Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - EL FANTASMA DE LA ÓPERA

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

EL FANTASMA DE LA ÓPERA by Gaston Leroux

34 reviews

wuthrinheights's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've watched the musical years back, so I thought I would know how the story would go but the more I read, the more I realised how different they were. The book is much, much better than the play (although the music score was also brilliant).

I was pleasantly surprised to learn how fast paced the book was, and it was captivating from the start. It only took me more or less 6 hours to read it, and by the last 100 pages or so, I had the musical soundtracks to accompany me.

It was spooky, intoxicating, yet somehow humorous at times. Occasionally I would find myself to snicker or giggle at what the character said or did. I did not have a favourite character exactly, but I enjoyed reading the storyline; it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Love was a huge theme of the book. In the end, people just want to be loved.

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directorpurry's review against another edition

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mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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mcdonom's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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ina_pages's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

To say I expected a lot from this book would be an understatement, and sadly they weren’t full met (although I think that might be a fault on my end). I grew up watching the movie-musical adaptation, and the touring theater cast was all I could talk about for months when they finally made a stop in my home country. I love this story with my whole heart, but the source material is leaps different from the musical by Webber.

This isn’t to say this book was bad though! I did enjoy myself while reading it. The language, although not the easiest to read, isn’t totally archaic and I’d even recommend it for people whose first language isn’t English. If anything the language, to me, was one of the best parts of this book. Gaston Leroux often droned on about music and gothic architecture; and while that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I thoroughly enjoyed his analogies.

< Leroux also makes use of a lot of metaphors relating to the sea or bodies of water. One of my favorites lines in the book reads like this: “In the orchestra stalls, the drugget covering them looked like an angry sea, whose glaucous waves had been suddenly rendered stationary by a secret order from the storm phantom, who, as everybody knows, is called Adamastor. MM. Moncharmin and Richard were the shipwrecked mariners amid this motionless turmoil of a calico sea.” Beautiful.>

What I found I couldn’t stand with this book were the characters. The simplest way I could describe Raoul in this book is a whiny, wimpy, cowardly white boy who did nothing but cry at every little inconvenience. I hated Raoul so much from start to finish, it actually amazing.

Christine was just a hair better but barely. In all versions of this story, Christine is depicted as a foolish and naive girl of pure innocence—she is literally likened as an angel throughout the book. However, I didn’t get naive or innocent… I just got stupid. Maybe I’m just pessimistic and have little patience but Christine throughout the book really just read to me as an idiot. She somewhat redeems herself in the end but as the book as written in the perspective of an investigator from the future, you can’t really tell what she’s thinking and so her character fell a little flat to me.

Erik is my favorite character in the movie and in the musical, but in this book we don’t get much insight from him either which is a total shame. <The first couple chapters literally fly by without him actually being there. We live through it with just the knowledge of his presence which, I think, might be the point if the author wanted to establish him as something incorporeal only to shock the readers somewhere down the line to say he’s mortal. If it is, brilliant! If not well…> To me he’s a tad bit better than Raoul and Christine but he’s equally as whiny as Raoul.

Surprisingly the most interesting character in this book is the Persian who doesn’t exist in the other adaptations (I could be wrong, don’t quote me on that). His story in the movie/musical was given to Madame Giry. I think this was a good call for the adaptation as it deepened her character in comparison to the book. <(Madame Giry in the book didn’t read very well to me. She was boring and seemed almost as stupid as Christine. I really liked that they made her character more formidable in the adaptations as it gave a better representation of women in comparison to the book.)>

Overall, the book wasn’t horrible. It felt a little lackluster in comparison to its adaptations but if you’re into gothic horror or simply want to read the source material for Phantom of the Opera the Musical then I say go for it! Just don’t expect it to be anything like the movie.

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emiliosandoz's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

WOW AND HERE I THOUGHT THIS COULDN'T BE MORE SAD THAN THE MUSICAL. JFC.

poor unhappy erik :(

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displeased_ghoooost's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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giulianasbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Tenía bastantes ganas de leer este libro ya que me propuse a principios de año leer unos cuantos clásicos.
La verdad es que la trama me ha parecido muy buena pero muchas veces se me ha hecho un poco pesado y lento. Aunque eso no quiere decir que la pluma del escritor es una pasada, para mi gusto le sobran páginas.

La verdad es que hay muy pocos personajes de la historia que me hayan gustado y no he llegado a simpatizar con casi ninguno: Raoul me ha parecido bastante pesado y siento un amor/odio hacia Christine que no sabría ni cómo explicar. También me hubiera gustado que hubieran pasado más cosas en la ópera ya que me ha parecido que ahí no están casi nunca (sólo al principio y al final).

Por los temas que trata, me parece que es un libro que todo el mundo debería leer (aunque no esperéis una historia de romance bonita, porque este libro es básicamente horror y tragedia).

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