Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - The Court of Miracles

Honestly, what would have made this better would be if the author didn't reference Les Miserables at all. The story, character motivation and killer climax was already top tier. Very gruesome, but very good.

Content Warnings

sadiebreed's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

margueritestjust's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Sometimes when I was reading this book, I forgot that I was reading what is essentially Les Mis fanfiction. Then the book would deck me over the head with the fact that it is, in fact, Les Mis fanfiction.

(Apologies, this review gets long.)

So first of all, did I overall enjoy it? Yes. I think that it's a fairly strong debut novel, and I am somewhat interested in her upcoming work (I believe that there are planned sequels to this book from her website, along with other works). I think that this book itself is extremely bemusing. I usually don't include plot summaries in my reviews because I as a reader tend to seek out reviews after I've already finished a book, and most of the time you can just google plot summaries for books. That being said, the plot is so confounding that I want to take a brief moment to just surmise on it.

So, it's set in an alternate history of France, one where the French revolution never happened (or, well, sort of, but it failed) and an underground world exists with its own laws and guilds. Eponine is the main character, and she is on a mission to save her sister(s) from The Tiger, who is adapted more or less from the Jungle Book. (Because, yes, this book is also The Jungle Book fanfiction.) And also, three men fall in love with here along the way. Yes, really.

The book is somewhat stylistically jarring - the 1st person narrator would narrate things with very normal speech, in a very ordinary manner but then would refer to themselves as "The Black Cat" or say things like "I am a cat" which makes sense because that's what her official role within the Guild of Thieves is, but it came off as highly stylized while the rest of the book made no effort to be so. This stylization, along with most everything to do with the Miracle Court, seems to have been drawn largely from The Jungle Book. Perhaps if it were a 3rd person narrator it would have gelled more easily for me, but still, that leads to one of the most interesting parts of this book - its world. I was a bit put off by the concept at first - it all seemed very Divergent-esque, but the Guilds that we see in this story are truly developed and really interesting.

I would have to say that this book is an adaptation of Les Mis in the sense that it takes some of its characters and situations but hardly does the same thematic work of much of the original book. And I don't say that to dismiss this book - it has other themes and studies those themes intensely. The original book also has the advantage of being 1400 pages long (1000 more than this book) and therefore has more time to explore themes (whenever Victor Hugo isn't on one of his thousands of tangents). I think that the theme that I missed the most from the original was the idea of justice vs. mercy (this book doesn't focus on Valjean or Javert, though both characters are present in the story, so it makes sense) and the character that I missed the most from the original was FANTINE. She's reduced to a reference that's mentioned twice and I'm legit sad about it ;-; - still, it doesn't matter that much in the end, even though she could have easily shown up as one of the Sisters (the women controlled by the Tiger).

The themes that instead show up are more focused on the ideas of injustice and inequality in France, which makes sense as it's focused on Eponine and Enjolras the most. This is where the whole failed French revolution bit came in. Rather than the fall of the monarchy and the ancien regime in 1792, the uprising against them was quelled before it gained steam, and the leaders of this aborted revolution (Robespierre, Danton, St. Juste, etc.) were killed, along with their associates and their families (however, Charlotte Corday is still out and about and kicking it as the Lady of Assassins). Marie Antoinette's son is on the throne and has a son of his own. Enjolras, fairly confusingly, is related to St. Juste and uses his name, and is referred to as St. Juste for the entirety of the book. Here's where all of this begins to really shape the themes of this story. Soilers ahead.

So, minor complaint, but Enjolras, aka St. Juste, is compared to an angel, and it brings up the fact that the historical St. Juste was known as "the Angel of Death". It slightly bothers me that this comparison was made because (A) the moniker "Angel of Death" was not at all a complimentary thing - it in fact referred to the way that St. Juste removed protections in the legal system that ended up sending even more people to their deaths during the actual revolution, and (B) if the historical Reign of Terror never happened, then he would have never have been given that moniker in the first place. If Grant wanted to really emphasize how angelic Enjolras looked, then there wasn't any need to bring up St. Juste's infamy, just more imagery of how beautiful Enjolras was could have worked. The idea of an angel of death is very evocative, but in this case, was more jarring than anything. Now, onto the actual themes of the story.

As for the failed Revolution, it points out that if the monarchy had been saved, everyone who had attempted to overthrow them would have been executed, which stands to reason that they would have been. It gives an alternate history where the monarchy that is now in place would poison the wells in the cities to avoid a revolution over the famine in their kingdom, while they have plenty. It points out how the upcoming revolution would probably summarily execute the current monarchy as that very same monarchy plans to summarily kill all of the revolutionaries, and even planned the revolution themselves as a way of drawing out their enemies and killing them. It paints a very realistic picture of what could have happened if the French revolution had failed - and a complex view that shows not necessarily that there was innocent and evil on both sides, but moreso that both sides were ready to kill off the entirety of their enemies, and that France was so broken as a country at the time that either outcome would have ended with only bloodshed.

Anyways, back to the overall plot and characters. The romances were definitely the weakest part of the book. When

Eponine kisses the dauphin, and it said that "he tasted of chocolate" I laughed out loud and told my mother immediately.

. Out of Eponine's suitors, Montparnasse was my favorite. Enjolras didn't really fit for me, and the dauphin really felt more like a plot device to solve Eponine's problems for her.

He gives her the bread price without her even asking him for it. Of course, she accuses him of having the grain and not even knowing of the people starving, but he doesn't know that she needs it in order to secure Ettie's freedom and security. He gives her a really expensive crown because...he likes her, I guess.

Montparnasse feels like he exists in the same world with Eponine,

and I adore the fact that they give each other knives as some strange sort of mating dance

. He offers to face death alongside her without being asked, and I just think that's neat, okay?

I think the other issues that I had with this book boiled down to the fact that Grant didn't give herself enough time to wrap up the story, though given, there were some twists at the end that I positively adored, as they added so much thematically to the story and to Eponine's character. That being said, there were several subplots introduced or confirmed extremely late within the story, both of which had so much potential to be explored.

The very fact that Valjean and Javert had a romantic? Relationship? in particular seems to come out of nowhere, and gets absolutely zero resolution. The other one that really bothered me was the confirmation that Orso was in fact, one of the revolutionaries that survived the culling. Which one was he? Who took his place? How did this affect his relationship with Enjolras? Also, sad days to me, I thought that perhaps it had been Gentleman George).

If there is a sequel that occurs directly after this that ends up addressing those issues, I don't think it will end up being that big of a deal, but as it is, it feels as though the climax happens and then there's barely any denouement before the story is simply over.

Overall, was it enjoyable? Yes. Is there room for improvement? Also yes. The biggest thing that I felt was that this book was trying to be too many things at once. Stylistic view of an underground world with distinct sects and rules / historical and social critique of the French revolution and of social inequality overall / romance?? And no, the fact that the book was self-referential about the fact that she had 3 love interests did not make it any better that she did, in fact, have 3 love interests. This book is definitely a doozy. It fascinates me. It perplexes me. I can't wait to read more from this author.

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