It took me forever to actually get into this book, but I’m glad I did. The slapstick humor and wit and ridiculous characters made for an excellent laugh.

However, the book sort of descended into chaos at the end. I wasn’t sure what was happening with the back and forth and slippage and then a bunch of other things. Although I did enjoy the chemistry between Ned and Verity, I hardly got how it descended into a sudden marriage proposal. The messiness of the end plot (which required a lot of re-reading just to get it, was a bit much for me. As far as time-travel, I feel like Doomsday Book was much much better reasoned and plotted. This got lost in trying to tie up every loose end time-travel presents and while that effort was laudable, it still came across as half-baked.

Charles Laughton is amazing! I saw him in “Mutiny on the Bounty” and was completely hooked. This version is really dark and ambiguous, and the ending, where Quasimodo watches Esmeralda vanish without even a thank you and wishes to be a stone gargoyle is great.