The Phantom of the Opera is the story of Christina Daae, a young opera singer who becomes entangled with the mysterious Erik, a disfigured genius living under the Paris opera house that she performs in. At first, Erik appears to Christine to give her voice lessons, but his interest in her becomes obsessive when he falls in love with her. Determined to keep her away from her fiancee Raoul, Erik abducts her and takes her to his secret underground lair. To save the woman he loves, Raoul must embark on a dangerous journey through the mysterious basements of the opera house to rescue Christine from the grips of the dangerous "phantom."
This was quite the exciting little story! The action was well paced and consistently suspenseful. I read this book in under a week, which is much faster than I'm usually able to get through a classic novel. The story is structured as a "true" narrative of an investigation carried out by the author into the mysterious rumors of the Paris opera ghost and the disappearance of the opera star Christine Daae. The plot unfolds through the letters, interviews and research of the author, which lends the story a feeling of credibility that was kind of fun.
The character of Erik was appropriately creepy. Hideously disfigured since birth, he was powerful, obsessive and sad in turns. He has a number of special abilities that make him into a sort of terrifying Superman. He's described as being the world's best ventriloquist, a musical genius, a master at sleight of hand and an expert at killing people with lassos (seriously). He also spent a few years as a building contractor before he disappeared under the opera house, which explains how he could build trapdoors and secret rooms inside of it. The mischief he gets up to throughout the story is impressive and hilarious (in a horrifying kind of way).
Indeed, Erik is endlessly talented, but his physical appearance repulses everyone. He is shunned by society, so he is forced to turn his talents to tricks and deceit instead of using them to help people. He turns himself into the Opera Ghost in order to lord over the opera house and have a place to live while he composes his operatic masterpiece. However, underneath all the posturing and bravado, Erik is hurt and lonely. He is so desperate for companionship that he kidnaps the first woman to show him an ounce of compassion. He tells Christine more than once that he just wants to be like everyone else and live a normal life, above ground. You almost feel a little bit sorry for him until you remember that he's absolutely bonkers and abducts and kills people whenever he has a mind to.
Christine and Raoul, sadly, pale in comparison to Erik. They're your stereotypical "good guys," Christine is the beautiful and helpless woman and Raoul is the brave hero. They are flat characters, but luckily, the mystery surrounding Erik and his schemes is enough is keep the story interesting.
As I mentioned before, the book actually does resemble the musical very closely. Some events occur in a different order, and some details are changed, but all of the big stuff is here. The chandelier still falls, Christine still rips Erik's mask off, and Erik still abducts Christine in the middle of a crowded theater. There's even a masquerade that the Phantom attends in a super-scary costume. It is literally impossible to read this without the songs from the musical playing in your head, which only enhanced the reading experience for me. I was even inspired to pull up the soundtrack on Spotify and had a grand old time belting out show tunes.
The Phantom of the Opera was a scary little adventure that was well worth the read. Fans of horror novels will love this classic story and fans of the musical will enjoy a literary trip through the Broadway show. This one was fun, and an excellent choice for my month of scary stories.
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