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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
dark
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not Hugos best work. Better you read Les Mis or the last day of a condemned man.
I am not sure what the point was of the book. I think there were several, but somehow it just stretched on and it were not topics that actually landed with me.
I am not sure what the point was of the book. I think there were several, but somehow it just stretched on and it were not topics that actually landed with me.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
RTC.
Possibly 4.5. I have to think about it but it was definitely a great surprise and something that didn’t read like a classic (didn’t drag like they often do... sorry for saying that, not meant to be offensive).
Possibly 4.5. I have to think about it but it was definitely a great surprise and something that didn’t read like a classic (didn’t drag like they often do... sorry for saying that, not meant to be offensive).
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've tried to read this book once before, and it didn't work out. I ended up getting a couple hundred pages in, didn't like it, and gave up. This year, I decided I'm going to pick it up again. Guess what? I ended up really enjoying it! My basis for this story is, like many people's, the Disney movie. This is very different than that, but also good. Eventually, I found myself enjoying the random moments where Hugo went off on tangents and showed us different things/characters. It's a good book and, if I were in the mood for it, I'd definitely pick it up again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, Kidnapping
5 stars, because this books gets a free pass for everything:
* Entire chapters that should have been cut out, like the first two at least,
* comically ludicrous coincidences
* everyone loves the beautiful girl
* the church is unremitting evil, the beautiful gypsy is unremitting good
* every single thing is laid on with a ~~trowel~~ wheelbarrow.
* the mild, only, presence of a plot
* the overwhelming attempt to make everything into a symbol.
* Ok, ok, Notre-Dame had a mystical past. We get it.
It's just so much fun (eventually, when every 10-pages or so something happens) AND it invented the romantic novel at the same time.
So 5 well-deserved stars.
* Entire chapters that should have been cut out, like the first two at least,
* comically ludicrous coincidences
* everyone loves the beautiful girl
* the church is unremitting evil, the beautiful gypsy is unremitting good
* every single thing is laid on with a ~~trowel~~ wheelbarrow.
* the mild, only, presence of a plot
* the overwhelming attempt to make everything into a symbol.
* Ok, ok, Notre-Dame had a mystical past. We get it.
It's just so much fun (eventually, when every 10-pages or so something happens) AND it invented the romantic novel at the same time.
So 5 well-deserved stars.
I am actually surprised I liked this book. I once tried to read "Les Miserables". That didn't work out. But this? I liked. Minus the history parts or heavy passages of architecture. I really liked, of course, the subtle sarcasm.
A five star in my book.
A five star in my book.
I really wish by the end of this book I had found out what happened to Quasimodo, even though I know him "disappearing" was part of the ending. This book richly described a time in Paris, even though fictional, with the most beauty in detail of Notre Dame. The villains are easy to hate, almost out of a Poe story. The love triangle had a slightly predictable ending, though the tragedy was saddening. Quite an end to my classic summer reading list, I must say.