Scan barcode
monicalaurette's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Okay, so let’s get something out of the way first, and I may be the only one who was under this impression mind you. When I first heard about this book, I was under the impression it was a queer story, and I don’t remember who/where I heard it from, but this book has a f/m romance, not a f/f one. But the market to make a queer romance with the Phantom story is now something I’m highly interested in.
“All this remembering will drive me to madness.”
Besides my fake perception of this book being broken, I knew I wanted to read it as someone who loves Phantom of the Opera, and the fact the author is from my home state made me want to read it even more. And I was happy to read another Phantom book, perhaps I’ll try to make it a yearly thing that I read at least one Phantom-inspired book since I’ve read the original last year.
I really liked the fact that the book had the ‘phantom’ character as a female and not starting it off as she’s been working with the ‘Christine’ character but that it happened during the story so we could watch how it evolved and made it a little less creepy. Also the whole memory elixir and the powers gained and lost from it was very original and interesting to me. The only thing I didn’t really get was what exactly was the difference from fendoirs and gravoirs? I know it has to do with their face (which is another point I want to make a second) but also Isda was able to extract elixir with the right markings so like was there more to distinguish them? Or is it more just dependent on which marks you’re given? I just wanted to know more of that, and learn more about how the powers fully worked, and perhaps even more on Les Trois.
Isda mentions that she could be more beautiful if her face were “as misshapen as a fendoir” and for some reason this rubbed me the wrong way during the book, literally one of, if not the only, real issue I had, with it. I know in the musical that the Phantom’s face was burned, that’s why he wore the mask (can’t fully remember if that was the same in the book), so to have it be misshapen at birth, and that if it’s badly misshapen the kids are dangerous and need to be killed, sat wrong with me. Some people have misshapen faces when they are born, and it doesn’t take away from their lives. But then again, I was not born with anything like that, so maybe I’m out of line and am taking it too seriously, but I wanted to put my thoughts out there on it just in case.
“You could shatter the sky with a voice like that.”
I really liked Emeric as a character too and I liked how just a small comment he made helped to shatter the box that Isda lived in and the perception she had about Cyril because I also didn’t trust him from the spot. I think he had her memories changed and he just used her from a young age to make himself money because he didn’t actually care about her. And each time Isda had a bad realization about him, was just confirmation for me. I like being right about the bad guys 😂
“If they want me to be a nightmare, then a nightmare I shall be.”
This quote above, and Isda basically going unhinged for a hot moment was fun to see. To just have her giving in, and sort of taking revenge on those ‘unmarked’ that have judged her & others like her just for the face by showing them what their prejudice has caused was nice. Like good for her, good for her. I almost wish there was a prologue type of thing that showed how the world changed their views after all of this but I also feel that it didn’t change for the better in Channe.
After reading this book, and having the thoughts that I did, I’m giving this book 3.75 stars. I think it was a good book with a great & original story that I enjoyed reading, despite how long it actually took me to read it. But if there was another story in this world I would probably pick it up and see who else and where else in this world I could travel and adventure with.
“I would have loved you forever.” “And I will.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Death, Dementia, Gaslighting, Murder, Abandonment, and Confinement
Moderate: Grief, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Ableism
Minor: Gun violence and Animal death
caidyn's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
As someone who loves The Phantom of the Opera, I knew I had to read this since it sounded so much like it. And I enjoyed the story. Not my favorite retelling, but it was very good and engaging. I like how the story stuck relatively close to the original text, all while making the story its own thing with the world and the reasons behind it. I'd definitely read this again and check out more from this author!
As someone who loves The Phantom of the Opera, I knew I had to read this since it sounded so much like it. And I enjoyed the story. Not my favorite retelling, but it was very good and engaging. I like how the story stuck relatively close to the original text, all while making the story its own thing with the world and the reasons behind it. I'd definitely read this again and check out more from this author!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Kidnapping
mxfahrenheit's review
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit
caseythereader's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
📚 SING ME FORGOTTEN is a gender-swapped retelling of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with a magical world layered in.
📚 I absolutely tore through it despite never having seen or listened to PHANTOM - Isda and Emeric's stories are so compelling.
📚 I loved how music and memory were at play in this story, and how precious both those things were to the main characters, if for different reasons.
📚 Though the world was built out enough to serve the story, I would have loved to see more of the country (a fictionalized version of France) and how fendoirs and the elixir market worked in everyday life.
📚 I absolutely tore through it despite never having seen or listened to PHANTOM - Isda and Emeric's stories are so compelling.
📚 I loved how music and memory were at play in this story, and how precious both those things were to the main characters, if for different reasons.
📚 Though the world was built out enough to serve the story, I would have loved to see more of the country (a fictionalized version of France) and how fendoirs and the elixir market worked in everyday life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Vomit
thesaltiestlibrarian's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.
Normally, I don’t gravitate toward fan fiction. Sometimes--I’ll admit it freely--I become a purist for certain things. For instance, I will never crack open a piece of fiction marketed as Les Miserables “for the modern age.” And if someone ever gave me a fan fiction of The Great Gatsby, I would have no trouble showing my disgust. But there’s a reason for my aversion.
Some authors’ stories are so ingrained in literature as a whole, so indelible from the classic canon, so inimitable that to touch them rarely ever does a service to the story. Yes, yes, the part of me that studied adaptation and can even defend terrible offshoots for being an individual work--that part of myself is extremely annoyed at me for the above paragraph. All that in account, though, imagine my surprise when I liked Jessica S. Olson’s Sing Me Forgotten.
I finished this last night, and I’ve been mulling over for a while what it was about the story that dragged me in. After a restless night, it’s come to me: Olson doesn’t try to give a “new perspective” on Leroux’s classic. She doesn’t think she can spin it better. She doesn’t even try to justify Erik’s actions in the original. Sing Me Forgotten is a love letter to The Phantom of the Opera as both a classic novel and a Broadway adaptation. It takes the gender-bending trope and applies it, throws in some magic, replaces France with a fictionalized version of the country, and adds in heaping tablespoons of love for Leroux’s story.
Isda, the main character, is a gravoir: someone born with the ability to muck around with peoples’ memories when they sing. Music activates the magic system here, which is honestly pretty cool. Many years ago--probably hundreds, I’ve forgotten now--three women who were gravoirs rose up and ruled the world with their magic. Their dethroning is celebrated, and Les Trois were henceforth depicted as snarling beasts ready to eat the world. Isda lives in the crypts under the Channe Opera House, found as a newborn by the owner when she was cast into a well for being a gravoir. See, the faces of gravoirs and fendoir--their minor counterparts--are disfigured and horrifying. Hence the take on the iconic Phantom mask.
Where fendoir can only extract and see peoples’ memories, gravoirs can change them, can alter the very nature of a person’s past, and drive someone insane. Or worse, they can take all of someone’s memory elixir and leave them as a hollow shell with no memory whatsoever. The man who found Isda, Cyril Bardin, uses her to adjust the memories of people who attend opera performances, and if something maybe goes wrong or wasn’t quite up to standard, Isda can tweak those memories and have people coming back time and again.
Enter Emeric, the boy with the voice of an angel. Isda takes him on to teach him how to refine his voice, as he’s dreamed of being an opera singer ever since he was little. Clearly they fall in love, but when Cyril begins using Isda to alter the memories of a government official, she starts to doubt how much she can trust the man who raised her. And after finding out how much information he has on gravoirs in his office, that trust takes another knock.
I’m not going to go further into the plot, because I think the plot was fine. While it reminded me a lot of Phantom, it did its own thing too, and for that I was grateful and relieved. Isda and Emeric both felt like fully-fleshed characters, and I LOVED that Isda could be both monstrous and tender, while Emeric was soft and masculine at the same time. Yay, nonconforming gender roles! Cyril felt a bit meh as a villain, but y’know. You can’t win ‘em all.
My biggest complaints here are probably minor as far as overall quality goes. But as an experienced writer myself, I would have loved it if Olson had taken the time to shorten some of the beginning scenes and really dive into not just the lore of Les Trois--cuz I needed more--but also the world itself, and how the dynamics of Isda’s existence grated against the flow of society. “She’s a gravoir!” Sure, but Les Trois can’t be the be-all and end-all of that story. What else happened? If there are more out there, like Emeric’s sister, how are they living? What’s the quality of their lives, and are there places on the planet where people accept them?
Also, is there a black market for elixir? What else can it do besides strengthen gravoirs and give non-magical people excellent recall/executive function? (Which, tbh, I could deal with given my rampant ADHD.) Is this a magic system exclusive to Channe, or is it worldwide? I have so many questions!!!
Anyway.
The other issue I saw manifested in overwriting. The prose got a bit purple in some places, and some scenes were drawn out too long. A few passages became muddled with words, and I had a hard time 1) figuring out what exactly was happening, and 2) staying engaged in the scene (see above comments on ADHD). Had those two issues been dealt with, I’m positive this would have rocketed itself up to a five-star for me. Four’s not bad! It could have been a five, though. Olson has a long way to go as a debut author, but she definitely has what it takes to become a writer to be reckoned with. In the words of Sheev, “We will watch your career with great interest.”
Normally, I don’t gravitate toward fan fiction. Sometimes--I’ll admit it freely--I become a purist for certain things. For instance, I will never crack open a piece of fiction marketed as Les Miserables “for the modern age.” And if someone ever gave me a fan fiction of The Great Gatsby, I would have no trouble showing my disgust. But there’s a reason for my aversion.
Some authors’ stories are so ingrained in literature as a whole, so indelible from the classic canon, so inimitable that to touch them rarely ever does a service to the story. Yes, yes, the part of me that studied adaptation and can even defend terrible offshoots for being an individual work--that part of myself is extremely annoyed at me for the above paragraph. All that in account, though, imagine my surprise when I liked Jessica S. Olson’s Sing Me Forgotten.
I finished this last night, and I’ve been mulling over for a while what it was about the story that dragged me in. After a restless night, it’s come to me: Olson doesn’t try to give a “new perspective” on Leroux’s classic. She doesn’t think she can spin it better. She doesn’t even try to justify Erik’s actions in the original. Sing Me Forgotten is a love letter to The Phantom of the Opera as both a classic novel and a Broadway adaptation. It takes the gender-bending trope and applies it, throws in some magic, replaces France with a fictionalized version of the country, and adds in heaping tablespoons of love for Leroux’s story.
Isda, the main character, is a gravoir: someone born with the ability to muck around with peoples’ memories when they sing. Music activates the magic system here, which is honestly pretty cool. Many years ago--probably hundreds, I’ve forgotten now--three women who were gravoirs rose up and ruled the world with their magic. Their dethroning is celebrated, and Les Trois were henceforth depicted as snarling beasts ready to eat the world. Isda lives in the crypts under the Channe Opera House, found as a newborn by the owner when she was cast into a well for being a gravoir. See, the faces of gravoirs and fendoir--their minor counterparts--are disfigured and horrifying. Hence the take on the iconic Phantom mask.
Where fendoir can only extract and see peoples’ memories, gravoirs can change them, can alter the very nature of a person’s past, and drive someone insane. Or worse, they can take all of someone’s memory elixir and leave them as a hollow shell with no memory whatsoever. The man who found Isda, Cyril Bardin, uses her to adjust the memories of people who attend opera performances, and if something maybe goes wrong or wasn’t quite up to standard, Isda can tweak those memories and have people coming back time and again.
Enter Emeric, the boy with the voice of an angel. Isda takes him on to teach him how to refine his voice, as he’s dreamed of being an opera singer ever since he was little. Clearly they fall in love, but when Cyril begins using Isda to alter the memories of a government official, she starts to doubt how much she can trust the man who raised her. And after finding out how much information he has on gravoirs in his office, that trust takes another knock.
I’m not going to go further into the plot, because I think the plot was fine. While it reminded me a lot of Phantom, it did its own thing too, and for that I was grateful and relieved. Isda and Emeric both felt like fully-fleshed characters, and I LOVED that Isda could be both monstrous and tender, while Emeric was soft and masculine at the same time. Yay, nonconforming gender roles! Cyril felt a bit meh as a villain, but y’know. You can’t win ‘em all.
My biggest complaints here are probably minor as far as overall quality goes. But as an experienced writer myself, I would have loved it if Olson had taken the time to shorten some of the beginning scenes and really dive into not just the lore of Les Trois--cuz I needed more--but also the world itself, and how the dynamics of Isda’s existence grated against the flow of society. “She’s a gravoir!” Sure, but Les Trois can’t be the be-all and end-all of that story. What else happened? If there are more out there, like Emeric’s sister, how are they living? What’s the quality of their lives, and are there places on the planet where people accept them?
Also, is there a black market for elixir? What else can it do besides strengthen gravoirs and give non-magical people excellent recall/executive function? (Which, tbh, I could deal with given my rampant ADHD.) Is this a magic system exclusive to Channe, or is it worldwide? I have so many questions!!!
Anyway.
The other issue I saw manifested in overwriting. The prose got a bit purple in some places, and some scenes were drawn out too long. A few passages became muddled with words, and I had a hard time 1) figuring out what exactly was happening, and 2) staying engaged in the scene (see above comments on ADHD). Had those two issues been dealt with, I’m positive this would have rocketed itself up to a five-star for me. Four’s not bad! It could have been a five, though. Olson has a long way to go as a debut author, but she definitely has what it takes to become a writer to be reckoned with. In the words of Sheev, “We will watch your career with great interest.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Torture, Trafficking, Vomit, and Blood
Minor: Child abuse and Child death
More...