On a dark and stormy night in mysterious Calcutta, a British officer is barely able to save the lives of twins before a maniacal demon torments him to death. But on that deep, dark night, the twins lives are not truly saved, because the creature made of pure madness and revenge will simply bid its time until they turn 16.
Now, in 1932, as the summer monsoons rage over the sprawling, exotic capitol of the British Raj, those twins are about to turn 16: Ben, raised in an orphanage in the hopes of hiding from a fate he doesn’t know is coming for him, and Sheere, who has spent her youth criss-crossing India with the grandmother who has tried to outrun the beast that hunts them. Brought together on the eve of their birthday, and without knowing they are brother and sister, Ben and Sheere and Ben’s best friends from the orphanage, the Chowbar Society, find themselves caught up in the web of a terrible secret that destroyed hundreds of lives, consumed their parents when they were born, and threatens to steal their very souls.
In The Midnight Palace, Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon creates a heart-racing, spell-binding tale steeped in terror and cloaked in the exotic locale of British India. The mystery unfolds gradually as Ben, Sheere and the other teens unravel clues, decipher the falsehoods and lies told to them by adults, and try to stay one step ahead of a creature without remorse, pity or any human feeling aside from hatred and revenge. Tension builds on every page and readers will devour this book at a break-neck pace in order to discover the bloody secret at the heart of this dark, frightening tale.
- Posted by Cori