100 Pages A Day...Stephanie's Book Reviews

Fifteen year-old Oscar attends a boarding school in Barcelona in 1980.  Intrigued by architecture and a sense of adventure, he likes to go explore the abandoned mansions that line the streets near his school.  Lured in by a ghostly opera melody, Oscar finds himself in a very much inhabited mansion and unwittingly steals a gold pocket watch.  When Oscar finds the courage to return the pocket watch, he finds that the inhabitants of the dilapidated mansion include a girl his age, Marina, and her father, German.  Fueled by a shared sense of adventure, Marina leads Oscar to an abandoned graveyard with an unmarked stone that a veiled lady in black visits at the same time once a week, leaving a single red rose.  

A gothic mystery with a touch of romance and plenty of adventure, Marina provided a good mix that made for a perfect read.  The abandoned and forgotten mansions, graveyards and theaters made for a perfect setting, where a mystery is just waiting to be solved.  Zafon's writing style adds to the overall mysterious but romantic feeling, a rich, descriptive prose that gave me just enough to get lost in the words and the world that Marina and Oscar had discovered.  The friendship and budding romance of Oscar and Marina, is done with a perfect touch, it is not overwhelming and the sense that there is something more to their relationship grown throughout the book to give way to an absolutely heartbreaking ending.  While written for teens and with teen characters, Marina reads much like an adult novel.  This book definitely makes me want to read my other Zafon books that are sitting on the shelf.  

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.  

I loved this book so much, I am going to use it for my free space in Summer Bookish Bingo: