Unlocking the Magic of The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Book Review

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity.

But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter older man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life and his most precious secret are jeopardized.

A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

~ Synopsis from Goodreads

The Invention of Hugo Cabret Review

This is my first time reading a novel that depends so much on illustrations to tell the story. I don’t know how to qualify this book; it’s not a graphic novel or a picture book. It’s a combination of text and images to tell a story.

And it’s well-done, in my opinion.

Interestingly, the graphics are not an addition to the text. There are pages and pages of drawings that you have to read to understand how the story has progressed.

At first, I skipped the drawings (really not a visual person) and was alarmed to find the story had moved in leaps and bounds, so I went back and went through each drawing and was impressed by how effectively they told the story. I didn’t need any captions or further explanations.

Here’s an example of the quality of the graphics in the book.

Of course, I would have liked some color, but I can understand how that would amplify the printing costs and the book’s costs.

The story itself is a bit of a disappointment. It starts strongly setting up the story of a small boy (Hugo Cabret) who is the orphaned son of a clock-maker, living in the walls behind a Parisian train station, maintaining the station’s clocks, stealing bread and milk to survive,

He also steals small mechanical parts, such as nuts and bolts, to complete an automaton his father worked on when he died. All these details, I loved!

One day, when he gets caught by the shop owner, his life and the shop owner’s life change drastically as they investigate the mystery of the automaton.

Aaah, now we come to the automaton! And here is where the book started to lose me.

The automaton referred to here is a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being. And before I read this book, I had no idea there was such a thing.

I also did not know that it was based on the true story of the French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès, who ended his life destitute and selling toys in a railway station.

All this research impressed me, and I loved the tidbits about early French cinema, but something stopped working for me despite all these fascinating elements at play.

I think the writing and plot were so one-note that I didn’t get as engrossed and gripped by the book as I expected it to be toward the end. I mean to say that many exciting things happened, but the writing style failed to excite me as a reader.

I also think that the high expectations set up by the excellent first half kind of doomed the second half, which was good, but not as good as I expected.

Snubnose, reading the book with me, also felt the same. The moment the focus changed to Georges Méliès and the automaton, she lost interest, and I can understand why. It was hard for her to even relate to the old style of filmmaking and the marvels of an automaton. She slogged through about three-quarters of the book before giving up.

Overall, I loved the concept and loved most of the book, but I was lost by all the action and secondary characters that comprised the second half of the book.