The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
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.
In the violent urban jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, the French 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). When Ettie attracts the eye of the Tiger--the ruthless lord of the Guild of Flesh--Nina is caught in a desperate race to keep the younger girl safe. Her vow takes her from the city's dark underbelly to the glittering court of Louis XVII. And it also forces Nina to make a terrible choice--protect Ettie and set off a brutal war between the guilds, or forever lose her sister to the Tiger.
MY OPINION: ****
Summer Reading Challenge #2: A book published in 2020
I had high expectations for this book. I saw it in a Goodreads list of most anticipated Young Adult books of 2020 and as soon as I saw the words Les Miserables I just had to read it. Les Miz was the epitome of my childhood and I know every song, every character, every plot line that there is to know. I grew up listening to the soundtrack, saw the musical and the movies countless times, watched the concert series and sang my heart out in my living room at eight years old.
Warning: this book is not a Les Miz retelling. It simply features the characters of the original musical/book, including Eponine, Cosette, Jean Valjean, Javert (who is a woman now!), Enjolras, Grantaire, Gavroche, etc. There also is no mention of Marius Pontmercy, though I'm sure one of the characters is an allusion to him.
The book is divided into four segments, most of which have a two or three year time jump. Personally, I found these time jumps awkward and jerky and a lot of the time, they felt unnecessary. Nina, the main character (aka Eponine), begins as a nine-year-old, confused, innocent, naive little girl who is cast into a world of guilds and masters after watching the devastating act of her father, Thenardier, selling her older sister, Azelma, into slavery. By the end, Nina is a determined, independent, brave, strong eighteen-year-old girl.
Nina is dubbed the Black Cat, which I personally laughed at with my sister who I read this book with. She is a part of the Thieves Guild and is now a daughter of the lord Tomasis.
SPOILER Tomasis's death was too depressing; I was not expecting it at all. It felt very random and out of place.
END SPOILER Her main goal in life is to save her sister, Azelma, from Lord Kaplan (aka the Tiger), a sex-slave owner and a ruthless, disgusting human being. In the second segment, we meet a new character, Ettie (aka Cosette), who is basically Nina's "sister" that she has sworn to protect. The Tiger has his eyes on Ettie as well and Nina's determined to save her from suffering the same fate as Azelma.
The plot of this book was highly unique to normal young adult fantasy, as it centered around saving unlucky women from prostitution while respecting the authority and power of guilds and lords. I liked the historical elements of this book, such as the references to guilds, the French Revolution, and the failed after-effects of the revolutions started by schoolboys and workers. While there were some historical inaccuracies, they were slight and only the most historically-observant people would have picked up on them (I only caught some because I just finished AP Euro in which we spent a lengthy amount of time on French history).
I loved the romance aspect of this book because it wasn't the pivotal element as it often is in YA fantasy such as in Sarah J. Maas's books. However, it seemed highly unrealistic that Nina got the attention of not one, not two, but THREE handsome and powerful men.
1. St. Juste (aka Enjolras). If I were to pick a ship right now, it would definitely be St. Juste and Nina. He was definitely my favorite of the three. He exuded power, demanded respect, and seemed intimidating. However, I personally loved his character because he was fiercely protective and loyal to his fellow brothers-in-arms and to Nina, despite her sending him to jail.
SPOILER I did have a moment where I almost didn't like him when he blamed Nina for being the snitch/spy but after that, I loved him again. If he had died at the end, I would have cried and quit reading. Thankfully, he didn't.
END SPOILER It also didn't hurt that he was quite good-looking :)
2. The Dauphin of France (the prince). He was so sweet and innocent and naive and I felt bad for the entire time. As my sister so artfully put it, he was a fool. We meet him in the very beginning of the book and he becomes a recurring character throughout, pulling on our heartstrings and making us pity and adore him. I personally didn't ship him with Nina because as I said, I'm a St. Juste girl, but I really hope they have a good, strong, long-lasting friendship.
3. Montparnasse. I didn't really understand when he became a love interest because to me, it suddenly felt like he just randomly appeared. I don't even remember when we met him but all of a sudden, Ettie being her hopeless romantic self (like me) was shipping Nina and him. He is an Assassin who is fiercely protective of Nina and is willing to fight with her to the death. His loyalty was admirable but I also did not ship them.
One thing I didn't like about this book was the implementation of Corday's hypnosis. That made absolutely no sense, since the majority of this book did not have magic or fantasy elements like this.
The world-building was kind of confusing and awkwardly constructed. The book is set in 1800s France just after the French Revolution. However, I wasn't able to fully imagine the setting and where we were. The descriptions seemed to focus on the smaller things rather than the bigger picture. I would have liked to have seen a more detailed description of Paris at this time and what it looked like.
One of the most interesting aspects of this book for me was the love story between Javert and le Maire (aka Jean Valjean). For those who are not familiar with Les Miz, this is highly unlikely to happen. Javert is the determined police inspector who has dedicated his life to capturing the escaped convict, Jean Valjean, who served a nineteen-year prison sentence after stealing a loaf of bread (bread was basically gold in those times). They are sworn enemies despite the ultimate finale of Javert realizing that he has made a mistake and that people, even the worst of people, can find redemption in the eyes of God. However, in this book, Javert was a female police inspector who was after Jean Valjean after he supposedly broke her heart. This was very surprising to me and I can't wait for the future books in hopes that we get more elaboration on their relationship because I found it quite interesting. I honestly think Javert could have just been kept a man because a gay relationship between these two characters would have been absolutely unique and would have had a lot of potential, especially since it was so looked-down-upon in those times.
Extra note: my mental image of the red-haired, female Javert was the super creepy woman from Madagascar 3.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and have high hopes for the second and third. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a unique fantasy novel with a strong female protagonist.
Main Character: Nina
Sidekick(s): Ettie, St. Juste, Dauphin, Montparnasse, le Maire, Tomasis, etc
Villain(s): Lord Kaplan, Thenardier, etc
Historical Fiction Elements: This book was based on 1800s France with fictional characters, plot, etc.
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