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A review by hellomadalyn
Roseblood by A.G. Howard
2.0
This review originally appeared on Novel Ink.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Buckle up, y’all, because I have some seriously conflicting thoughts on this one. I went into RoseBlood incredibly excited: a Phantom of the Opera retelling that 1.) takes place at a music school in France and 2.) is a standalone? Sign me up! Unfortunately, though, this book took a paranormal turn that I wasn’t expecting, and one that I never quite got on board with over the course of the novel.
Overall, I thought the retelling element of this book was done well. The atmosphere of RoseBlood felt true to the original Phantom story– dark, angsty, romantic, and mysterious. The book blended elements of different genres, including paranormal, gothic, horror, and romance, which made it all the more intricate. Like any theater kid, I definitely went through a Phantom phase, and all the elements that drew me to the musical and the source material are present in RoseBlood. Fans of Phantom will recognize reimaginings of and references to some of the most iconic scenes from the source material, including the rooftop scene, the masquerade, and the Phantom’s Punjab lasso.
RoseBlood follows our main character, Rune, during her senior year of high school, when her family sends her to the prestigious RoseBlood school– a music conservatory for American high schoolers just outside of Paris, and rumored to have ties to the Phantom of the Opera. Rune’s operatic ability has always felt like more of a curse to her: anytime she hears an operatic aria, she immediately memorizes it and feels compelled to “purge” the music, to the point where these spontaneous performances make her physically ill. Her mother sends her to RoseBlood in hopes that she learns to master and control her talents. I’ll admit that I’m probably hypersensitive to these things because I am studying voice in music school, but some of the musical elements of the story bothered me immensely. For starters, why on Earth was this high school putting on a production of some obscure, challenging Prokofiev opera about demon possession?! It just seemed like such a strange choice on the author’s part. These kids should be studying, like, The Magic Flute or Pirates of Penzance. I suppose I see the parallels between The Fiery Angel and the story in RoseBlood, but this particular opera would be a horrible choice for high school students both in terms of vocal development and diction… American high school juniors and seniors performing an entire opera in Russian? Not really plausible. As far as other musical elements go, the students’ studies weren’t really discussed at all in the story, unless the opera production pertained to the plot. I was hoping the school would play a prominent role in the story, and it sort of does, just not in the haunted-boarding-school way I expected (after all, who doesn’t love a good boarding school book?). It’s more of a backdrop for the story than part of the story itself.
I’ve never read a book by A. G. Howard before, and I think I’ll steer clear of them in the future, because her writing just did not gel with me. Everything was described through lists upon lists of adjectives and adverbs. To use a popular writing metaphor, there was a whole lot of “telling” and not much “showing” going on in the prose. The author also frequently used the g*psy slur to refer to the protagonist’s Romani heritage, which is quite problematic. Authors should not be using this offensive word unless they are Romani themselves and using it in an effort to reclaim this slur. As a white author, A. G. Howard has no right to feature this word in her novels. This alone lessened my enjoyment of the novel significantly. Additionally, the story lacked diversity among its cast of characters, which was a bummer. In general, I could not connect with the characters in this story. The protagonist, Rune, has almost no discernible personality or voice, and the side characters felt very much like fillers. I empathized most with Rune’s love interest, Thorn, and with the Phantom himself (who is supposed to be the villain). I did really enjoy the romance between Rune and Thorn. It was… well, very romantic, in the tradition of the original Phantom.
In terms of the plot, I spent much of RoseBlood in a state of confusion. Almost nothing was clearly explained until much too late in the story, which contributed to the strange pacing of the book. Plus, like I mentioned before, I was so, so not a fan of the paranormal elements of the story. I won’t spoil them here, but I will say that I found them incredibly cheesy and far-fetched, and the paranormal twist really detracted from my enjoyment of the book overall. Seriously, I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud when the paranormal elements came to light, because THEY WERE SO RIDICULOUS that it almost seemed like a parody of the YA paranormal genre… but, like, it was 100% serious. It made this story feel like a recycled mix of pieces of other books I’ve read before and enjoyed much more than RoseBlood.
All in all, I think there are many people who will enjoy this book. I would classify my personal thoughts and rating as an “it’s-not-you-it’s-me” situation. I think RoseBlood is worth a shot if you have read and enjoyed other books by A. G. Howard, if you are a fan of Phantom of the Opera, and/or if you enjoy paranormal retellings. Personally, though, I was quite disappointed.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Buckle up, y’all, because I have some seriously conflicting thoughts on this one. I went into RoseBlood incredibly excited: a Phantom of the Opera retelling that 1.) takes place at a music school in France and 2.) is a standalone? Sign me up! Unfortunately, though, this book took a paranormal turn that I wasn’t expecting, and one that I never quite got on board with over the course of the novel.
Overall, I thought the retelling element of this book was done well. The atmosphere of RoseBlood felt true to the original Phantom story– dark, angsty, romantic, and mysterious. The book blended elements of different genres, including paranormal, gothic, horror, and romance, which made it all the more intricate. Like any theater kid, I definitely went through a Phantom phase, and all the elements that drew me to the musical and the source material are present in RoseBlood. Fans of Phantom will recognize reimaginings of and references to some of the most iconic scenes from the source material, including the rooftop scene, the masquerade, and the Phantom’s Punjab lasso.
RoseBlood follows our main character, Rune, during her senior year of high school, when her family sends her to the prestigious RoseBlood school– a music conservatory for American high schoolers just outside of Paris, and rumored to have ties to the Phantom of the Opera. Rune’s operatic ability has always felt like more of a curse to her: anytime she hears an operatic aria, she immediately memorizes it and feels compelled to “purge” the music, to the point where these spontaneous performances make her physically ill. Her mother sends her to RoseBlood in hopes that she learns to master and control her talents. I’ll admit that I’m probably hypersensitive to these things because I am studying voice in music school, but some of the musical elements of the story bothered me immensely. For starters, why on Earth was this high school putting on a production of some obscure, challenging Prokofiev opera about demon possession?! It just seemed like such a strange choice on the author’s part. These kids should be studying, like, The Magic Flute or Pirates of Penzance. I suppose I see the parallels between The Fiery Angel and the story in RoseBlood, but this particular opera would be a horrible choice for high school students both in terms of vocal development and diction… American high school juniors and seniors performing an entire opera in Russian? Not really plausible. As far as other musical elements go, the students’ studies weren’t really discussed at all in the story, unless the opera production pertained to the plot. I was hoping the school would play a prominent role in the story, and it sort of does, just not in the haunted-boarding-school way I expected (after all, who doesn’t love a good boarding school book?). It’s more of a backdrop for the story than part of the story itself.
I’ve never read a book by A. G. Howard before, and I think I’ll steer clear of them in the future, because her writing just did not gel with me. Everything was described through lists upon lists of adjectives and adverbs. To use a popular writing metaphor, there was a whole lot of “telling” and not much “showing” going on in the prose. The author also frequently used the g*psy slur to refer to the protagonist’s Romani heritage, which is quite problematic. Authors should not be using this offensive word unless they are Romani themselves and using it in an effort to reclaim this slur. As a white author, A. G. Howard has no right to feature this word in her novels. This alone lessened my enjoyment of the novel significantly. Additionally, the story lacked diversity among its cast of characters, which was a bummer. In general, I could not connect with the characters in this story. The protagonist, Rune, has almost no discernible personality or voice, and the side characters felt very much like fillers. I empathized most with Rune’s love interest, Thorn, and with the Phantom himself (who is supposed to be the villain). I did really enjoy the romance between Rune and Thorn. It was… well, very romantic, in the tradition of the original Phantom.
In terms of the plot, I spent much of RoseBlood in a state of confusion. Almost nothing was clearly explained until much too late in the story, which contributed to the strange pacing of the book. Plus, like I mentioned before, I was so, so not a fan of the paranormal elements of the story. I won’t spoil them here, but I will say that I found them incredibly cheesy and far-fetched, and the paranormal twist really detracted from my enjoyment of the book overall. Seriously, I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud when the paranormal elements came to light, because THEY WERE SO RIDICULOUS that it almost seemed like a parody of the YA paranormal genre… but, like, it was 100% serious. It made this story feel like a recycled mix of pieces of other books I’ve read before and enjoyed much more than RoseBlood.
All in all, I think there are many people who will enjoy this book. I would classify my personal thoughts and rating as an “it’s-not-you-it’s-me” situation. I think RoseBlood is worth a shot if you have read and enjoyed other books by A. G. Howard, if you are a fan of Phantom of the Opera, and/or if you enjoy paranormal retellings. Personally, though, I was quite disappointed.