Ugh. I wanted to love the novel, but every character is so flawed there's almost no redeeming qualities about any of them. I've known the musical/movie musical adaptations well before the book but this is not a comparison of the two (actually, the 1925 silent film is the most accurate adaptation of the novel). Raoul is the most whiny man-child I've ever read about in literature, and his lust (yes, it's lust) for Christine is as creepy as desperate as Erik. Christine's naïvety makes sense if it's assumed she's a sheltered teen/young-adult, mourning her father while being manipulated by Erik. The final climax felt so drawn out and anti-climatic. The story-telling from the perspective of a historian's account, although interesting, at times made it feel like I was reading just an essay and not a story. 

While I do prefer the stage version and the movie a lot more, I did really enjoy getting to read the original book which inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. I definitely have to give a lot of respect to this book for being the inspiration for my favorite musical ever.

The Phantom was truly creepy in this version and not sexy at all. While I do enjoy the more sexy twisted version in the book version was very interesting to learn about.

All the characters do pale a bit in comparison to the musical. But it was also interesting to get some extra context on inspirations for the musical. 

The writing, especially the dialogue was a bit bad at times but I'm not sure if that's just how it is or how the translation is seeing as the original novel was in French. Or perhaps a bit of both. 

I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a fan of the musical or movie because honestly if I had read this without being a big fan of the musical I'd probably have dnf it but I only enjoyed it a bit due to the musical.