festive_artist 's review for:

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

2.25

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I wanted to finish this book. I think considering I haven’t read for fun in probably 4-6 years, I did read it very quickly. It was interesting. But I didn’t like a single character. They are all horrible. Also I hate the writing style. Maybe French is really hard to translate, but it’s just written poorly. I’m pretty sure the author was a reporter his entire life and wrote this as a passion project like 10 years before he died, and you can tell his writing style just isn’t very…’fictional literacy’??? Idk how to describe it. Raoul is disgusting and the worst. Christine has girl written by man syndrome. Erik is mistreated. I’m pretty sure Daroga’s alt name *might* be racist? Idk. There wasn’t a lot to like, but it’s very distinct and will stick with me. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I like how it will alter my perception of all other phantom-based works.