The Man Who Laughs — Book review

On and on and on. At first I was gonna mark this 4.5 stars for the writing and story but I was only 20% in at the time. As a writer I like to review the book on what it is, and not what I hoped it would be.

Annoyingly, despite the beauty of his verse, Hugo will consistently give ten, twelve, fourteen examples where three are already way too many. There are names by the hundreds, all unneeded, incidental players, seems like padding half the time. I kept reading because I wanted to follow the main character/story. AND because I can’t deny the writing was poetry most of the time. Still I was frustrated, annoyed and even angry because he just didn’t know when enough was enough. A whole chapter it seems was given only to describing a stormy sea.

In the end, even the story left me wanting. Not the type of ending that rewards. I won’t be reading another book of his. Shame really cause I wanted to read Les Miserables and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, now I wont.

Three stars for the talent.