Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Phantom of the Opera

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

6 reviews

hauntedantiqueshop's review

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

all could have been avoided if ableism wasn’t so prevalent 🙄 above all else, I am an Erik apologist. I love that problematic Angel of Music

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countdraculahimself's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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wuthrinheights's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've watched the musical years back, so I thought I would know how the story would go but the more I read, the more I realised how different they were. The book is much, much better than the play (although the music score was also brilliant).

I was pleasantly surprised to learn how fast paced the book was, and it was captivating from the start. It only took me more or less 6 hours to read it, and by the last 100 pages or so, I had the musical soundtracks to accompany me.

It was spooky, intoxicating, yet somehow humorous at times. Occasionally I would find myself to snicker or giggle at what the character said or did. I did not have a favourite character exactly, but I enjoyed reading the storyline; it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Love was a huge theme of the book. In the end, people just want to be loved.

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andyandnormski's review

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Maybe I was influenced a bit by my love of the musical. Maybe I went into this with certain expectations, but I did not enjoy this as much as I really wanted to. The writing is overly flowery and needlessly dramatic. This makes it a slog to read through. If you go into this expecting it to be a sort of precursor story to the musical, be prepared to be disappointed.

The plot. Where to begin with this? The plot wanders from scene to scene. It feels like it's trying to be told as a mystery but it doesn't quite accomplish this. Random events happen one after another, and we're told through Raoul's perspective that this is all caused by some nefarious plan the phantom (Erik) is orchestrating. And since Erik is hidden in the shadows and Raoul has yet to see him, we're told outright by Raoul that this is evil. It's hard to read it that way considering many scenes don't feel interconnected and most characters have little influence on the story. You could cut many characters out and it wouldn't alter the trajectory of the plot. Raoul's brother barely has a presence and he is killed off in the last chapter almost as an after thought, as if the author forgot about him and realized he was a loose end. This happens more than once. Characters are quickly introduced, then whisked away before their appearance even has a moment to breathe. Even Erik suffers from this. The near entirety of his backstory is introduced in the epilogue, again feeling very much like an after thought.

And Raoul? It's rare that I see a main character that I wholly root against. He is incredibly unlikable. He's brash, deeply paranoid, and borderline hostile towards everyone around him right from the start. His behavior towards Christine can almost be described as a stalker. While much of Erik's behavior is questionable, Raoul doesn't fair any better. If this was a different story, both characters could be painted in an antagonistic light. Why this story is told from Raoul's perspective and not Christine's is a mystery to me.

All in all, I didn't enjoy this. I don't think I'll be reading it again. I'm not sure if I want to keep my copy either.

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maeverose's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Whelp. That sure was a book.

My rating is mostly for the unintentional comedy of how ridiculous the book is. I know some parts are supposed to be funny but I think I was laughing at the wrong parts. I also just love the idea of some guy secretly living in an opera house and messing with people. Sadly though I was bored most of the time while reading this. I liked Raoul and Christine well enough (though they were both extremely naive), Erik was very different than I thought he would be (I didn’t know anything about his backstory and I had no idea he’d be so talkative and weird. I thought he’d be more brooding lol). I found it hard to imagine the descriptions of the opera house, especially when they went underground, though that’s likely a fault of the translation.

Speaking of the translation, I don’t know if my edition (paper mill press) is just a bad edition but there were quite a few typos and a lot of things were worded awkwardly, and I don’t think it was just the writing style, it seemed like a bad translation. Maybe I’ll have to do some research and see if there’s a better one.

I really wanted to like this but I think I might just not get along with classics that well. Every time I read a classic I feel like I would like it better if it had been written today. Same time period, story and characters, just a more modern writing style (and less misogyny, racism and ableism… although this story relies so heavily on the ableism I’m not sure how you’d write it without it…). I don’t mind the old language so much but I don’t like the overly dramatic repetitive dialogue that classics often have (this one had a lot of that). I don’t like how repetitive in general classics tend to be. Which is sad because I want to like classics. The stories themselves are sometimes interesting but then the writing and dialogue ruin it for me :/

That ending though… Erik really went to all that trouble… just to break down over a forehead kiss and decide to let Christine marry Raoul after all. THEN DIE. OVER SAID KISS. Dude..

Also, I can’t imagine a room of mirrors being that convincing that you’d have to have prior knowledge of what it is to know it’s not actually a forest. YOU’D SEE YOUR OWN REFLECTION. COME ON.

I think this is probably much better experienced via the actual musical rather than the book. I’ve never seen the musical but now I want to.

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monicalaurette's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

“It is a matter of life and death. And now, silence and follow me!”

So, The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical. I watched it for the first time in middle school choir and fell in love with the music and the story. I forced my family to watch it with me and I got a copy of the 2004 movie for Christmas the next year.

Now, I knew going into this book that it was going to be vastly different from the musical. I knew that, I really did. However, for some strange reason I was still so shocked at all the differences between this book and the musical. But I did love seeing scenes from the book that inspired specific scenes in the musical and playing the music in the background helped as well. I would HIGHLY recommend listening to the music scores of The Phantom of the Opera while reading this book because it made the experience so much better for me.

“He asked only to be “someone”, like everyone else.”

The way that this book was written had me constantly having to remind myself that it was a work of fiction, because the small pieces of ‘historical’ items really made it seem like this happened and I almost googled some of the events and people. *hides face in hands* I feel that the author really did a good job at making a book that didn’t feel like fiction while also being such an elaborate and crazy story.

I give The Phantom of the Opera 4 stars. I’m not taking away points for it not being like what I’m used to. I’m taking away some points because I just...didn’t like Raoul in the beginning, and still wasn’t his biggest fan at the end. Sometimes the things that he said or the things he did took away from me enjoying it. But other than that, a really fun read. I’m going to go and watch my movie again now!

“He had a heart that could have held the world; and, in the end, had to content himself with a cellar.”

I forgot that the phantom’s name is Erik lmao

I was sad that Meg and Mme. Giry didn’t have as big of a role in this version of the story, having the ‘Hand at the level of your eye’ scene be with the Persian and not Mme. Giry, and not having Meg and Christine be friends.

That being said, I did like the Persian. I thought he was a fun character to incorporate.

Yeah Erik, you had a tough childhood...still not a great excuse to kill and kidnap people my guy!

Gets a kiss from a woman and then dies, ME AS WELL ERIK, ME AS WELL!

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