Midnight Palace

By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    At last, a relatively good book to review. It's also the first on that doesn't have a female main character that moves to a small town, is instantly the social outcast, meets some cool people that take her in, and becomes the most popular girl in the school in a heart-wrenchingly sweet finale that I've read in a long time. Indeed, this book concerns itself with mystery, magic, and a powerful force that would best be left alone. An elegant and graceful writing style suffuses this dark novel with a sense of timeliness and power that is rarely achieved by *cough* other books for young adults.
  Stephanie did a fine job of covering the plot in her review(http://cchsyagalley.blogspot.com/2011/03/midnight-palace-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon.html) without spoiling too much of the plot.
  I've already mentioned that I like the writing style, so that leaves me with one thing.
  Near the end of the book, a villain does something that I'm really not OK with and I wish he/she hadn't done it. You'll understand perfectly when you read this.
  That's all- it was spicy fried Indian food, filling, delicately spiced, and warmed me to the core while at times making me cough indignantly and run for something a bit more fitting. 4.5.