Isha Gupta Gupta من عند Bogačevo Riječko, كرواتيا من عند Bogačevo Riječko, كرواتيا

Not as good as others she has written.

Stephen King says: "If you thought the true gothic novel died with the 19th century, this will change your mind. Shadow is the real deal, a novel full of cheesy splendor and creaking trapdoors, a novel where even the subplots have subplots. There's a haunted house (ah, but by what?) called the Angel of Mist, and the only horror greater than the thing rotting in its bricked-up crypt is (but of course, senor) the horror of doomed love." He also blurbed a cover with "One gorgeous read." Ok... this book moved a bit slow for me in the beginning; I had a hard time getting into it, and I really really wanted to LOVE it. It felt, well the only word that came to my mind was, "heavy." Anyway, I almost put it down and I rarely do that, but half way through the pace picked up and I became intrigued. Therefore, I have mixed feelings about this. 4/18/11 update. I keep thinking about this book... it's haunting me, so I thought I'd do an update to my original tepid review above. I've revised my rating from a 3 to a 4 (sorry, Janis!). If a book sticks with me like this and I keep thinking about the characters, then there has to be something about it (unless, of course, it was so bad that it is unforgettable; which is not the case here). Anyway, I think I'd recommend this book to others, primarily for it's gothic feel and good character-development. I still think the pace was slow in the beginning and may not, at first, grab the reader. However, it does get much better after 200 pages or so. 7/15/11 update. I'm going to read this one again. I was going through a rough patch when I first read this and was having a hard time concentrating and was trying too hard to rush through it. This is NOT a book to rush through. Next time I will take my time and enjoy all its nuances. 3/26/15 Much, much better the 2nd time around. I raised it from a 4 to a 5. I must have been in a funky mood when I read it the first time.