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A review by jameshousworth
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
4.0
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.