A review by beckyyreadss
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your life. This is book thirty on the poster. I thought I was going to struggle with this book considering it is a classic as with most books on this poster and I was hooked from the first couple of chapters and then it lost steam in the middle and managed to get me hooked again towards the end.  

This book is set against the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Era, this book is based on Edmond Dantes, and he has been betrayed by his enemies and thrown into a secret dungeon in the Chateau d’If, doomed to spend his life in a dank prison cell. The story of his long, intolerable years in captivity, his miraculous escape and his carefully wrought revenge creates a dramatic tale of mystery and intrigue and paints a vision of Frank – a dazzling, duelling, exuberant France that has become immortal. This book is now considered to be one of the most read romantic novels of all time.  

I enjoyed the storyline at the beginning of the book and was fully rooting for Edmond and then obviously the thing happened, and I was thinking this is going to be a long book if he spends all of it in prison, which he didn’t. I was rooting for him and Abbe and was hoping he would make some big fight or gesture to get his girl back. I liked the revenge aspect as much as the forgive and forget and obviously when this book was written it would have been groundbreaking. I managed to get into the book more towards the end when the drama was kicking off and everything was being revealed but I preferred the beginning of the book and the friendship he made with Abbe.  

It is too long, I was getting bored by the middle bit, too many characters were being introduced, I ended up getting confused that The Count of Monte Cristo was Edmond and was lost for a short while during this book. All the build-up wasn’t really needed, and I was wanting the action and the drama to start sooner rather than later. When it wasn’t Edmond’s point of view, I was bored which was all the middle bit. It just kept switching people and locations and I was just lost.  

Overall, I enjoyed the first 25% and the last 25% but the middle 50’% nearly wrote me off, but compared to the other books on this poster, it wasn’t too bad. I think my expectations were a little too high with the good ratings on GR and Storygraph.  
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