo terrible.n

This is the first book I've EVER read in Spanish and I didn't struggle with it (after having studied it for roughly 6 months) so I don't really know what that says about the writing, lol. Seriously though, I'm feeling oddly vindicated that conversely, reading novels in German still gives me headaches when I've started learning it at 12 but... My native language is French and I studied Latin, so that helps a lot when Spanish is concerned, I guess.

This said, even though it's shelved as YA on Goodreads, this book very much reads like a Middle-Grade horror story and I'd recommend it to 12 years-olds, despite the somewhat unfinished ending and the insta-love (but the romance aspect is barely present, so it didn't really bother me). I wished I knew going in that there would be a fucking evil clown, though. Ew.

4.5