Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Il fantasma dell'Opera

My first classic! I was intrigued by the first chapter alone and knew I was going to love this book. The penguin classics edition was also super easy to read and the notes gave me so much insight into the world this book takes place in. I was very invested throughout the book and it was so intense at times. Some parts did feel very long and at times I felt like the pacing was slightly odd, but in the end, it was fine. The epilogue tied everything together for me and it just felt perfect. Erik as a character was written so well and even the descriptions of him gave me chills. Overall, this is the perfect book if you want to start reading classics or if you just want to read a whimsical story of The Paris Opera in the 1800s.

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smithreads's review against another edition

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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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proceduralbob's review against another edition

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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

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allylund9's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

At first I thought it very slow and also perhaps worse than I had expected it to be after seeing the movie and the musical. But now after I’ve finished it I can without a doubt say that I have not read a book this great in years. In one night I finished the ending because I could not tear myself away from it.

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sarasreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was an enjoyable reread! I haven't read it since I was in high school, and I thoroughly enjoyed it then as well. I remember it was the first book that gave me a jump, but I couldn't tell you what that point was this time around.

There was some meandering about, and a few chapters at the end that were too bloated in my opinion. But it was an easy and engaging classic for the spooky season!

p.s. there was a part where one of the managers was backing into his office, extremely butt first, and all I picture was him twerking his way back lol

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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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dlrosebyh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

A captivating tale, The Phantom of the Opera centers on the young Swedish Christine Daaé. She is reared at the Paris Opera House with her famed musician father's dying vow of a guardian angel to watch over her. She finally learns how to sing wonderfully from the voice she starts hearing after spending some time at the opera. All is good until Raoul, Christine's childhood friend who attends the opera, arrives to see his opera-going parents and spots her as she starts singing effectively on stage. Erik, the deadly, malformed "ghost" of the opera theater, is the voice, but as his awful jealously builds, he becomes more aggressive until Christine vanishes without a trace. The ghost is madly in love and it is a terrible disaster.

Although it appears intriguing, comprehending it was quite difficult. Throughout the first half of the book, I thought the two major characters to be obnoxious and didn't give a damn about them. I was highly entertained by the book's second half, but the ending was awful.

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lostinafilmscene's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Watched the 2004 movie and the 25th anniversary version before reading the book. Needless to say, this book really intrigued me with its antique and mysterious vibes that were always there during Leroux's narratives.
Positive things:

Christine was less shy and immature than the stage/movie version, which I liked by the way;
Raoul was less irritating to read about, but more possessive in the book;
More focused on actions than the romance (my preference);

Negative things:

Erik was seen more as a monster than a man who has many traumas from the past by Christine (even though her main charm was being a compassionate person);
It's very slow paced, so you've got to take your time to read this book;
The order of events
(masquerade -> chandelier crashing -> disappearing)
is also different, but i enjoyed the musical order even more (it makes more sense to me, i don't know)

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