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A review by raquelbaggins
The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
2.0
★★☆☆☆*
The Court of Miracles is a “fantasiesque” historical-fiction novel inspired by [b: Les Misérables|24280|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411852091l/24280._SY75_.jpg|3208463] set in an alternate 1820s Paris where the French Revolution had failed. Although I’m not a big fan of Les Mis, the synopsis instantly caught my eye, and it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year as it was marketed as adult fantasy. But the fantasy is inexistent, the writing style is very juvenile, the characters are cliché, the alternate world-building is confusing, and there is a lack of plot, intrigue and logic.
The story follows Nina Thénardier in a first-person narration for several years of her life, with part of the narrative off-page and a few time skips between each part of the book. The story starts off when Azelma, Nina’s sister, is sold by her father to The Guild of Flesh, one of the nine underworld criminal guilds that control Paris, and Nina (a somewhat 10 years-old girl? –despite the year being indicated at the beginning of each section, I still had a difficult time discerning how old Nina was supposed to be) is thrust into The Guild of Thieves to be a new “cat” burglar. She is then decided to save her sister from her terrible fate at The Tiger’s (the Lord of the Guild of Flesh) hands. But this initial plot will change and become confusing throughout the pages as different new characters and plot twists are introduced –and this aspect was one of the several things I didn’t like about this book.
The characters are flat, typecast, and juvenile while their interactions are cliché, boring and predictable: Nina is the average heroine from YA books –a not-so-special girl that is good at everything (even when trying things for the first time) because she’s an amazing thief and accomplishes every mission way too easily–, Azelma is treated as a macguffin to set up Nina’s first revenge plan but it won’t be mentioned again until the last part of the book (it actually seemed not only the readers but also Nina forgot her sister…), Ettie is a naïve girl that appears just to be a new Azelma and be constantly saved by Nina, St. Juste (Enjolras) is the revolutionary that seems his purpose was being one of the three love interests of our main character, Grantaire is the drunkard, Montparnasse is the knife (and other of Nina’s love interests)… and Javert is retold as a woman for the sole purpose of hinting that Valjean and her had previously had something.
I sort of liked the atmosphere of the underworld Paris and how some of these misérables had The Court of Miracles’ Guilds as families, but I was expecting a fantasy novel, and the aspects I moderately enjoyed (it's fast-paced and quite entertaining) couldn't compensate the things I didn't like, so it ended up being an okay reading for me. All in all, I think The Court of Miracles is a forgettable book that doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and I’m not going to continue reading the series.
*I use the CAWPILE rating system created by Book Roast, and this book was a 4.4/10 for me.
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«Nous sommes d’un sang»
The Court of Miracles is a “fantasiesque” historical-fiction novel inspired by [b: Les Misérables|24280|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411852091l/24280._SY75_.jpg|3208463] set in an alternate 1820s Paris where the French Revolution had failed. Although I’m not a big fan of Les Mis, the synopsis instantly caught my eye, and it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year as it was marketed as adult fantasy. But the fantasy is inexistent, the writing style is very juvenile, the characters are cliché, the alternate world-building is confusing, and there is a lack of plot, intrigue and logic.
The story follows Nina Thénardier in a first-person narration for several years of her life, with part of the narrative off-page and a few time skips between each part of the book. The story starts off when Azelma, Nina’s sister, is sold by her father to The Guild of Flesh, one of the nine underworld criminal guilds that control Paris, and Nina (a somewhat 10 years-old girl? –despite the year being indicated at the beginning of each section, I still had a difficult time discerning how old Nina was supposed to be) is thrust into The Guild of Thieves to be a new “cat” burglar. She is then decided to save her sister from her terrible fate at The Tiger’s (the Lord of the Guild of Flesh) hands. But this initial plot will change and become confusing throughout the pages as different new characters and plot twists are introduced –and this aspect was one of the several things I didn’t like about this book.
The characters are flat, typecast, and juvenile while their interactions are cliché, boring and predictable: Nina is the average heroine from YA books –a not-so-special girl that is good at everything (even when trying things for the first time) because she’s an amazing thief and accomplishes every mission way too easily–, Azelma is treated as a macguffin to set up Nina’s first revenge plan but it won’t be mentioned again until the last part of the book (it actually seemed not only the readers but also Nina forgot her sister…), Ettie is a naïve girl that appears just to be a new Azelma and be constantly saved by Nina, St. Juste (Enjolras) is the revolutionary that seems his purpose was being one of the three love interests of our main character, Grantaire is the drunkard, Montparnasse is the knife (and other of Nina’s love interests)… and Javert is retold as a woman for the sole purpose of hinting that Valjean and her had previously had something.
I sort of liked the atmosphere of the underworld Paris and how some of these misérables had The Court of Miracles’ Guilds as families, but I was expecting a fantasy novel, and the aspects I moderately enjoyed (it's fast-paced and quite entertaining) couldn't compensate the things I didn't like, so it ended up being an okay reading for me. All in all, I think The Court of Miracles is a forgettable book that doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and I’m not going to continue reading the series.
*I use the CAWPILE rating system created by Book Roast, and this book was a 4.4/10 for me.
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