I can appreciate Zola's significance in his role of using writing to highlight the invisible poverty of 1800s Paris for sure, and you can see an eye for detail and a genuine passion in his descriptions of impoverished neighbourhoods and various different trades and jobs. However, this book feels more like poverty porn. The characters are two-dimensional and do not seem to have motivations for their actions or personalities, and there's little commentary on structural or systematic injustices: characters' poverty are frequently attributed to laziness, greed or poor money management. And frankly this book was just boring.