Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Adapted by Varga Tomi
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In a successful opera house in France, Christine Daaé enjoys her first experience as a Prima Donna. She has always been an understudy, or a silent dancer, but something about her singing has changed recently. The transformation sparks the curiosity of one of the opera’s benefactors, Monsieur Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. He visits the starlet backstages but finds not everything is on the up and up. Through following Christine and many clandestine meetings over many weeks, he discovers a mysterious entity has been visiting her dressing room, claiming to be the Angel of Music, and training Christine’s voice. Christine, at first, believed her departed father had sent the Angel to her, but she discovers, to her horror, that the Angel is in fact the Opera Ghost, a figure of legend who has been wreaking havoc and placing demands on the Opera staff for quite a while. Raoul is determined to save Christine from Erik, the Opera Ghost, but he’ll have to overcome some great obstacles in order to do so.

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This is a pretty faithful adaptation, but a little brief at times. Some of the best one liners made famous by the musical were also included. The phantom’s true face is creepy like it’s supposed to be, and covers his entire face as it does in the book, rather than one half as popularized by the musical. The illustrations of the phantom are sufficiently creepy; his presence is haunting in every scene, including the ones where he is masked up and concealing himself. Madame Geary and her daughter are almost non-existent in this adaptation, which might be good for musical lovers who think Meg is useless.

The illustrations are a little rough in that most of the characters have very masculine features, including the women. The ballet dancers are not all thin ladies, which seems more a design error than a choice.

there is quite a bit of violence in this story, including murder, and very dark themes. This would be best suited for high school audiences.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Music, Horror, Romance