I like Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera".

I just wanted to read this book. That's all.

In the story, Raoul meets his beloved Kristina, whom he has not seen for several years, at the opera house and wants to meet her, but he finds out that she is talking to some kind of "Angel", or is it the Phantom of the Opera, who terrorizes the theater?

If you've watched the musical, then you know that it pays a lot of attention to the relationship between Kristina and the Phantom. But the book is a thriller in which the Phantom of the Opera himself is a mystery figure to the reader as well. The author holds the tension quite well. But a couple of questions remain. Why did the usher know the Ghost, and why does he have mystical powers?

Of the characters, I would like to discuss the Phantom of the Opera himself. I hate him. The author tries to make us feel sorry for him at the end, but he was nasty throughout the book. He manipulated Kristina's feelings by pretending to be an "Angel", killed people, tried to make Kristina his wife by force, threatening Raul with death in the end, and when Kristina took off his mask, he yelled at her and pulled her hair out of anger. I know that looks are a sore subject for him, but damn. He also created a torture machine. His positive traits are that he loved Kristina sincerely and that he sings like an angel. Otherwise, he's a freak on the outside and on the inside. I understand that Raoul is not God's dandelion, but he is better than a Phantom in any case.

The writing style is interesting. The book is written in the style of a documentary, like it's all already happened and author reconstructing history for us. I liked the moment where the author of two pages described how an opera female singer accidentally croaked and then wrote something like: "Yes, I'm describing a two-page millisecond action, but it was such a shock...!" But what I didn't like was the too frequent use of "!" signs. Maybe it's a distinctive feature of French literature, but I didn't like that everyone was yelling.

In general, I liked the book. It was quite intense, and the documentary style was interesting.