Okay so I need to talk about The Phantom of the Opera because I just finished reading it again and I have THOUGHTS. First of all, the musical? Absolutely goated, no hate, Andrew Lloyd Webber really said let me make bank and he did because those songs are iconic and everyone knows them. But here's the thing, the musical and the book are basically two different things sharing the same skeleton. Like yeah the main plot points are there, creepy guy lives under opera house, loves Christine, but the VIBE is completely different. The book reads like your best friend pulling you aside to spill the most insane tea you've ever heard. Like genuinely it's structured as a detective novel, which I love because I'm a sucker for that genre anyway, and this guy comes in being like "let me tell you about this WILD situation that went down at the opera house back in the day." And then he just goes off. The drama is IMMACULATE. You've got Raoul being so jealous his heart feels like it's gonna explode out of his chest, you've got Erik literally whispering insults to some guy in the opera box about his wife cheating on him until they get into a physical fight in the middle of a performance, you've got backstage politics and managers losing their minds and prima donnas throwing fits. It's so messy and I am here for it. And can we talk about Erik for a second? Because this man is the original ragebaiter. He loves causing chaos for the sake of it, he lives for the drama, he's absolutely unhinged and petty and extra in every possible way. Like yes he's tragic and sad and all that but also he's having the time of his life terrorizing everyone. The book is genuinely funny, like laugh out loud funny in places, and nobody ever talks about that because everyone just knows the musical version where he's all brooding and romantic. Nah, book Erik is a menace and I love him for it. I'm not gonna talk about the ending because it's pretty obvious anyway and also I've read this like five times now so I might be biased, but honestly it holds up every single time. It's not like a masterpiece of literature or anything, sometimes it drags a bit and I'll admit I put it down a few times even though it's short, but it's just such a fun read. I'm actually planning to grab a physical copy soon because I've only got it digitally right now and I want to be able to annotate it and highlight all the unhinged parts.