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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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, and Stalking
wuthrinheights's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Abandonment, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment
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.
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.
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
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).
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).
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
proceduralbob's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
taelights's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-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
3.5
While I do prefer the stage version and the movie a lot more, I did really enjoy getting to read the original book which inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. I definitely have to give a lot of respect to this book for being the inspiration for my favorite musical ever.
The Phantom was truly creepy in this version and not sexy at all. While I do enjoy the more sexy twisted version in the book version was very interesting to learn about.
All the characters do pale a bit in comparison to the musical. But it was also interesting to get some extra context on inspirations for the musical.
The writing, especially the dialogue was a bit bad at times but I'm not sure if that's just how it is or how the translation is seeing as the original novel was in French. Or perhaps a bit of both.
I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a fan of the musical or movie because honestly if I had read this without being a big fan of the musical I'd probably have dnf it but I only enjoyed it a bit due to the musical.
The Phantom was truly creepy in this version and not sexy at all. While I do enjoy the more sexy twisted version in the book version was very interesting to learn about.
All the characters do pale a bit in comparison to the musical. But it was also interesting to get some extra context on inspirations for the musical.
The writing, especially the dialogue was a bit bad at times but I'm not sure if that's just how it is or how the translation is seeing as the original novel was in French. Or perhaps a bit of both.
I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a fan of the musical or movie because honestly if I had read this without being a big fan of the musical I'd probably have dnf it but I only enjoyed it a bit due to the musical.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Murder, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship
maiahhtratchh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I’m obsessed with the musical and there are very few times where the adaption deserves to outshine the source material and this was one of those times. While I did really enjoy it, specifically the middle part, the end dragged out for a long time and some aspects (ie the Persian), though probably on par for the time are bordering on problematic. I was just really confused by the inclusion of this character if not just to have a mystical foreigner swoop in full in the background gaps and save the white characters lives.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence
wolfiegrrrl's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I had heard that the original Phantom of the Opera novel is far more horror-based and intense than the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical I am familiar with, so I was curious to see for myself just how different the two stories are from each other.
Mostly, I wanted to see what Erik's deal was because he has so much more going on than what the adaptations of the character that I'm familiar with touch on. Now that I have listened to the entire book and its epilogue, I'd say that the best way to describe Leroux's Phantom is "the character whose OP backstory was created after the main story was written in order to explain how the mystery worked and prove that it was just a man the entire time!" but it honestly leaves me with more questions than answers. I also really wasn't fond of the sentiment about birth deformities being a sign of inherent inner evil to be pitied by the "beautiful" people of the world, so I don't really know what to make of that regarding Erik's character development at the end.
That being said, the novel was rather boring in how it mostly consisted of uneventful exposition dumps until the story picks up about halfway through when the Phantom and the Persian take more prominent roles. Their part of the story is still mostly large exposition dumps, but at least those dumps were entertaining in how absolutely buck wild they are. My main complaint is that having to follow a whiny, self-entitled Raoul around through the eyes of the narrator was so draining because he is a prime example of the Nice Guy trope and I can't really say I was rooting for him like we're so clearly supposed to.
It was fun to spot all of the story/character notes that the musical plucked out when reworking the plot into more of a dark romance. Having experienced Leroux's original work, I now have a greater appreciation for adaptations that play around with the fun and interesting concepts that are laid out in the novel.
Mostly, I wanted to see what Erik's deal was because he has so much more going on than what the adaptations of the character that I'm familiar with touch on. Now that I have listened to the entire book and its epilogue, I'd say that the best way to describe Leroux's Phantom is "the character whose OP backstory was created after the main story was written in order to explain how the mystery worked and prove that it was just a man the entire time!" but it honestly leaves me with more questions than answers. I also really wasn't fond of the sentiment about birth deformities being a sign of inherent inner evil to be pitied by the "beautiful" people of the world, so I don't really know what to make of that regarding Erik's character development at the end.
That being said, the novel was rather boring in how it mostly consisted of uneventful exposition dumps until the story picks up about halfway through when the Phantom and the Persian take more prominent roles. Their part of the story is still mostly large exposition dumps, but at least those dumps were entertaining in how absolutely buck wild they are. My main complaint is that having to follow a whiny, self-entitled Raoul around through the eyes of the narrator was so draining because he is a prime example of the Nice Guy trope and I can't really say I was rooting for him like we're so clearly supposed to.
It was fun to spot all of the story/character notes that the musical plucked out when reworking the plot into more of a dark romance. Having experienced Leroux's original work, I now have a greater appreciation for adaptations that play around with the fun and interesting concepts that are laid out in the novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Murder, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Stalking
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement
Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, and Racial slurs
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