Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

22 reviews

sarasreading's review against another edition

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

3.5

I attempted to read this as a teenager and quit when I reached a point that was absolutely bogged down with architecture description. I don't judge younger me at all for quitting. It was so boring and had no bearing on the rest of the book at all. If you're into dozens of pages of description about 1400s Paris, boy do I have the book for you!

About halfway through it finally started picking up, and it became a mostly unputdownable book for me, which was a lovely surprise!

Other things that were a surprise:

1. Playwrite marries the prettiest girl in Paris, literally only cares about her goat and basically elopes with it by the end, leaving the 16 year old in the clutches of a total pedo. 
2. Phoebus was a bigger douchebag than Frollo, change my mind. At least Frollo was mildly conflicted. "Oh she's been charged for my murder but had nothing to do with the attack I'm still totally alive and well? Eh, let her hang I guess, not my problem." -Phoebus probably.
3. The battle scene in front of the Notre Dame was wild. Probably said "holy crap!" out loud like 7 times.
4. This book is a huge bummer. Towards the end you hope and hope, and then it guts you.


If the first half of the book was much shorter, it would be a 4-4.5 star read for me. I know he was trying to get people to care about older gothic architecture, and the churches specifically, which is probably why we still have the Notre Dame today. So good on him and all, but in the 21st century it's a total snooze fest lol
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cambrand's review against another edition

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

4.25

Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris" is the first French Romantic novel and a great representation of it. The original title represents the story better than "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", given the the cathedral is the real center point and symbol of his novel rather than Quasimodo. A great illustration of middle-ages France - its people, politics, religion, and architecture. If you're reading this book based on the Disney's movie, you might be disappointed. Knocking off a star because of the mixed narration in the book that shifts from novel to almost essay-like in some chapters.
I'm sorry to say Frollo is actually the most interesting character and Esmeralda is actually painfully boring and mildly infuriating. Phoebus isn't a knight in shining armor and Quasimodo is somehow both heroic and pathetic.
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masha__me's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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voyage_of_a_time_wanderer's review against another edition

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5.0

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sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a SLOG. I thought it would be an interesting read while I was getting ready for our trip, but it took forever to get through. Normally Disney adaptations are watered down, but in this case, I think Disney actually did a good job of distilling and updating the text for a modern audience. Hugo is a great writer, but he’s a terrible editor. In addition to feeling bored often during this reading, I found myself very frustrated by Esmeralda’s portrayal, which was made even weaker with this audiobook narrator. As I kid, I loved the Disney Esmeralda’s spirit and independence, but that was often missing in the original text. I also hated how Quasimodo was framed, and Disney did a much better job in my memory of showing that disability or disfigurement does not make one less of a person. I suppose I should try and judge the text on its own merits outside of my childhood memories of the movie, but I can’t quite untangle my expectations from what I found in the novel.
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hot_water's review against another edition

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

3.0

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upthestairs's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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hattiefrankie's review against another edition

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

4.25

The relationships between the characters in this story evokes a strong empathy in the reader aswell as contempt. Hugo is the king of context and paints Paris in so much architectural, political and cultural detail that you can vividly picture the setting and time-period of this story. As a musician I found Quasimodo's connection with the cathedral bells heart-rending. Some contextual passages felt a little too slow-paced, but the storyline was so important and kept me engaged until the end.
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gemstone's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

Ok this book was so frustrating BECAUSE when Hugo was writing about the plot and driving the plot forward it was fantastic. He created the most awful male protagonists to reflect the absolute depravity of Paris at the time (looking at you Claude Frollo) and he really angers you at points by showing the injustice of the judicial system and how innocent people were often those who suffered most. The contrast of Quasimodo with Phoebus also challenges the idea of beauty, and what beauty really is, whilst showing that people aren’t ready to accept these ideas. The way I don’t like a single man in this book (maybe except Quasimodo) shows how brilliantly Hugo has done his job - they’re all so toxic in completely different ways. Frollo is absolutely the worst though
super glad about his fate in Book Eleven
. There were even parts of the book that made me laugh out loud - and I can’t tell if it was intentional by Hugo, or if the bluntness of the writing is due to the French-ness of it . Either way I love it. Esmerelda deserved better, she and Djali should have left all the men behind and gone to live together in the country. Maybe with Quasimodo
and my girl stop pining over Phoebus. He is trash. Scum of the earth. So sad you couldn’t see that
. My only issue with this book - and the reason it’s 4/5 not 4.5/5 or 5/5 - is the chapters that don’t drive the plot forward - and these are some excruciatingly loonnnnnggggg chapters about… architecture. My word, this man really has a bee in his bonnet about Gothic Architecture. I have a particular hatred of ‘A Bird’s Eye View of Paris’, and I recommend to either skim read it or skip it completely - it nearly made me DNF it and that would have been a real shame. I wasn’t surprised to learn that this chapter and a couple of others like it were actually removed from the original version. Anyways, overall I really enjoyed this book. It made me laugh, cry, shake with anger and grin with triumph. 4/5.
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