venetia_sassy | Phantom of the Opera (Reply)

(Well, that was irritating. I’d almost finished a full post when I managed, somehow, to bump the keyboard with the mouse; I’m not sure what I hit but the whole post disappeared and I could not find a way to restore the draft! Very irritating.)

I first saw the The Phantom of the Opera (the musical) when I was a kid and for a second time a couple of years ago. It was only then that I realised that the musical was based on a book. Being me, I immediately started looking for the book but it was some months before I found a copy. I read a few chapters and then got stuck in the rather dense writing. I picked it up again a few days and this time I found it a lot easier.

Did I enjoy the book? Hmm, yes, somewhat … I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t already known the basic plot. Without the element of surprise, the horror and the mystery lose quite a lot of impact. The book is written in an unusual style (for our time, at least) as the result of a journalist’s investigations into the history of the mysterious Opera Ghost. This results in a lot of the book being in first person POV (not always the journalist’s), with huge monologues and infodumps. This also means that a great deal of the plot is told, rather than shown. I found it quite choppy, jumping from one subplot to another and a lot of the characters are quite sketchily formed. However, the descriptions of the underground world of the Opera are fantastic, the backstory we get for Erik is intriguing and I found the ending to be satisfying. I do think that if I had read the book without any knowledge of the plot it would have been quite creepy and compelling.

I read some reviews after I’d finished the book and they left me with a question: why the hell would anyone want Christine to wind up with Erik?

Okay, he had a lousy childhood. He was born with deformities, his parents rejected him, he spent time in a freakshow. That’s awful. But that doesn’t give him an excuse for murder. He spends time inventing new and creative methods of torture and execution. He kills people simply because he wants to. He enjoys it. He plans a mass murder. He manipulates, abuses and terrorises a credulous, grieving Christine Daae. And apparently this is okay because he’s in love with her?

Uh, no.

He had a rotten childhood. The world cringed at his face. That sucks. It doesn’t excuse his actions.

I was glad that Raoul and Christine got away in the end. I think how Erik ended things was the best he could do for the woman he claimed to love. Did I like Raoul and Christine? Well, the book was a bit light on their characterisation. Raoul was a silly ass, at times, and Christine a bit of a fool, but they seemed to me to be two very young, somewhat naïve persons, who were thrown into an utterly fantastic and horrifying situation at the whim of a madman. I think they did the best they could.

Do I recommend this book? Hmm, well. I f you’ve seen the musical and you’d like more background for the story, then yes. If you’re a fan of Gothic or horror fiction, the yes. For the casual reader? Probably not.

Overall, I’m glad I read it. I like having more of the story than just the music. But maybe that’s just what the book is missing – the music!