El cuco de cristal

Page turner from the author of La chica de nieve

This book is written by Javier Castillo, an author from Málaga whose career seems to have really taken off in the last few years. His book “La chica de nieve” was adapted as a TV miniseries and released on Netflix in 2023. Two further novels, including El cuco de cristal have also been picked up by Netflix and are in production. He’s sold more than 2,000,000 books according to the cover.

This is a mystery/thriller than follows the story of Cora, a 25 year old doctor working in New York. After needing an emergency heart transplant she is invited to spend time with the family of the man whose heart was donated. She finds herself in a small town in Missouri which is full of secrets.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a real page turner that I found hard to put down. From a learner’s point of view I found this on the easier end of books aimed at an adult audience, and not much more difficult than the first Harry Potter book. The chapters are quite short which I found helpful as a learner, although also made it harder to stop reading and instead read one more chapter…

I also found it an interesting concept to explore someone with a heart transplant getting to know the loved ones of the heart donor. From the family’s point of view, that your loved one might be dead, but their heart continues beating in someone else’s body. And from the recipient’s point of view, that you get to explore the life of the person whose heart now beats inside of you.