3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I wanted to read this since I enjoy the musical but because it is so long and I only have about an hour a day to read, I chose to listen to it. It was 58 hours and took me 3 weeks to listen to.
As far as the story goes, while I loved the parts about Val Jean, Cosette, Marius, etc, I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps Victor Hugo was paid per word because what takes 10 words to say, Mr. Hugo used 100. I could have done without all of the history. I felt like it dragged the book out and while I understand how Mr. Hugo wanted to paint a picture for us, it was just too much for me.
Perhaps I would have felt differently had I read this instead of listened. I didn’t want to take it out of the library for fear of not finishing in time and I didn’t want to use an Audible credit, so I listened to the version that is included with my Audible membership. It was a terrible recording filled with rustling pages, lots of swallowing, a stifled yawn, what sounded like a plane passing by, and a cat meowing (that actually made me laugh).
That being said, I do not regret one minute of the 58 hours and 3 weeks that I took to listen to this because the book delves deeper into the story than the musical does. It was interesting to me to see what kind of relationship Marius and Éponine had and how Gavroche was related to others (I always thought he was a random kid). The book is also a very interesting take on good vs bad and who actually determines what makes someone good or bad.