The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Midnight Palace 

By Carlos Ruiz Zafon 

Rating 2/5 I 🤐

Genre : Calcutta, Fantasy, Fiction 

I know that coming from me this is a low rating but this book just read plain silly! This is a bunch of extraordinary stuff pulled together and strung into a meaningless story that just sounds ridiculous. I am sure that this is not one of the best works of Zafon who is a masterful and splendid writer! Though the main characters are juvenile and teenagers, they exude an aura of adulthood and behave totally like kids - this in my opinion indicates poor characterization. My question here i guess is why did Zafon even feel the need/drive to write such a stupid book?! 

Anyways, brief overview of the story. A bunch of orphan kids - seven in number - grow up together in an orphange and when they turn sixteen they get to enter the world as free adults. The background is Calcutta but the characters are named Ben, Kylian,Ian etc which don't seem to be Indian/Hindu names as such.  After they turn sixteen, they learn of some secrets about one of their fellow member Ben and how his life along with his twin sister's is at risk because of a fiend from another world. Wow,fantastic! His grandmother who is supposed to be the staunch matriarch protecting these children is reduced to a story telling and reminiscing machine in the sidelines once these "kids" take over. This ridiculous story is sprinkled with some over the top philosophical quotes and unbearably deep wisdom from such simple souls..it makes it even more harder to believe than it already is! So the twist is the fiend turns out to be Ben's father and what made him what he is..is the history. Lol! 

I find it hard to conceal my disappointment having read such an underwhelming work from this amazing author. :/