REVIEW: The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

Taking the characters from a much beloved classic novel like Les Misérables and scattering them into an alternate fantasy universe is a pretty bold move, but British-Mauritian author Kester Grant’s audacity pays off in The Court of Miracles, a novel that’s rich in atmosphere and immensely readable.

Kester Grant

The first book in a planned trilogy, The Court of Miracles takes place in Paris of 1828 – a world of famine and failed revolutions where the wall separating the haves and the have-nots has never been thicker. Fighting for survival, some of the have-nots have formed a criminal underground composed of nine guilds – the Guild of Thieves, the Guild of Letters, the Guild of Dreamers, and so on. Together, they form the Miracle Court and it is into this world that our heroine Nina Thernadier is thrust as a young girl. Over the years, Nina works her way up through the ranks of the Thieves Guild to become one of its very best, but she has only one goal in mind: to win freedom for her sister Azelma, who was sold years earlier to a hellish life of sexual slavery with the Guild of Flesh.

From the very first page, Grant whisks you away with a plot that is as quick and light on its feet as the thief at its centre, filled with the murderous intrigue of the Miracle Court and the smouldering embers of revolution. Publishers have described this book as Les Misérables meets Six of Crows, and it’s a comparison that rings true – The Court of Miracles definitely carries on the rebellious spirit of Victor Hugo’s French epic and mixes it with the grittiness of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. But there’s also something wildly Dickensian about this story and its intricate network of complex characters, who have been refreshingly diversified to better reflect Paris’ eclectic racial mix. From Thomasis, the enigmatic head of the Thieves Guild who demands complete loyalty from his followers, to Enjolras St. Juste, a boy with enough furious righteousness in his heart to ignite a rebellion, I found myself eagerly turning the pages for the moments in which they would pop up again. Linking them all is the quiet but fiercely determined Nina, a young woman driven by the kind of sisterly love that cuts to the bone.

Any curious reader who picks up The Court of Miracles will find plenty of rewards within its pages. I really enjoyed this book – it was unexpected and totally compelling, and I’ll definitely be reading the coming sequel.

—The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant (HarperCollins Australia) is out now.

The Court of Miracles

by Kester Grant

Liberty: 1828 and the citizens of Paris still mourn in the wake of their failed revolution. Among them, in the dark alleys and crumbling cathedrals of the city, the most wretched have gathered into guilds of thieves, assassins – and worse. Together they are known as The Court of Miracles.

Family: Eponine has lost more than most. When her father, Thénardier, sells her sister to the Guild of Flesh she makes a promise to do anything she can to get her sister back, even if that means joining the Court of Miracles, the very people keeping her sister a slave...

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Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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