The Court of Miracles
Author: Kester Grant
Published by: Harper Voyager
Pages: 402
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★
Published by: Harper Voyager
Pages: 402
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★
Liberty. Family. Treachery.
1828 and the citizens of Paris still mourn in the wake of their failed revolution. Among them, in the dark alleys and crumbling cathedrals of the city, the most wretched have gathered into guilds of thieves, assassins – and worse. Together they are known as the Court of Miracles.
Eponine has lost more than most. When her father, Thénardier, sells her sister to the Guild of Flesh she makes a promise to do anything she can to get her sister back, even if that means joining the Court of Miracles, the very people keeping her sister a slave.
Eponine becomes the greatest thief the Court has ever known, finding a place among them and gaining another sister, Cosette. But she has never forgotten the promise she made, and if she’s to have any hope of saving one sister, she will have to betray the other.
This beautiful reimagining of Les Misérables tells the stories of your favourite characters and what might have happened if the French Revolution had not come to pass.
1828 and the citizens of Paris still mourn in the wake of their failed revolution. Among them, in the dark alleys and crumbling cathedrals of the city, the most wretched have gathered into guilds of thieves, assassins – and worse. Together they are known as the Court of Miracles.
Eponine has lost more than most. When her father, Thénardier, sells her sister to the Guild of Flesh she makes a promise to do anything she can to get her sister back, even if that means joining the Court of Miracles, the very people keeping her sister a slave.
Eponine becomes the greatest thief the Court has ever known, finding a place among them and gaining another sister, Cosette. But she has never forgotten the promise she made, and if she’s to have any hope of saving one sister, she will have to betray the other.
This beautiful reimagining of Les Misérables tells the stories of your favourite characters and what might have happened if the French Revolution had not come to pass.
My thoughts:
Les Misérables meets Six of Crows in this page-turning adventure as a young thief finds herself going head to head with leaders of Paris’s criminal underground in the wake of the French Revolution.
The Court of Miracles maps the adventures of a daring young thief Eponine, in an alternative version of France in 1828, where the revolution has failed and Paris is ruled by ruthless criminal guilds and viscous royals. In the violent urban jungle of this alternate Paris, the Revolution has failed and the city is divided between merciless royalty and nine underworld criminal guilds, known as the Court of Miracles.
Eponine (Nina) Thénardier is a talented cat burglar and member of the Thieves Guild. Nina’s life is midnight robberies, avoiding her father’s fists, and watching over her naïve adopted sister, Cosette (Ettie). Her lifelong goal has been to save her long-lost sister from a life of enforced prostitution, and now, to save a new sister who may soon succumb to the very same fate.
With this book, I was immediately intrigued when its description called it a Les Mis retelling. The Court of Miracles has such an extraordinarily complex storyline that brought in lots of fun fantasy tropes and was reminiscent of many beloved works of fiction, and yet still managed to maintain its own sense of mystery.
I enjoyed the glitz and glamour of the court as well as the more seedy and grimy elements of the underworld. Alongside this we also have glimpses of the lives of the common people during the June Rebellion, who were dying of starvation and illness. Overall, the atmosphere, setting and political aspects of the plot were by far my favourite elements throughout.
I just think with a little more development it could have been phenomenal and also held a lot more emotional impact. Where I feel this book was slightly lacking, is in the development of the key characters and the relationships between them.
The pacing was unstable, and I felt that the many time skips made things feel pretty disjointed at times. Years were skipped over so that we could accelerate to the more interesting and relevant parts of the plot. There were time jumps where I would’ve liked to see the development of the sisterhood between Nina and Cosette more. I felt the story needed a deeper exploration of character relationships and how these were established, as well as how they progressed and grew (these occur between the time jumps so we are not witness to these moments).
I really wanted to like this book, but I have to be honest in my review. I’m curious to see what others think as the reviews keep trickling in, but there’s still some buzz around this one and I can understand why. The marketing is beautiful, and the blurb is attention-grabbing, and I actually mostly really liked Kester Grant’s writing style. Fantasy fiction is one of my favourite genres. I went into this wanting to love it, to be swept away in a new fantasy series, and I don’t think that’s going to happen at this point.
I might read the sequel, but I was expecting so much from this book and I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. It’s still a pretty good read, but had the potential to be much better.
Overall reaction:
Les Misérables meets Six of Crows in this page-turning adventure as a young thief finds herself going head to head with leaders of Paris’s criminal underground in the wake of the French Revolution.
The Court of Miracles maps the adventures of a daring young thief Eponine, in an alternative version of France in 1828, where the revolution has failed and Paris is ruled by ruthless criminal guilds and viscous royals. In the violent urban jungle of this alternate Paris, the Revolution has failed and the city is divided between merciless royalty and nine underworld criminal guilds, known as the Court of Miracles.
Eponine (Nina) Thénardier is a talented cat burglar and member of the Thieves Guild. Nina’s life is midnight robberies, avoiding her father’s fists, and watching over her naïve adopted sister, Cosette (Ettie). Her lifelong goal has been to save her long-lost sister from a life of enforced prostitution, and now, to save a new sister who may soon succumb to the very same fate.
With this book, I was immediately intrigued when its description called it a Les Mis retelling. The Court of Miracles has such an extraordinarily complex storyline that brought in lots of fun fantasy tropes and was reminiscent of many beloved works of fiction, and yet still managed to maintain its own sense of mystery.
I enjoyed the glitz and glamour of the court as well as the more seedy and grimy elements of the underworld. Alongside this we also have glimpses of the lives of the common people during the June Rebellion, who were dying of starvation and illness. Overall, the atmosphere, setting and political aspects of the plot were by far my favourite elements throughout.
I just think with a little more development it could have been phenomenal and also held a lot more emotional impact. Where I feel this book was slightly lacking, is in the development of the key characters and the relationships between them.
The pacing was unstable, and I felt that the many time skips made things feel pretty disjointed at times. Years were skipped over so that we could accelerate to the more interesting and relevant parts of the plot. There were time jumps where I would’ve liked to see the development of the sisterhood between Nina and Cosette more. I felt the story needed a deeper exploration of character relationships and how these were established, as well as how they progressed and grew (these occur between the time jumps so we are not witness to these moments).
I really wanted to like this book, but I have to be honest in my review. I’m curious to see what others think as the reviews keep trickling in, but there’s still some buzz around this one and I can understand why. The marketing is beautiful, and the blurb is attention-grabbing, and I actually mostly really liked Kester Grant’s writing style. Fantasy fiction is one of my favourite genres. I went into this wanting to love it, to be swept away in a new fantasy series, and I don’t think that’s going to happen at this point.
I might read the sequel, but I was expecting so much from this book and I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. It’s still a pretty good read, but had the potential to be much better.
Overall reaction:
