Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Our body begins to destroy itself from the moment it is born. We are fragile. We’re creatures of passage. All that is left of us are our actions, the good or the evil we do to our fellow humans”- Marina, Carlos Ruiz Zafón

In May 1980, fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona. For seven days and nights no one knows his whereabouts. . . .

His story begins in the heart of old Barcelona, when he meets Marina and her father Germán Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Oscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the fourth Sunday of each month. At 10 a.m. precisely a coach pulled by black horses appears. From it descends a woman dressed in black, her face shrouded, wearing gloves, holding a single rose. She walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.

When Oscar and Marina decide to follow her they begin a journey that will take them to the heights of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona, a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons; and a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.

The book wasn't on my list. I looked down at my phone, where the call numbers I had carefully typed into a notepad document and then sent to myself, to be screenshotted and used as a guide, and back up at the book. I don't know what it is that drew me to it. The cover? Definitely not. Maybe my subconscious recognized the author's name as being the same guy who wrote The Shadow of the Wind, a book I recently bought off Amazon because Regan told me to. Maybe it was because this book was different than the ones usually on display, more obscure than the usual Six of Crows, Throne of Glass, fantasy fare that typically makes the tops of shelves. Whatever the reason, I picked this book off the display shelf and opened it up to read the summary. Intriguing. And then, at the bottom, the words "cult classic". Sold. 

I have a strange attraction towards cult classics- a few of my favorite movies of all time and my current favorite show are cult classics. I added the book to the growing pile on the table, reasoning to myself that I would read The Shadow of the Wind first and then this book after if I liked the above. That way, if I hated his writing, I could just return this book unread, and it wouldn't cost me anything. But for some reason, I found myself, while looking for some new reading material, picking this book up first. I found myself falling into the world Zafón has created, a Barcelona of dreams and nightmares all at once. 

And oh my God, guys, this book was absolutely fantastic. If I had to describe it, it would be Edgar Allan Poe meets Frankenstein with added Bioshock and some The Phantom of the Opera thrown in for good measure. If any of that sounds interesting to you, then pick this book up now. The characters are perfection. The plot is intriguing. The writing is enchanting. Seriously, Zafón's descriptions of Barcelona will make you want to hop on the nearest plane to Spain right now. Over the course of reading this book Barcelona has shot up my places to visit list to where it now rests comfortably under Prague. And the descriptions themselves are easily some of the most perfect descriptions I've ever read. They flow seamlessly through the passage, and I can visualize the setting perfectly. Even the reason for the descriptions makes sense, because the narrator Oscar wants to be an architect.

This book was also funny. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did, especially since I actually laughed out loud at some of the parts and was moved to tears by some parts, both rare emotions for me to have while reading. Like I said before, too, I actually loved all the characters. I didn't mind copious amounts of time dedicated to the backstories of each of the characters, because each one interested me. While Oscar, the narrator, was the least developed character, I still got a sense as to who he was through his actions and still rooted for him over the course of the novel. Besides, I like narrators like Oscar. The story isn't necessarily about him, it's about the story of Mijail Kolvenik and Eva Irinova. And Marina's story too. Oscar just is our gateway to those stories. 

My only real issue with the writing was an abundance of said bookisms- he mumbled, she shouted, I concluded, etc. But I didn't find myself that bothered by them. The ending also felt a bit like a different story too, but I wasn't that bothered by it either. In fact, I loved the ending, just as I loved the middle and the beginning. This book took me kind of a while to read for a book its size, because I wanted to savor it and also because I was scared it would pull a This Savage Song, where I loved the beginning and the middle but despised the ending. Not this book, which was so goddamn good throughout. 

My recommendation? Read this book. I should amend, maybe not for the fate of heart, since it does get pretty gory and kind of frightening. But it's Gothic/horror, what would you expect? This is another book that would make a great video game, something along the lines of Bioshock. I can't wait to read The Shadow of the Wind now. Something tells me that Carlos Ruiz Zafón is quickly going to fly up my list of favorite authors. I hope so, at least. As soon as I finished this book I ordered my own copy, where it will sit right next to my Zusak shrine.

9-9.5 out of 10