Review: City of Heavenly Fire

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And the end came. It seems like only yesterday I started reading City of Bones. I still had nine books ahead to read, for which I was delighted because I thought "finally a book series which I'm not going to end in a couple of months". Wrong, wrong, so wrong was I. I started reading The Mortal Instruments and I hooked in. I was so hooked that I had to leave it in order to read The Infernal Devices to follow the correct order and be able to continue this amazing story. A few months have these books lasted. Very few.

All, absolutely ALL the books from this series are marvellous and there isn't any of them which leaves the reader indifferent. Clare knows how to keep us hooked with the thread, the main and the secondary characters. It is true that I expected more drama in this last book but personally, I think that the end has been very good and it has met my expectations. The end, that links The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, leaves the door open to The Dark Artifices and it is just further evidence that makes me reaffirm and state that Cassandra Clare is one of my favourite authors and that her stories have captivated me and will stay with me forever.



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Review: The Pianist

El pianista del gueto de Varsovia by Władysław Szpilman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Totally recommendable in order to learn more about the awful experiences lived by the Warsaw inhabitants and by all those, especially Jews, who lived during the Second World War. The narrative of this pianist, who against all odds survived the Holocaust horrors, has been one of the first non-fiction stories that I have devoured. Despite his bitter words, I couldn't stop reading. Once more, stories like this one teach us that hate leads nowhere because, in the end, the thing I will remember the most about this book isn't going to be the atrocities lived by its protagonist, but all those people who, even against their own culture, helped those human beings to survive in a time stained by hate and fear.



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Review: Metro 2033

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I started reading this book a couple of years ago if I'm not mistaken. I chose it because dystopia is one of my favourite genres. At first, the book seems good because the idea itself is interesting but for me, it went down. From my point of view, the problem is the way it is narrated. The story, as I have said before, is interesting but it is narrated very slowly which makes you feel tired and you end up giving it up. This is one of the few books I have read in Spanish and despite being in my mother tongue it has been very dull. I have tried to take it up again a few times but it has been impossible.



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Review: Atonement

Atonement by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Do you want to read an impredictable novel? This is your story then. Atonement is one of those books which you can only read once. Well, you can reread it, but the effect that McEwan achieves the first time you read it will never be the same. Until the last ten pages, you think you are reading a realist novel which mingles love and war. Typical, isn't it? Wait to read those last pages to feel how the whole literary world created along the novel falls at your feet, wait to see how everything that you had believed and predicted is destroyed, how in a couple of paragraphs the narrator creates an uncertainty which, under my view, will always remain no matter how many times you think about it. You feel fascinated and deceived all at once.


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Review: After You

After You by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Even though I absolutely loved the first part of this book, Me Before You, this second book seemed unnecessary to me. I did read it because the narrative thread is easy to follow and the author's style enjoyable. However, I feel that the story made me dislike the character of Louisa, whom I adored in the first novel. The ending was quite predictable from the beginning and the story itself didn't provide anything new.


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Review: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Captivating and different. In my opinion, these are the two words defining this masterpiece. I bought this book and I couldn't help but scarf it in a couple of days. [Spoiler alert] The fact that the voice of the narrator is the death's fascinated me since it is not something common. Moreover, tired of novels about the Second World War which tell the same story again and again under the same perspective and patterns, The Book Thief has been a breath of fresh air. It adds new nuances with an ending meeting the expectations of the reader and embodying all the emotions evoked along the novel.


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Review: Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Entertaining, but a mere story. Nothing memorable. It is an easy story to follow but that's the only motive why I finished the book. A little disappointing after all the hype.


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