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rjdenney's review against another edition
4.0
This was one of the Bellairs books I never read and can say that I have now! This one had a lot of scary and really cool moments and I really want a copy of it to own now. It was action packed and so much fun. :)
calistareads's review
5.0
John Bellairs goes Phantom of the Opera on Lewis and Rose Rita! Not really.
The Adults, uncle Jonathan and Mrs Zimmerman, are called to a friends funeral in FL and leave the kids at home. Rose Rita and Lewis explore an abandoned opera house in town for a school paper and Lewis unleashes a curse when he finds a music score in the Orchestra. From then on, a mysterious man sweeps into town claiming to be the grandson of the author of the Opera and he wants to put on the Opera.
The music is haunted and will bring about the end of the world. I love opera, but I think it's funny that an opera could bring about the end of the world. The theatre people that come out to put the town on are great, my kind of people. This book was spooky and it seemed the villain would easily win. It was a nail biter to just about the last page. This is one of my favorite Lewis Barnavelt stories. I think it's just about the best one.
Sadly, this is the last story with Lewis that John Bellairs wrote. He didn't even finish this story. He ploted and started this idea, but Brad Strickland finished this after John's death. It's one of the last he told. The series does go on for another 6 books, but Brad wrote and plotted them all and I feel this is really the last book.
I will miss having new John Bellair books I have one more series of 4 books and then I have read all his stuff, so stay tuned. I'm going to finish them.
The Adults, uncle Jonathan and Mrs Zimmerman, are called to a friends funeral in FL and leave the kids at home. Rose Rita and Lewis explore an abandoned opera house in town for a school paper and Lewis unleashes a curse when he finds a music score in the Orchestra. From then on, a mysterious man sweeps into town claiming to be the grandson of the author of the Opera and he wants to put on the Opera.
The music is haunted and will bring about the end of the world. I love opera, but I think it's funny that an opera could bring about the end of the world. The theatre people that come out to put the town on are great, my kind of people. This book was spooky and it seemed the villain would easily win. It was a nail biter to just about the last page. This is one of my favorite Lewis Barnavelt stories. I think it's just about the best one.
Sadly, this is the last story with Lewis that John Bellairs wrote. He didn't even finish this story. He ploted and started this idea, but Brad Strickland finished this after John's death. It's one of the last he told. The series does go on for another 6 books, but Brad wrote and plotted them all and I feel this is really the last book.
I will miss having new John Bellair books I have one more series of 4 books and then I have read all his stuff, so stay tuned. I'm going to finish them.
manwithanagenda's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Brad Strickland finished this based on an outline left by John Bellairs after his death. It features a lot of classic Bellairs' charm and my personal favorite of Edward Gorey's artwork for the series - the back cover features Lewis' nightmare where headless Opera patrons surround him and Rose Rita. Strickland does a remarkable job here.
Doing research for a local history project brings Lewis and Rose Rita to the abandoned New Zebedee Opera House located above the Feed & Seed downtown. There, Lewis discovers some sheet music making up a lost opera, "The Day of Doom", hidden inside a piano and runs off with it. This is despite a ghost warning him of he who would be "King of the Dead". Rose Rita is surprisingly skeptical about the ghost, even when Lewis challenges her on the weird shit they've been through together and apart over the last couple of years.
It tuns out that the pages Lewis rescued were hidden from the sinister Henry Vanderhelm to prevent the opera from being performed. It makes up a grand spell that could enslave the dead and doom the living. Unfortunately, New Zebedee has been cut off from the outside world and the adults have already been taken in by the spell of the Opera. Without Uncle Jonathan or Mrs. Zimmerman and with the other New Zebedee magicians vanished, what can two plucky kids do?
As I said, Strickland does a good job here. He expands a little on the world of New Zebedee and attempts to explain why so much weird goings-on focus on their small Michigan town. I liked the inclusion of more witches and magicians as well. This was spooky and dosed with a little satire of high-brow culture.
Lewis & Rose Rita
Next: 'The Specter from the Magician's Museum'
Previous: 'The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder'
Doing research for a local history project brings Lewis and Rose Rita to the abandoned New Zebedee Opera House located above the Feed & Seed downtown. There, Lewis discovers some sheet music making up a lost opera, "The Day of Doom", hidden inside a piano and runs off with it. This is despite a ghost warning him of he who would be "King of the Dead". Rose Rita is surprisingly skeptical about the ghost, even when Lewis challenges her on the weird shit they've been through together and apart over the last couple of years.
It tuns out that the pages Lewis rescued were hidden from the sinister Henry Vanderhelm to prevent the opera from being performed. It makes up a grand spell that could enslave the dead and doom the living. Unfortunately, New Zebedee has been cut off from the outside world and the adults have already been taken in by the spell of the Opera. Without Uncle Jonathan or Mrs. Zimmerman and with the other New Zebedee magicians vanished, what can two plucky kids do?
As I said, Strickland does a good job here. He expands a little on the world of New Zebedee and attempts to explain why so much weird goings-on focus on their small Michigan town. I liked the inclusion of more witches and magicians as well. This was spooky and dosed with a little satire of high-brow culture.
Lewis & Rose Rita
Next: 'The Specter from the Magician's Museum'
Previous: 'The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder'
scaifea's review
4.0
When Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman leave town for an old friend's funeral, Lewis and Rose Rita think they'll have a quiet couple of weeks researching a school project on the local defunct opera house. They're wrong, of course, because the opera house is haunted, of course.
We love this series for its great characters and its spooky-but-not-too-scary atmosphere. Perfect for kiddos who like supernatural sorts of stories but don't actually like to be scared.
We love this series for its great characters and its spooky-but-not-too-scary atmosphere. Perfect for kiddos who like supernatural sorts of stories but don't actually like to be scared.
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