Excellent and engrossing

Beautiful narration and absorbing, interesting book. The story brings the events on Paris to life.

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An entertaining tale despite a tendency to give it a woke spin

Having just read a history of the Franco Prussian War, I was intrigued to come across this novel set in the same era.
It is ambitious and well told fiction with some excellent characters and an engrossing plot.
I would loved to have given it five stars but the writer alas did succumb to wokery. It was as though the HR department of the BBC had reviewed the plot summary and ordered the inclusion of every woke cause imaginable (with the exception of “global warming”).
In addition, some readers may find the inclusion of detailed gay intimacy a little too much. The writer should hear in mind that only a very small percent of the public read the Guardian newspaper and share its prejudices.
Naturally, the writer is sympathetic to the cause of the Paris Commune and not to the government which brutally suppressed it. The fact is that the Commune was as ghastly as the government which it sought to overthrow.
France does not come out well with its political extremes causing havoc, just as they did in the previous century during the Revolution and in the next with the Vichy regime.
The portrait of the city of Paris in the period is excellent as is the moving description of the zoo and its superbly described animals.
This is on the cusp of being a great novel but the writer should drop her 2023 causes which have little or no place in a tale of late nineteenth century France. Straight white men can be heroes but, on the whole, not in this work. To be fair, the Head Veterinarian and his deputy are quite heroic but are outclassed by the gay men and, of course, the women.
In any case, that being said, it was an entertaining novel.

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1 person found this helpful

Great Historical Novel

My first Stef Penney and really enjoyed it. The narration was excellent and really made a difference. The research into the history of 1870s Paris was obviously deep and rigorous and this showed in the clever balance of drama and the banality of daily existence. The story itself pulled together several lines and characters and the last section moves much quicker than the first; it is worth getting through if you feel it is slow.

I won’t spoil the story but you are definitely left wondering who the beasts are! I would like to read it when I get a chance and see how it makes me feel in a different format.

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