Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

15 reviews

kileyjojo's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

1.0

 This book is very dated. There are words used with negative connotations. Some of the phrasing is rather offensive.
Aside from that, the story is very dull. If you're interested in this novel because of the musical or the film adaptations, this is not the story you would expect. The characters are whiny and unlikeable. The pacing is odd. Any of the action and suspense is taken away by unbearable dialogue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, and Stalking

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

When I tell you I obsessed over this book in high school it is not in any way an exaggeration.
So of course, it was required reading now that I'm an adult to see if it was truly as good as I remembered.
My finding was rather complex. The over all plot was much more boring than I remembered, very slow, fully of miscommunication, and no real information until the very end. However, I caught many many details I didn't remember from earlier reads, including huge differences between the book and movies it inspired.
Over all I still enjoyed the story and this is one I'm glad to have in my collection to read again in future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Torture, Stalking, Self harm, and Murder

Minor: Grief, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Confinement, Classism, Death, and Body horror

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Ableism, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Stalking

caidyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I'm not sure why this says it's the first time I've read this book because it's not. But I liked this better than I remembered!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

uparrowhead's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

A classic which, in my opinion, deserves to be considered timeless; the Phantom of the Opera raises the question on how we should treat the truly low members of society.

The novel introduces the story of the Opera Ghost, which stalks the shadows of the Paris Opera House and hunts for mischief and mystery. Strange events emerge and connect as the singer Christine Daaé slowly begins her rise in fame with her heavenly vocals, supposedly learning to sing from the Angel of Music. The reader navigates through this episodic novel and slowly gathers the truths to the unfolding story.

The Phantom of the Opera places a great emphasis on concepts of love, obsession, desire, and pity. How can we learn to, not love, but accept someone who is supposedly heartless? How can we take pity on people who are seemingly monstrous? How does unrecieved love mould into an overpowering obsession built upon desires we are unable to satisfy? The novel feels like it is truly a love letter to these themes as both pain and pleasure are combined into the flowing story.

I have loved this ever since watching the musical, and the original story that brought it to life is absolutely incredible.

I can't get over how beautifully tragic the ending for this novel is. It ends in Erik's death for his own overflowing love of Christine, one which he had never experienced with another woman in his life. It just serves to show how much Erik wished for nothing but a normal life but was cursed from the endeavour ever since he was first born just for his horrific features, leading him down a path of using his wits and intellect for his own disturbing gains as a way to not acknowledge his pain.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Body horror, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Torture

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Classism, Death, Drug use, Violence, Stalking, and Suicide

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Self harm, Racism, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

seforana's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Grief, Confinement, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

giulianalb99's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Tenía bastantes ganas de leer este libro ya que me propuse a principios de año leer unos cuantos clásicos.
La verdad es que la trama me ha parecido muy buena pero muchas veces se me ha hecho un poco pesado y lento. Aunque eso no quiere decir que la pluma del escritor es una pasada, para mi gusto le sobran páginas.

La verdad es que hay muy pocos personajes de la historia que me hayan gustado y no he llegado a simpatizar con casi ninguno: Raoul me ha parecido bastante pesado y siento un amor/odio hacia Christine que no sabría ni cómo explicar. También me hubiera gustado que hubieran pasado más cosas en la ópera ya que me ha parecido que ahí no están casi nunca (sólo al principio y al final).

Por los temas que trata, me parece que es un libro que todo el mundo debería leer (aunque no esperéis una historia de romance bonita, porque este libro es básicamente horror y tragedia).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Kidnapping, Torture, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Body horror, and Body shaming

Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

linnylionheart's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Torture, Confinement, Kidnapping, Death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Classism, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Minor: Child abuse, Misogyny, Blood, and Death of parent

smithreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Stalking, Violence, Death of parent, Body horror, Classism, Grief, Kidnapping, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, and Racism

maeverose's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Death, Torture, Murder, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Xenophobia and Fatphobia

incel behavior, controlling behavior, manipulation