A review by zatannacomic
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

 This has to be one of my favourite books I’ve ever read. I’m obsessed with everything phantom of the opera related, so I just had to read the original story and what a story it was. It’s just so good. After finally getting my physical copy I read 200 pages in 2 days, because I could not put down the book. I love it when stories are tragic, sad and a bit dramatic. 

Somewhere in me it was not hard to pity and sympathize with the phantom, but other adaptations of Erik got that feeling more out of me (mainly the musical and the 1990 TV-special Erik were easier to sympathize with). This book does make him more of a bad person, especially when you read more about his past in the epilogue. Still I liked reading about Erik a lot. 

Thie plot is fantastic. The writing style is unique as it’s written like a historian recounting the events. There are some beautiful lines in there. There is a great set of characters. I mainly liked how Raoul was allowed to feel and how Christine was portrayed as a kind, but also smart person. 

It’s absurd that this book isn’t seen as a bigger classic, because it deserves it. It’s such a fantastic book I can’t wait to reread it and annotate it in depth.