Victor Hugo is that uncle that loves to tell all sorts of outrageous stories that are completely over the top and most certainly not particularly factually accurate. It's a lot of fun but it's also very rambly and sometimes hard to follow exactly what the point is - although you're sure that there's a definite attempt to push a certain political agenda.

My main issue with the book was that I didn't like any of the characters and didn't really enjoy reading about them. I liked the overall vibe and some of it was quite amusing, but it was also overdone and most of the puns get lost in translation (endnotes never quite have the same effect...). The darker themes Hugo explores, like power and control over others, punishment and torture, and poverty are all cleverly discussed and for the most part, enjoyable to read. I can see why it's a classic, but just be ready for nastiness and a severe lack of positive outcomes.

I'm not sure how to rate a book like this. It is obviously a classic, and for very good reason. It is funny, dark, sad, and suspenseful. But I find it very hard to enjoy something so filled with racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and ableism. Overall, I'm glad to have read it. I'm also fairly amazed at how much the Disney movie kept from the original story-it actually follows the book pretty closely. And, as tragedies are such an important part of human story-telling, this one is true to form.

At times I wasn't sure if the author was denouncing all the above-mentioned isms, or agreeing with them. Maybe both, for different things? I'm not sure. I'll give this a star rating to reflect my enjoyment of the reading, and not so much to reflect that it is a classic. When reading stories like this I try to maintain cultural relativism-it is not my time, my culture, my society, therefore I can't judge it the same way I would my contemporary stories, even as I disagree with so much of the wrongs of that time and place.

Ultimately, I'm glad to have read it.