Book #21 "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux: "Poor, unhappy Erik! Shall we pity him? Shall we curse him? He asked only to be 'someone', like everybody else. But he was too ugly!" (Page 192)
First off before anyone gets on me I realize that this is a bit late but I didn't want to stop with the 50 some pages I had to go in it so I figured I might as well see it through to the end.
I've been looking forward to reading this one for awhile, mostly because I grew up loving the movie and soundtrack that I couldn't possible see myself not loving the book. And while I did like it it was also quit different from what I was expecting it to be I guess. While the movie has more of a storyline kind of plot to it the book has a bit more of a history book feel to it. I mean don't get me wrong it still has all the romance and adventure and whatnot all mixed in with it but it is told by a historian whom apparently has 'done research' to find out what he now knows about everything that happened at the opera involving the Phantom or Erik, as we find out his real name is.
It went into a lot more detail with where Erik came from and how he grew up. They made some characters have a much larger role in the film then they did in the book and while that normally doesn't bother me all that much the thing that does get to me, and unfortunately happen here, is they completely cut out one of the very main characters from the book to the film. And the thing that really sucks about it is that it would not have been hard at all for them to keep him in as the role that he was originally used for. Just always seems lazy to me when I see things like that happen.
Last thing that really got to me was how winy Raoul was, like for almost the WHOLE BOOK! Don't get me wrong I understand that he is madly in love and all that jazz and that all he wants is for Christine to love him back but I ask you, does he have to be so winy about it? I mean Christine is under a lot of pressure not only from two different guys attention and them both wanting her to marry them but also from the whole, oh gee I don't know, singing career she is trying to have? I like thinking that she kind of was just playing them both along a little bit because she wanted to. Who can truly say? But back to my main point just because Raoul is rich and probably very used to getting his way that doesn't mean he should be that way when it comes to getting the girl too.
I did enjoy how with the book they went into a lot more detail about the history of and the way that the opera house was built. I'm a sucker for old buildings, what can I say?
Well I'm willing to bet that if I tried I could probably ramble on about this some more but it was only an 192 page book I don't want to overkill so that is all I will say on the subject for the time.
That is all for 2014's books. Obviously I didn't reach my goal, but what is new there? We are going to be trying something a little different here on out. Going to try to make posting a once a week thing, but more details to come tomorrow with what, hopefully, will be the official first post for 2015. (Brain functioning levels permitting!!)
That's all for now,
Michaela Jane
