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3.15 AVERAGE
3.15 AVERAGE
I decided to DNF (did not finish) at the halfway mark. In the past I have usually always forced myself to finish no matter what but I have decided that if a book isn't doing for me by half of the book that I'm no longer going to waste my time. This was super disappointing because it sounded cool, has a beautiful cover, and came in my Owlcrate box but I'm going to have to pass. I am still going to count it as .5 read since I did invest a lot of time into trying to finish it. I will not officially rate it since I did not finish it but as-is, I would give it a 1.5 stars. Will review as always, however.
SPOILERS BEWARE
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Plot:
I've never read the classic, The Phantom of the Opera, though I have a faint idea of what the story is about. The plot of this being a YA POTO re-telling sounded intriguing. The plot itself bored me. While it wasn't 100% predictable, a lot of the plot was becoming so and I didn't really care where the rest of the story went after a while.
Setting:
I actually really liked the setting because it sounded interesting. A gothic musical/artsy Opera House school set in Paris? What's not to love? Unfortunately this was really the only thing going for the book IMO.
Characters:
The MC, Rune, was incredibly difficult to connect to. She can read auras and has this bizarre singing condition in which she must burst into song when she is tempted to and then will pass out. And if she does not do this, the urge to do so becomes unbearable. It was ... different. Rune didn't really have much of a personality and I found myself not really caring what happened to her despite having an interesting back story and abilities.
Thorn also had a really neat back story but as a character he was too melodramatic for me to take seriously. I liked that he felt some conflict concerning his "father" and Rune's fate but I didn't really care about him as a character.
I also did not care about "Father" or the Phantom. Yawn.
I did like the side characters. They seemed to be a bit more fleshed out than the main characters were, which was different. Sunny was probably my favorite out of all of them. Even the mean teacher had more personality than the main character, which is not a great thing.
Relationships:
I found Rune's relationship with her mother to be strange at some times yet realistic at others. It was a little hard to buy the reasoning for Rune's mother to be taking her to this school. I did really like the concern Rune and her mother felt for one another at times.
Rune and Sunny's budding friendship was also nice, plus Rune and the group in general.
As for the romance aspect, I pretty much rolled my eyes whenever Rune referred to the "phantom" and didn't really care when she and Thorn met, then later danced. I guess since I didn't care about the characters, I found it hard to care about their relationship in general.
Writing/Voice:
The writing style didn't grip me, though I did like some of the descriptions, particularly of the school. However, having Rune's POV in first person and Thorn's in 3rd was jarring and choppy. Rune's voice felt weak and it seemed like she was very repetitive about things the reader already knows. I get that the author wanted to give us a glimpse of Thorn but I feel dual POVs or just leaving out Thorn's would have made the book less jarring and more mysterious.
Overall, I am disappointed but I do not regret DNFing. I do regret picking this up instead of other books, which I probably would have enjoyed a lot more. Oh well. I won't write A.G. Howard off completely but I am wary now.
Also, if you ended up liking this one and want a signed copy with a printed letter from the author (Owlcrate Exclusive), send me a message. I will be selling my copy.
SPOILERS BEWARE
.
.
.
.
Plot:
I've never read the classic, The Phantom of the Opera, though I have a faint idea of what the story is about. The plot of this being a YA POTO re-telling sounded intriguing. The plot itself bored me. While it wasn't 100% predictable, a lot of the plot was becoming so and I didn't really care where the rest of the story went after a while.
Setting:
I actually really liked the setting because it sounded interesting. A gothic musical/artsy Opera House school set in Paris? What's not to love? Unfortunately this was really the only thing going for the book IMO.
Characters:
The MC, Rune, was incredibly difficult to connect to. She can read auras and has this bizarre singing condition in which she must burst into song when she is tempted to and then will pass out. And if she does not do this, the urge to do so becomes unbearable. It was ... different. Rune didn't really have much of a personality and I found myself not really caring what happened to her despite having an interesting back story and abilities.
Thorn also had a really neat back story but as a character he was too melodramatic for me to take seriously. I liked that he felt some conflict concerning his "father" and Rune's fate but I didn't really care about him as a character.
I also did not care about "Father" or the Phantom. Yawn.
I did like the side characters. They seemed to be a bit more fleshed out than the main characters were, which was different. Sunny was probably my favorite out of all of them. Even the mean teacher had more personality than the main character, which is not a great thing.
Relationships:
I found Rune's relationship with her mother to be strange at some times yet realistic at others. It was a little hard to buy the reasoning for Rune's mother to be taking her to this school. I did really like the concern Rune and her mother felt for one another at times.
Rune and Sunny's budding friendship was also nice, plus Rune and the group in general.
As for the romance aspect, I pretty much rolled my eyes whenever Rune referred to the "phantom" and didn't really care when she and Thorn met, then later danced. I guess since I didn't care about the characters, I found it hard to care about their relationship in general.
Writing/Voice:
The writing style didn't grip me, though I did like some of the descriptions, particularly of the school. However, having Rune's POV in first person and Thorn's in 3rd was jarring and choppy. Rune's voice felt weak and it seemed like she was very repetitive about things the reader already knows. I get that the author wanted to give us a glimpse of Thorn but I feel dual POVs or just leaving out Thorn's would have made the book less jarring and more mysterious.
Overall, I am disappointed but I do not regret DNFing. I do regret picking this up instead of other books, which I probably would have enjoyed a lot more. Oh well. I won't write A.G. Howard off completely but I am wary now.
Also, if you ended up liking this one and want a signed copy with a printed letter from the author (Owlcrate Exclusive), send me a message. I will be selling my copy.
DNF @ 6%
Oh man. I wanted to like this so much but it took me literally hours to read the first chapter and then I skimmed the second and I realized this was not the book for me. I'm only rating it so people can see my review because Goodreads is a b*tch like that where if you don't have a star rating, your review doesn't get filtered in with the rest, but I obviously cannot judge this book. I read two chapters. And wanted to tear my eyes out.
The first chapter was SO BORING. I think it was only 10 pages but it took me two hours to read it. I would read one sentence and then do something else on my phone and then agonize over going back to read another sentence. But I pushed through!!! Because I wanted to read this! And then I got to chapter two and it was like "let me vomit three quarters of the backstory into three paragraphs" and I was like "nah son" so after that I was like "hm should I continue" and I went to bed and woke up and was like "lol I'm not going to continue" and here we are.
I have seen other reviews say that this is REALLY slow to start and then picks up, but I have way too many other books (and good starting books) in my life to read crappy beginnings where it takes me longer to read a chapter than it does to read a whole book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh man. I wanted to like this so much but it took me literally hours to read the first chapter and then I skimmed the second and I realized this was not the book for me. I'm only rating it so people can see my review because Goodreads is a b*tch like that where if you don't have a star rating, your review doesn't get filtered in with the rest, but I obviously cannot judge this book. I read two chapters. And wanted to tear my eyes out.
The first chapter was SO BORING. I think it was only 10 pages but it took me two hours to read it. I would read one sentence and then do something else on my phone and then agonize over going back to read another sentence. But I pushed through!!! Because I wanted to read this! And then I got to chapter two and it was like "let me vomit three quarters of the backstory into three paragraphs" and I was like "nah son" so after that I was like "hm should I continue" and I went to bed and woke up and was like "lol I'm not going to continue" and here we are.
I have seen other reviews say that this is REALLY slow to start and then picks up, but I have way too many other books (and good starting books) in my life to read crappy beginnings where it takes me longer to read a chapter than it does to read a whole book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I struggled my way through this because a) it had the makings of everything I'd ever want in a book, being that I'm obsessed with Phantom, and b) the writing itself was beautiful and often waxed poetic. My problem is so many parts of it teetered on the brink of ridiculous, even for YA. For one thing the main characters' names are Rune and Thorn, which might as well have been the nail in the proverbial coffin for me (and yet I continued to read). For two, yes, Erik is a pathetic character, but he's also supposed to be terrifying (and he is not here, despite his copious amounts of killing - which says something). I feel like he'd threaten to murder me and I'd just give him side-eye and be like, "Mmmkay." And for three, literally every single phan phic element was worked into the story.
Ugh, I'm so depressed because I was excited. And like I said, the writing is great. But it fell flat for me and I need to wash my soul with some Susan Kay.
Ugh, I'm so depressed because I was excited. And like I said, the writing is great. But it fell flat for me and I need to wash my soul with some Susan Kay.
It might be because I truly love Phantom of the Opera, despite its flaws, both book and musical. It might be because the story felt arbitrary, cliché and quite dull. It's a sad thing to say, really, as I had been looking forward to Roseblood quite a bit. After all, like I said, I love Phantom of the Opera. However, I can only lament to what this book could have been. Imagine it not as a paranormal/urban fantasy YA, but a more contemporary story in the likes of The Secret History. A girl, haunted by her love for a book and its characters, believing herself to be watched by Phantom himself, slowly losing herself to those ideas. So many things could have been done with this idea. Instead, it became a YA novel with paranormal creatures it had to be vampires .
This book just kind of fell short for me. I love A.G Howard's splintered series, but I just can't with this one. My full review is here: https://comprosedreviews.tumblr.com/post/159781993164/wednesday-with-monica
LOL I lied, here is a review.
When I saw that there was going to be a retelling of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ I was over the moon. I love POTO and the movie version with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, so I definitely went into this with high expectations. Sadly this book failed to live up to it. I advise to go into this with an open mind.
FULL REVIEW HERE!
When I saw that there was going to be a retelling of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ I was over the moon. I love POTO and the movie version with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, so I definitely went into this with high expectations. Sadly this book failed to live up to it. I advise to go into this with an open mind.
FULL REVIEW HERE!
This book was awesome! I haven't read the original phantom of the Opera but it made several references to the original story and it had its twists and what not. Rune was on her way to RoseBlood after having an unfortunate incident. She knew that her life would never be the same again, but she didn't expect to leave to Paris either. Where she was hated by her father's side of the family. Time went on, she struggled with her insecurities and guilt. Then her O.G. (Opera Ghost) helped her despite him going directly against everything he grew up to know and the plan that he was supposed to follow. So much happens and Rune grows to becomes friends with a group of friends which go from doing everything together for her to separate herself from them for the better but they prove to be by her side no matter what and just ugh! This book is a must read. It's worth at least reading once...twice... or a million times.
Dnf, page 164
I didn't hate this book. It sounded interesting, but ended up just being boring. I didn't care about Thorn and his POV chapters seemed to drag. I liked Rune but after a certain reveal she was a really simple character. Maybe I would've liked this more if I'd seen/read the original Phantom of the Opera story. Maybe I would've liked this more if there wasn't the impending need to finish it before its library due date. I'm not sure. But I'll end the review here, as there isn't much more to say on a book I didn't finish.
If you want to read this, go for it. Don't let me stop you. 😊
Edit: I also want to mention that a few times throughout the book, at least in the portion I read, the gypsy slur is used to describe part of Rune's family. Not good.
I didn't hate this book. It sounded interesting, but ended up just being boring. I didn't care about Thorn and his POV chapters seemed to drag. I liked Rune but after a certain reveal she was a really simple character. Maybe I would've liked this more if I'd seen/read the original Phantom of the Opera story. Maybe I would've liked this more if there wasn't the impending need to finish it before its library due date. I'm not sure. But I'll end the review here, as there isn't much more to say on a book I didn't finish.
If you want to read this, go for it. Don't let me stop you. 😊
Edit: I also want to mention that a few times throughout the book, at least in the portion I read, the gypsy slur is used to describe part of Rune's family. Not good.
This was just so bad, hahahah. The writing is so heavy handed, cliche, and troupy.
I think I lost it at Sunflower Summers, with the thick southern accent and "bad" grammar, who says shit like, "creepy as a field of devil's tongues" and "throw you under the tractor" and other such CHARMING southern idioms.
No thank you.
I think I lost it at Sunflower Summers, with the thick southern accent and "bad" grammar, who says shit like, "creepy as a field of devil's tongues" and "throw you under the tractor" and other such CHARMING southern idioms.
No thank you.
