Reviews

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

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jason_l_thomas's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The importance of this book cannot be understated especially when it comes to modern practices of historical preservation and the question of who or what will tell our story to future generations. Yet, instead of the original story of Quasimodo being one filled with adventure showcasing the importance of Notre Dame as a historical sight, Hugo’s writing often reads more like a text book with hundreds of pages being dedicated to telling the history of Paris and Notre Dame (this happens all throughout the book breaking up some rather fine pacing). These teachings are interesting, but take away from the novel’s themes and tragedy. Before reading one must understand that this is not similar to the Disney version in many, many ways, this story will leave you feeling horribly sad. Yet the theme is painted still quite clearly and creates much for thought.

campanulafield7's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

4.25

maimai101's review against another edition

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It’s a little too complicated.
Maybe when I’m ready to dig into the style

s3tjohns's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

libraryofdreaming's review against another edition

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3.0

I really want to know is what Disney executive woke up after a three day bender and thought, "You know what, I'm going to make a children's musical out of this really depressing historical epic and oh yeah, there's going to be singing gargoyles!!1! Woo!" Seriously, what the heck?? It boggles my mind how that movie actually came to be. Only about 0.0000001% of the plot actually comes from the book and the theme is COMPLETELY different.

BECAUSE

Spoiler

ACTUALLY EVERYONE IS DEAD AND ESMERELDA IS ONLY SIXTEEN AND QUASIMODO IS DEAF AND PHEOBUS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN OFF THE TOWER TOO BECAUSE HE'S NASTY AND I HATE ALL OF THEM. *cries*

Can you tell I'm really upset about this??