Elias reviewed The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The Blorbo Source Material
4 stars
Content warning Mild spoilers, if you watched the musical you already know this
Erik is far more unhinged than I thought he would be, goddamn lmao.
Anyway, the book is alright! It gets a 4/5 instead of a 3/5 because I particularly like this kind of story and I'm a fan of all the spin-offs that have come from it. I started with a pretty bad translation that made the story hard to understand, but once I got my hands on a good translation I had a much better time. Take care to get a good translation if/when you read the book.
I was also sorta surprised to see how much of a whiny baby Raoul was. I also think it's significant that Erik lets Christine go out of personal desire in this rather than only after being confronted by Raoul (as is the case in many adaptations). I think it perfectly demonstrates that Erik is not solely monstrous; there are still pitiable aspects to his personality and upbringing.