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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a super hard book to review.
First things first: everyone always complains about how the whole book is just Victor Hugo going on and on about architecture. That just isn’t true. There are a few (long) chapters like that early on, but once you’re through those it actually has a super engaging plot. It was a legitimate page-turner for the second half of the book.
Ok, so you know how basically everyone agrees that Lord Frollo is by far the most terrifying Disney villain? You know, the whole “Hellfire” song and all? Well he’s about 1000x more terrifying in the book. It goes deep into his crazy lusting obsession with Esmeralda (who is only 15 in the book, by the way) and shows just how much of an insane sexual predator he is. He truly does believe that it’s her fault for existing and “making him” want her body so bad, and therefore deserves to die. So freaking scary!! Honestly one of the scariest literary villains I’ve ever encountered.
But come on, that ending?? WAY too sad!! I won’t spoil it, but man, pretty absolutely frickin hopeless. Everyone lost, everyone was devastated, and no character seems to have experienced an ounce of hope or redemption. I’m all for not whitewashing an ending, but this wasn’t even gray - just real dark black.
Anyway. That said, I really did love this book, and I didn’t really expect to. Great story, terrifying villain, and real engaging. Nice work, Victor.
First things first: everyone always complains about how the whole book is just Victor Hugo going on and on about architecture. That just isn’t true. There are a few (long) chapters like that early on, but once you’re through those it actually has a super engaging plot. It was a legitimate page-turner for the second half of the book.
Ok, so you know how basically everyone agrees that Lord Frollo is by far the most terrifying Disney villain? You know, the whole “Hellfire” song and all? Well he’s about 1000x more terrifying in the book. It goes deep into his crazy lusting obsession with Esmeralda (who is only 15 in the book, by the way) and shows just how much of an insane sexual predator he is. He truly does believe that it’s her fault for existing and “making him” want her body so bad, and therefore deserves to die. So freaking scary!! Honestly one of the scariest literary villains I’ve ever encountered.
But come on, that ending?? WAY too sad!! I won’t spoil it, but man, pretty absolutely frickin hopeless. Everyone lost, everyone was devastated, and no character seems to have experienced an ounce of hope or redemption. I’m all for not whitewashing an ending, but this wasn’t even gray - just real dark black.
Anyway. That said, I really did love this book, and I didn’t really expect to. Great story, terrifying villain, and real engaging. Nice work, Victor.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/day-787-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/day-787-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame/
Hugo surprised me. For a nearly 300 year old book, this was especially funny and I often found myself laughing. Yet the story is so tragic. The tragedy of the hunchback has been so distorted in pop culture that it was great to read the real tale, which shocked me. In all, a beautiful story of human desires.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’ve got a thing for classics, so I knew beforehand I was going to like this book. Overall, I enjoyed reading it. I like his style and his sarcastic comments. However, do we really need to know which king ordered the construction of which wall that no longer exist and didn’t even exist when he was alive and was acting as a fourth wall to a house when the story happened?! Also, is it really necessary to make one endure 30 pages of a dissertation of how the printing killed architecture? Besides, one page would be more than enough to get the idea that Victor Hugo hates half the additions and changes made to the Cathedral throughout the years, therefore dozens of pages explaining it in detail was most definitely not necessary!
Anyway, after his 30 page long dissertations and tangents there’s usually a 5 page summary so skip the his essays and enjoy the story.
Anyway, after his 30 page long dissertations and tangents there’s usually a 5 page summary so skip the his essays and enjoy the story.
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
DNF on page 336. I can't believe I wasted so much fucking time on this book. It took until book IV for it to get even *slightly* interesting, for the story to even *start*. And Quasimodo, the only reason I even tried to push through it, barely is in it. And I hate the writing on top of it. I didn't have any desire to read this book before, I really don't anymore. I don't care I got through the majority of it, the rest can kiss my ass. I'll try watching the movie (pretty sure I never have...there's multiple aren't there? i'll have to look into that).