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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
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
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