Sky Without Stars VS Les Mis- How They Compare

My favorite retelling is definitely Sky Without Stars which was a stunning book based off of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. As I was reading the book, I noticed so many similarities between the two and this got me wondering, how alike are these two books? Well here is some stuff I noticed while reading Sky Without Stars.

Right off the bat, I noticed that the Renards reminded me of the Thenardiers. Heck, Madame Renard was even called "the master of the house"(bottom of page 22). I would also like to point out that Chatine went under the alias, Theo Renard. That name and the name Thenardier consist of mostly the same letters. 

Marcellus was undoubtedly based off of Marius. Not only do their names sound alike but both boys are extremely wealthy in a time when most are poor and living on the streets. Both also have a military background, Marculles being the grandson of the general, preparing to follow in his footsteps while Marius fought with the Students of the ABC.

Alouette is definitely the Cosette of this story. She was very sheltered and Marcellus fell instantly in love with her, even recruiting Chatine to find out where she lives.

Now that leaves one more main character. Chatine is of course the Eponine of this story. Her love for Marcellus was one-sided just like Eponine had a hopeless crush on Marius. Another thing linking the two characters is they both have a younger brother that died. Eponine's brother being Gavroche. 

Now I would just like to put out a spoiler warning for the rest of the post. I am about to dive deeper into Sky Without Stars and I may even spoil some major plot twists so if you haven't read the book, please proceed with caution. 

Okay, here's the major thing that freaked me out. Alouettes father, whose name was Jean, went to prison. Now as I said before, Alouette is the Cosette of Sky Without Stars, so it makes sense that her father is a convict. Her father's prison number is what made me freak though. 24601. If you are a huge fan of Les Miserables then you already know Jean Valjean is number 24601. Coincidence? I think not. 

While talking about Alouette's parents, she lost her mother when she was very young. Cosette's mother, Fantine, died when Cosette was only eight or nine years old.

Inspector Limmier also seems to have a small obsession with finding prisoner 24601. Remind you of anyone? Javert hunted Jean Valjean for seventeen years. While on the subject of Inspector Limmier and Javert, on page 512, Limmier shouts, "I am the law!" This is exactly what Javerts movie poster for Les Miserables says.

There's also this one point where someone refers to Alouette and her father as "ghosts" and this just reminds me of this one line in the musical where Marius sings, "she was just like a ghost to me."

I just have one last quote I want to talk about: "Chatine let out another laugh. This one, however, was dark. Spiritless. Miserable." Les Miserables can be directly translated to "the miserable" in English so just the fact that the narrator used this word made me flip out. 

Ok, folks, that's it for the day. Sky Without Stars was a great book and I had so much fun finding these little references in the book. I also did the same thing for A Wish in the Dark so you should definitely go check out that post.  I feel like this post was pretty long so I'm going to go ahead and sign off. 

A Wish in the Dark vs Les Miserables

About Sky Without Stars

Chatine is a street rate who steals to survive. She was raised by corrupt crooks. Marcellus is an officer, raised by the general of Laterre. His father was a traitor who was part of the rebellion of 488. Alouette is one of the last people of Laterre who can read the Forgotten Word. She lives in an underground refuge but an unexpected murder will bring her to the surface for the first time in years. When Marcellus unknowingly recruits Chatine to track down his old governess, they get roped into things they would have never dreamed of.

Full review