Book Review: Phantom by Susan Kay

HELLO ALL!

It's been a while. If we're going to be honest here, I've been crazy bogged down with school. It's online classes but holy shit there is a ton of reading and work and I haven't had time to read. Add that to an ever expanding obsession with KDramas and people that feed that obsession and I am just short on time for everything.

But I'm back! At least for now. And I have a book review!

Phantom by Susan Kay has been a favorite of mine for a really long time. I first got hooked on Phantom of the Opera stuff in high school. I watched the movie with Gerard Butler, I read the original novel by Gaston Leroux and I found this book. Then, in college among moving stuff from dorm to home and back again, I lost my copy of it! It's probably still floating around somewhere but I bought a new copy and I'm so thrilled that I was able to read it again.

Phantom really delves into the mind of the Phantom, Erik. He isn't just a mindless psychopath living in the basement, praying on young women. He has motivation. He has his arrogance. He is brilliant and so broken in this. Every aspect of his adolescence is so twisted, from his mother refusing to give him any warmth to his imprisonment in the gypsy camp to losing the one man who he could call a father figure. You begin to understand how he became the way that he did.

God, this book hit me so hard in the heart the first time I read it. It's so dark. It's so hopeless in many ways. You see someone suffering for how they look, despite their amazing mind and you wonder what would have happened if he had had love as a child instead of fear and scorn.

“I am not forsaken! I'm no longer alone in the darkness! Before my eyes I see a thousand little devils lighting black candles along the path which leads toward the edge...the blindingly beautiful edge.”

The secondary characters are remarkably well built as well. I hated his mother, Madeleine but you can understand her fear. In that time, Erik would have been seen as an abomination. There would be no place for him in society because of his image and you desperately hope that wouldn't be the case now. She was scared of this child that had so much intelligence but was hampered by her revulsion towards him. She was a young mother whose husband just died and she saw Erik as a curse. I can't imagine.

And then the Daroga. And the architect in Italy. Where he had once had hope and friendship, he managed to lose it all. I feel like throughout the book, up until he meets Christine, Erik strives to be a better person but his situation in life turns him into the sadistic person that he is.

“My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain, I learn in vain. . . . For as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love.”

My biggest fault with this book is the last ten to fifteen percent. The last little bit where he finally meets Christine and succumbs to the madness that he has been fighting for so long.

“She wanted an Angel of Music . . . an angel who would make her believe in herself at last. I'd been the Angel of Doom for the khanum. There was no reason in the world why I could not be the Angel of Music for Christine. I couldn't hope to be a man to her, I couldn't ever be a real, breathing, living man waking at her side and reaching out for her . . . But I could be her angel"

I hated Christine. She follows blindly and doesn't question anything. Lamb to the slaughter. And I'm not saying that she was supposed to be more worldly since she was only 20 and had hardly experienced any of the world but I wanted her to have more doubt than she did. Erik loved the idea of her more than anything else and she knew it. She couldn't make decisions on her own except on the occasions of threats against her or others. She ruined Erik's character for me since he had been so resolute and strong for most of the book but finally crumbles under an obsession.

But I guess that's the point of it all. He is supposed to lose it. Erik finally relinquishes control of his mind and basically damns himself. It's all so sad and terrible and that's why I love this book.

If you haven't read this book, you need to. It is such a beautiful supplement to the story that most are familiar with and it only enhances the musical and the original book. Seriously, go get it. Now. Do it. It's wonderful.

I promise I will get back to regular posting and reading other blogs. I've just been so busy it's ridiculous! Take pity on me and don't forget about me! I'm still around. I'm just lurking.

Book Review: A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley

Susanna Kearsley has done it again. And it's beautiful and wonderful and all the good things about a book that makes you keep coming back to it over and over. 

Susanna Kearsley is an auto-buy author for me. When a new book of hers comes out, I try to pick it up as quickly as possible and usually devour it in an afternoon. All of her books blend the past and the present in such a way that you feel like you are stepping into the shoes of the characters and experiencing everything that they do.

I'm going to go ahead and tell you...I hate this cover. I feel like it is a cop out. In the book, the outfits and settings are so perfectly described so at least the cover could have incorporated something like that. Instead, it is a generic woman looking at a generic bridge with a sepia tone over it. I understand that it can be difficult to get the right feel for a cover and get exactly what you want but I wanted something more than this.

A Desperate Fortune follows the growth of two women: Sara, an English who struggles with the day to day challenges of living with Asperger's in a society that increasingly demands extroversion and conformity and Mary, a young woman who grew up in France during the Jacobite revolution and finds herself at the center of a covert operation that goes bad quickly.

I absolutely adored Sara. She wants desperately to be normal and she goes with the "Fake it till you make it" mentality when dealing with others. She quit her most recent job because it forced her to work with others instead of working alone which she prefers. After she is given a cipher to crack, Sara is invited to work for an author who has found a very curious diary. The diary is that of Mary Dundas and is written entirely in code. It is supposed to depict the life of an ordinary girl in France but instead, it's the story of a great adventure.

Mary Dundas starts her story by wanting to move back with her family after an invitation from her brother. But her brother has other plans and sends her to be a tool in trying to protect a fugitive from England that is a sympathizer to the Jacobite cause. Mary tries to play her role perfectly but things quickly go south and she finds herself traversing the country with a quiet and intimidating Scotsman, a charming Englishman, and a chaperon. Their journey is perilous and forces Mary to abandon her ideals of living a peaceful life with her brother's family and stand up for herself.

The romances are lovely in this book.

Sara always pushes away her love interests and is content with being solitary for the rest of her life. She has accepted it and it's okay. Then she meets Luc Sabran who sneaks through the cracks in the walls she has built. He is patient and kind which is exactly what she needs in her life. Sara wants calm and steady and that is what he offers.

And Hugh MacPherson...

I have to say that he is my favorite hero that Kearsley has written so far. Yes, he bumped Rob off the top. He is so wonderfully written, it is amazing. Hugh is cold, removed, strong, stubborn, and all of the things you want/don't want in a damaged man. He just wants to keep everybody safe and do his job but the close quarters between Hugh and Mary force them to try to get along and help each other. Mary is originally terrified of him but it grows to respect and admiration in such a natural way that it is perfectly believable.

The historical aspects of this book are on point, as per usual. This author loves this particular period in French and Scottish history and has done a great job of tying in the history with the romance. The outfits are period appropriate, the manner of speaking, and she obviously does her research. I love well planned books. They make my heart soar.

Characters from the author's other novels make cameos which is fun in many ways. I like seeing that all the stories are tied together in some way. However, it can get a bit tiring. You have to remember their stories and make those connections and sometimes it can be annoying.

There are 3 reasons that this isn't a 5 star book for me:

1) The cover - not relevant to anything. Just a sepia tone of a pretty girl.

2) The ending for Sara was too abrupt and I hated how it concluded way before Mary's story.

3) The beginning was a bit slow. It was like the story had to gear up a bit before it got going. But if you're patient, it's entirely worth it.

So yeah...another wonderful book from this author. It's such a fine and lovely thing that I couldn't even find gifs for it.

I'm still basking in book afterglow here.