Phantom of The Opera is the musical that made me love the theatre, so any changes to the story has me a little iffy in general. The synopsis of Sing Me Forgotten had me intrigued and so I took a chance and I’m glad I did.

Isda is the phantom I never knew I needed. I loved how Olson made her to be a hero and a villain at the same time, all the while we can still see her as a teenage girl who just wanted to be loved and accepted as she was. I loved how complex her character was. Emmeric, is a girls dream come true, loving Isda for not only how she looked, but who she was inside. Not a lot of people could love the phantom like that.

That plot itself was interesting, and pretty original I think. The only part I had issue was that I feel like Olson left some stuff out that I wish was included because I had a lot of questions at the end, also have issues with the ending because it made me cry. 😅 Overall though I really enjoyed this adaptation, and would love to see this on stage.

I don’t even know where to begin. This was a work of art! I have never been so entranced by a novel! The writing was poetic and beautiful and I found myself struggling to wrap my head around the magic within these pages. The book ended with tears streaming down my face and left me feeling shattered but whole. A beautiful story of pain, love, grief, and heartache. This book will stay with me forever.

Sing Me Forgotten is a hauntingly beautiful take on The Phantom of the Opera. Isda was cast aside by her very mother at her birth when she was discovered to be a gravior with the power to manipulate memories through song. She's only found safety in the Opera House run by Cyril Bardin, the man who saved and raised her. There, as the Opera House Ghost, she manipulates audiences's perceptions of the performances for him, all the while wishing she could be the one on stage. When she meets Emeric, a boy with a haunting past and a beautiful voice, everything changes. For the first time in her life, Isda finds not only a burgeoning prodegy, but a way to have the life she's always dreamed of: one of freedom, filled with love and to shine on stage. But as Isda gets closer and closer to Emeric, she realizes that there are those close to her who would stop at nothing to contain her power for themselves. To ensure hers and Emeric's survival, Isda may have to become the monster her world feared her to be in the first place.
Sing Me Forgotten started off pretty slow, but it ramps up and dang was that ending a sucker punch. I adored Emeric and Isda's growing friendship/romance, and how her feelings for him make her reconsider everything she knows about herself and her power. I thought Emeric was just a doll of a love interest, and he was just so adorable that I couldn't get enough of the two of them together. At first, I didn't feel like I had a good understanding of how the magic system worked, but that was cleared up for me as the pace of the book cleared itself up. I loved the small references scattered throughout the book of the original tale of Phantom of the Opera and loved how Olson both manages to capture the essence of the original story while creating something entirely new and unique. I also love the dark turn Isda's character arc takes about halfway through this novel, and how ruthless she gets. It was rewarding to see her claim her power and not be ashamed of herself for who she is, but also struggle with the things she had to do. I also enjoyed the conflicted feelings Isda harbored for Cyril as she goes through the book, and how it showcases the conflicted feelings that comes when someone has to grapple with a manipulative parental figure. There were a lot of good twists in this book that would be too spoilery to elaborate upon, but I really encourage readers to keep on reading this book if they find it slow because it was worth the slower moments. Sing Me Forgotten is a story about greed and power, as well as sacrifice and love, and how the best loves challenge us in the most important ways.

**Thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my rating**

I have read at least three YA retellings of Phantom of the Opera in the last year (since March 2020). I will say with complete certainty this is the BEST one. I LOVED this book so much and I'm so glad I was able to read it and now am able to promote it. Run, don't walk, to go get a copy!

Sing Me Forgotten is about Isda, a gravoir, which means she has magic that allows her to access people's memories when they sing but also has left her face disfigured since birth. She lives in the Channe Opera House, using her abilities to keep the Opera house ticket sales up for the owner, Cyril, who is also her caretaker. However, as she gets closer to a new tenor singer named Emeric, Isda begins to question if she wants more than her life has been to this point.

As I said, I have read multiple retellings of this story. This is the first one to explore the Phantom's motivations more than case them as a straight up villain. While Isda is good overall, she does make some morally grey choices, which I enjoyed. I'm a big fan of the morally grey protagonist.

I also really enjoyed the romantic tension between her and Emeric. Their relationship was build very organically and it was nice to see a story where the Phantom and the "Christine" character have a genuine relationship instead of seeing them in a one-sided relationship. I liked that spin on the original source material. I also liked that this story didn't seem to have a "Raoul". I hated him from the original book. I hated him in the musical. So to not have to deal with him or a love triangle made me extremely happy.

I liked the addition of magic, as well. The original book made it clear that the "magic" was really just the Phantom's genius or easily explained illusions that a trained person could do. So to see a book where she DOES have magic and where she has an ethical dilemma about using it was an intriguing addition to the story.

Overall, this book hits the major story beats of it's source material while adding fresh and new material as well makes this such a well done and worthwhile retelling. I read most of it in a day because I was so deeply invested. Highly, highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

The title was definitely intriguing at first glance, and is what got me to begin reading before even looking at the blurb. But little did I know how apt and deeply meaningful it truly was. So, at the outset, I would recommend this book for truly understanding the title if nothing else.

Sing Me Forgotten follows the protagonist Isda – a gravoir banished from society – as she lives in the depths of the opera house’s catacombs, hiding from a world out for her blood. As with any good book, she then meets Emeric – a charming, dimpled boy with the voice of an angel – who shows her the world through his music.

This story is an absolute masterpiece. Well thought out from beginning to end, and with writing that makes it impossible not to imagine Olson’s world exactly as she thought it. It is equal parts thrilling, mesmerizing, humorous (owing to the witty conversations between Isda and Emeric and a skeleton on the wall), gritty, and exhilarating.

Despite being ever so slightly predictable, the book, in no way, is one I would recommend missing out on.

4/5

Keep your eyes peeled for this one on 9th March!

A huge thank you to booksforwardpr and Jessica olson for providing me with an ARC!

Isda should not exist. Raised within the opulent walls of the opera house by the owner who rescued her as a baby, she hides a terrifying power to manipulate memories that means her certain death if anyone finds out. No one aside from her adopted father has ever seen her or spoken to her, and Isda is determined to keep it that way. But everything changes when she meets Emeric Rodin, a charming boy with an entrancing voice and the key to Isda’s freedom hidden in his memories. Desperate to learn more about who, and what, she is, Isda spends more and more time with him. She finds herself longing for a life she never thought she could lead, but the price of freedom will cost her more than she may be willing to pay. To break free from the shadows and finally step into the spotlight, Isda must face the darkness within herself before it consumes her and everything she’s ever known.

Sing Me Forgotten is an enrapturing symphony of power, love, and darkness that grips you from the very first page. Jessica S. Olson’s debut is thrilling and captivating, compelling you to read chapter after chapter as you fight for freedom and the future with Isda at your side. And what a fantastic protagonist she is! Defying those who wish to keep her in the shadows, battling the darkness within herself, and making heart-wrenching choices, Isda is the fierce and oh-so-real representation of the Phantom that I never knew I needed. Olson’s writing is stunning throughout as she weaves together phenomenal world-building and a gripping plot with lyrical intensity. I found myself falling in love with sweet and charming Emeric who is portrayed so realistically that I felt as if I could walk outside and meet him on the street. This gender-swapped retelling of The Phantom of the Opera is perfect for those who enjoy fantasy novels that sweep you up and refuse to let you go until you’ve read the final line. I highly recommend this breath-taking book!

(Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing us with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change.)

For those of you who are massive fans of The Phantom of the Opera story, both novel and musical (like me), get ready for a new gender-flipped version of the well renowned story!

Those of you who have watched the musical or at least aware of the story would be able to recall a certain phantom lurking in the crypts and sewers of the Paris Opera House. His appearance can be identified by the white mask that covers half of his scarred face. Despite his association with darkness, the phantom however has the voice of an angel (much to everyone’s surprise), he projects his dreams of singing in front of an audience onto Christine, his muse and his secret love. Olson takes this classic legend and does a gender-twist containing all the elements of magic and music, bringing it to a new level as she presents a complex girl with a hidden life and magical talents before us. Seventeen-year-old Isda has lived in the shadows her entire life, being discarded and left to drown at birth, she was found and raised in secret by Cyril, the owner of the Opera House in which she resides. Unknown to others but Cyril, Isda has a secret: she is a gravoir, someone who is able to see a person’s memories and manipulate them whilst they are singing. The mutilated face is their signature and all gravoirs are expected to be executed upon birth for fear of their powers going rogue. Like fendoirs (another type of magic inhabitant able to extract memories as an elixir) both hide underneath masks because of their facial disfigurements and are scorned by society. After being taken in by Cyril, she helps him by manipulating the audiences’ memories at the Opera House, gaining both money and popularity for him. Isda has always lived in darkness and often dreams of singing in front of the audience one day, but she knows that will never happen. She was content, for now.

That is, of course, until one day, she encountered a newly addition to the Opera House, one Emeric Rodin (aka the female version of Christine Daaé in case you haven’t noticed *wink*). Enchanted by his singing voice in which she describes it as ‘the bright fire of autumn transforming the world into a kaleidoscope of burning reds and golds’, Isda is determined to tutor him and make him a star on stage. Of course, this proves to be a more difficult task than she had anticipated. Carefully hiding her true identity from Emeric and tutoring him secretly without the notice of Cyril, Isda gradually finds herself more addicted to Emeric’s singing and his memories whilst her life also takes a surprising turn of events.

Adorned with magic and music, masquerade balls and hidden plots, Sing Me Forgotten is a lavish musical which harbours the intention of bringing the readers on a marvellous journey deep within the crypts of the Opera House. Personally, I loved the setting immensely. The Phantom of the Opera was one of the first musicals I watched when I was young, and it still remained one of my favourites to date. Upon reading the synopsis of the novel, I immediately knew it would be spectacular and sure enough, it did not disappoint!

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The complexity of the characters and their development throughout the novel is very well done! With Isda, Olson portrays a complex character in which she is also the hero and the villain of the story. In other words, she might be the hero of her and Emeric’s story, but she is seen as the villain in others. One cannot help but feel pity for her after learning her abandonment when she was merely an infant and the lies that were being told to her, but her horrendous acts later on in the book puts her on the wrong side of history. There was this quote that I read which said, ‘if they want me to be a nightmare, then a nightmare I shall be’ which completely captures the transition of Isda. She wasn’t always a villain, underneath her perhaps horrendous facial features, lies a normal 17-year-old young girl desperate for love and acceptance. When she met Emeric, she found the first person who embraced her as her true self without question (Spoiler: not even Cyril did that) and he also understands her on a spiritual level. That is the kind of acceptance that she longs and desires for. Emeric is the light in her darkness and in turn, she is also his saviour. With Isda’s guidance, Emeric is able to shine on the stage, living both him and Isda’s dreams. He is such a sweet boy, nice and gentle and is exceptional at making caramel candies (can he get any cuter seriously?!). Emeric’s love for music and his compassion towards Isda is something that amazes her and the reason why she keeps dropping her guard for him. Even Cyril, who turns out to be not the gentleman that he appears to be, has his own secrets of being the way he is now (although I did wish we got more of his backstory). In the end, finally, Isda is free from her shackles. Away from manipulation and lies, she is ‘the director and the maestro of her own life’ now. She is The Opera Ghost and she will not be afraid anymore.

Another one of the many captivating features of this novel is the language descriptions used within. Olson utilises the language of music exquisitely with delightful metaphors and her words on the pages bring forth a breathtaking symphony to the readers’ ears. It is as if we are watching an Opera and as the story flows, so does the music until it comes to a crescendo, and we are all left with the aftermath of this piece of stunning work!

On a final note, if you enjoyed this remarkable story, her second novel A Forgery of Roses comes out in 2022! Yet another fantasy retake with a mixture of Stalking Jack the Ripper and A Picture of Dorian Gray (two of my favourite novels in fact despite them being completely different), her new story will take place in Victorian London, where our characters would encounter mysteries that are best left unsolved…

Hold on to your hats, Ladies and Gentleman, because this is the gender-bent retelling of Phantom of the Opera that you've always wanted. Mixed with an intriguing magic system that's unlike anything you've read before, Sing Me Forgotten will not be a book that you'll forget anytime soon.

The Phantom vibes flow throughout the entire story, but Olson provides her own twists and turns that will keep readers on their toes--and their hearts just on the verge of breaking.

Isda is a wonderful protagonist, and watching as she wars with the monster within her versus the person she wants to be, or maybe believes she should be, is such an intriguing dynamic. My heart hurt for her and burned with her page after page.

Emeric is the love interest of your dreams. He is your angel of music, and boy does he make your heart soar.

And Olson's writing is just as magical. The way she writes about the connection between Isda and music was beautiful, poetic, and lyrical.

I hope you enjoy all the subtle nods to Phantom's music as much as I did. I know I was singing along to them each time they popped up. I can't wait to see what Olson writes next!

3.5 stars
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The concept for Sing Me Forgotten drew me in instantly: I mean, gender-bent Phantom of the Opera? Yes, please! And it’s not just an homage to the dynamic of the original, but you feel a real sense of the lyrical and musical nature to the story, especially with how it plays into the magic system.

Isda being the equivalent of the “Phantom” is incredibly well done, capturing all her flaws, including the viciousness and spite that feels appropriate to this character archetype, thanks to her background of being ostracized. She’s complex, and there’s no attempt to water her down to appease those who buy into the double standard of “unlikable heroines” versus their more acceptable male counterparts. In spite of it all, I really wanted her to succeed in the same way I did the original Phantom in spite of the questionable things he did, and I was in shock over the trajectory her story took.

Her romance with Emeric is lovely, what with it being a bit more balanced than the original’s Phantom/Christine relationship. They have lovely banter, and he becomes more nuanced as the story goes on. Her relationship with Cyril is also complex, evoking a connection to Quasimodo and Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, although I’m not sure if that was intentional (although the two do share common threads of a Beast-like figure hidden away in Paris).

The one weak spot is in the world building. I got the sense of it being French-inspired, but not actually being set in France. However, I didn’t get a sense of the scope of the setting beyond that.

This is a charming book providing a fresh spin on a well-loved classic. And in spite of its flaws, I think fans of the original will enjoy it, due to the way it pays homage to the original. But even if you don’t love it, or haven’t experienced any incarnation of the story, I think you’ll still get a lot out of it as a story in its own right.

Sing Me Forgotten is a Phantom of the Opera retelling with an odd backstory of the Opera Ghost. Isda is a gravoir, part of a magical, disfigured group of people have been persecuted and murdered throughout the years because of their ability to control and manipulate memories. Cyril, who rescued her as a baby, uses her to manipulate the patrons in the opera house to make the operas seem better than they actually were in order to make more money. He also uses her to manipulate people in order to accumulate more power. She falls in love with Emeric when she hears him sing. She becomes his singing teacher and makes him good enough to earn a lead role in the opera. He learns to care for her and is distrustful of Cyril, who he knows is using her. Unfortunately she is exposed at a masquerade ball and now many people want her dead for the powers she has. Will her and Emeric be able to be together? I was disappointed by the book. I felt that there were too many magical elements and that there were too many plot threads that didn’t amount to anything in the story.

This debut novel is a YA fantasy that is described as a gender bent Phantom of the Opera, where memories are currency and can be stolen or sold. Isda is different and lives hidden within the opera house. She dreams of joining the performers and guests but the townspeople are afraid of people like her. Then she meets Emeric, a boy who accepts her for who she is and may understand her more than she knows. Isda has to decide if she is the monster people make her out to be.

This book didn’t drag me in as much as I had hoped, but it was fine. I can’t say I really enjoyed it but I also can’t really say why I didn’t. I think part of it is that it took me a bit to grasp all of the fantasy aspects of what Isda was and what the power of memory entailed. I found the last quarter pretty exciting but a little drawn out. Overall this reads like a typical YA book, if you enjoy fantasy you might enjoy this one!

Thanks to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for the advanced ebook!

“We crescendo together, our duet rising until it bursts right through mountains, taking wing on the breeze and swirling into the sky to shake the stars.”
•
I have received an early copy through NetGalley.
Saying that I am completely heartbroken is not enough. This book completely shattered my soul in tiny pieces. Not only the writing is lovely and whimsical and musical like all the songs that are described here, but the story made me feel so so much. Isda is the Opera Ghost, she is meant not to be heard or seen and she helps Cyril running the theater because she has a very peculiar ability: she can alter everyone’s memories while they sing. People like her are feared and they are killed when they are just born, but Cyril found and raised her like his own daughter. One day she meets Emeric and his music is like nothing she has ever heard, it is as if it speaks directly to her soul. Their interactions are incredibly sweet and when they sing together the whole world stops to listen. But Is is not happy, she wants to stop hiding and start living and she is so angry against a world that has decided she is evil before actually knowing her. Isda is not flawless, she is not always kind or caring and she is even cruel at times, but what should we expect from her when everyone wants to kill her without giving a chance to prove her goodness? When she loves, she loves fiercely and we can see that both with Emeric and with Cyril and who knows what she could have given to the world with that love, if only she hadn’t been betrayed and treated like garbage. This book is really sad, there are some very funny and light parts but it is intrinsically sad. Isda cannot find her place in this world and maybe she never will but the only thing she is really able to do is to remember and she chooses to remember the love she has been given over all the hate she has received and this makes her very strong.

Absolutely wonderful gender swap Phantom of the Opera with its own brand of magic and danger. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.

Normally, I don’t gravitate toward fan fiction. Sometimes--I’ll admit it freely--I become a purist for certain things. For instance, I will never crack open a piece of fiction marketed as Les Miserables “for the modern age.” And if someone ever gave me a fan fiction of The Great Gatsby, I would have no trouble showing my disgust. But there’s a reason for my aversion.

Some authors’ stories are so ingrained in literature as a whole, so indelible from the classic canon, so inimitable that to touch them rarely ever does a service to the story. Yes, yes, the part of me that studied adaptation and can even defend terrible offshoots for being an individual work--that part of myself is extremely annoyed at me for the above paragraph. All that in account, though, imagine my surprise when I liked Jessica S. Olson’s Sing Me Forgotten.

I finished this last night, and I’ve been mulling over for a while what it was about the story that dragged me in. After a restless night, it’s come to me: Olson doesn’t try to give a “new perspective” on Leroux’s classic. She doesn’t think she can spin it better. She doesn’t even try to justify Erik’s actions in the original. Sing Me Forgotten is a love letter to The Phantom of the Opera as both a classic novel and a Broadway adaptation. It takes the gender-bending trope and applies it, throws in some magic, replaces France with a fictionalized version of the country, and adds in heaping tablespoons of love for Leroux’s story.

Isda, the main character, is a gravoir: someone born with the ability to muck around with peoples’ memories when they sing. Music activates the magic system here, which is honestly pretty cool. Many years ago--probably hundreds, I’ve forgotten now--three women who were gravoirs rose up and ruled the world with their magic. Their dethroning is celebrated, and Les Trois were henceforth depicted as snarling beasts ready to eat the world. Isda lives in the crypts under the Channe Opera House, found as a newborn by the owner when she was cast into a well for being a gravoir. See, the faces of gravoirs and fendoir--their minor counterparts--are disfigured and horrifying. Hence the take on the iconic Phantom mask.

Where fendoir can only extract and see peoples’ memories, gravoirs can change them, can alter the very nature of a person’s past, and drive someone insane. Or worse, they can take all of someone’s memory elixir and leave them as a hollow shell with no memory whatsoever. The man who found Isda, Cyril Bardin, uses her to adjust the memories of people who attend opera performances, and if something maybe goes wrong or wasn’t quite up to standard, Isda can tweak those memories and have people coming back time and again.

Enter Emeric, the boy with the voice of an angel. Isda takes him on to teach him how to refine his voice, as he’s dreamed of being an opera singer ever since he was little. Clearly they fall in love, but when Cyril begins using Isda to alter the memories of a government official, she starts to doubt how much she can trust the man who raised her. And after finding out how much information he has on gravoirs in his office, that trust takes another knock.

I’m not going to go further into the plot, because I think the plot was fine. While it reminded me a lot of Phantom, it did its own thing too, and for that I was grateful and relieved. Isda and Emeric both felt like fully-fleshed characters, and I LOVED that Isda could be both monstrous and tender, while Emeric was soft and masculine at the same time. Yay, nonconforming gender roles! Cyril felt a bit meh as a villain, but y’know. You can’t win ‘em all.

My biggest complaints here are probably minor as far as overall quality goes. But as an experienced writer myself, I would have loved it if Olson had taken the time to shorten some of the beginning scenes and really dive into not just the lore of Les Trois--cuz I needed more--but also the world itself, and how the dynamics of Isda’s existence grated against the flow of society. “She’s a gravoir!” Sure, but Les Trois can’t be the be-all and end-all of that story. What else happened? If there are more out there, like Emeric’s sister, how are they living? What’s the quality of their lives, and are there places on the planet where people accept them?

Also, is there a black market for elixir? What else can it do besides strengthen gravoirs and give non-magical people excellent recall/executive function? (Which, tbh, I could deal with given my rampant ADHD.) Is this a magic system exclusive to Channe, or is it worldwide? I have so many questions!!!

Anyway.

The other issue I saw manifested in overwriting. The prose got a bit purple in some places, and some scenes were drawn out too long. A few passages became muddled with words, and I had a hard time 1) figuring out what exactly was happening, and 2) staying engaged in the scene (see above comments on ADHD). Had those two issues been dealt with, I’m positive this would have rocketed itself up to a five-star for me. Four’s not bad! It could have been a five, though. Olson has a long way to go as a debut author, but she definitely has what it takes to become a writer to be reckoned with. In the words of Sheev, “We will watch your career with great interest.”

Initial Thoughts

I was so excited to be chosen for this tour! Phantom of the Opera has been one of my favorite Broadway shows since I saw it when I was in sixth grade. I couldn’t wait to read this retelling with a magical spin.

Some Things I Liked

Lesser known retelling. I love retellings of stories other than fairytales. I love fairytale retellings too but I find it so refreshing to see an author’s take on something else. Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite shows and I loved the addition of musical magic in this iteration.
French influence. Again, something I loved. The names, places, and magic all had a heavy French influence but still felt utterly unique. I would love to read more about this world.
Morally grey main character. Isda wasn’t perfect. Far from it. She reminded me a bit of Adelina from The Young Elites by Marie Lu and I loved that about her. She made some dark decisions but overall was the hero of her own story.
Serpent & Dove vibes. This story gave me all kinds of S&D feelings and I adore that series, so that was just a huge bonus. I really think that stems from the French influences, magic, and main character, but I loved it all the same.

Series Value

I would love more books set in this incredible world. The ending is open ended and Isda is such an amazing character. I’d love to follow her journey further and see how the world reacts to the truth about gravoirs.

Final Thoughts

I loved this book. I laughed, I cried, and I wanted to sing with Isda throughout the pages of this story. This was an excellent debut and I’d definitely keep reading Jessica S. Olsen’s books.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

Music of the Night by Angela Ford – if you’re looking for another Phantom retelling, look no further than this new release.
Roseblood by A.G. Howard – Phantom + Vampires. Need I say more?

I really enjoyed Isda’s story but it was absolutely heartbreaking. It illustrates how hate and cruelty can seep into someone’s heart and turn them into the very monster you thought them to be. Isda is a caring and thoughtful person that has been manipulated and brainwashed for her whole life. She is forced to hide from the world and find comfort in music but her dreams still long to be lived.

This book is inspired by the Phantom of the Opera which I’m not very familiar with, but it is not necessary to know it. I’m sure there were many parallels between the two tales, I would be interested to hear from someone who has read both. The concept is interesting and portrays oppression and discrimination in a creative way. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the ending. It makes sense, and there is some closure but it’s not what you wanted for her.

3.75/5 stars

First off, I loved Olson's writing style. Her world is richly described and beautifully presented, her characters alive and authentic. I felt truly and lovingly enveloped in the story, welcomed into the opera house. As a person who studied vocal performance, I loved all the details about vocal training, which were accurate and added to the depth of the reading experience for me. I'd go 5/5 stars for these aspects of the story!

POSSIBLE SPOILERS (I'll try to be vague, but beware!):

However, I struggled to relate to the main character, Isda. This may be because I have never seen a production of Phantom of the Opera, upon which this story is based (for shame, I know). I understood why Isda was angry, but rather than root for her I felt put off by it, like there was a wall between me and her understanding of herself. I was fine with this for a while assuming my understanding would grow, but as the intensity ramped up toward the end of the novel, my dislike of her grew instead. Ultimately, no meaningful change was enacted in Isda's world, and I didn't feel like she paid enough for the pain she inflicted on others. It did, however, leave me reflecting on the ways in which society could/does create its own "monsters" and who should bear the responsibility for the crimes they ultimately commit against humanity--the "monster" or society itself? 3/5 for this part.

Though this tale wasn't for me, I am rooting for Olsen and will absolutely pick up her next book, hoping to be once again be invited into a world just as lovingly crafted as this one.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

I was really excited for a Phantom of the Opera inspired tale.
This just didn't work for me; can't even narrow down why.
Totally a "it's me not you" kind of situation.
Love that cover though.
Thanks to NetGalley & Inkyard Press for my DRC.

This book was beautifully written with a diverse cast of characters. As far as a fantasy Phantom of the Opera retelling goes, this was really good and maintained itself as a unique story. Isda the opera ghost struggles with simply wanting to be free and accepted, but also bring pain to those who have killed her kind and remain in fear. Emeric is a beautiful soul that any girl could fall in love with. His kind heart is surely exemplified throughout this this novel. Overall the imagery provided in this book and the depth of the story make for a great read that any lover of fantasy and Phantom of the Opera would want to read.

Reviewed on Goodreads

A gender-bent fantasy retelling of The Phantom of the Opera?! Yes please!

Forbidden magic, music, masquerades-there is a lot to be wowed by in this story. The world-building done by Olson is quite well-crafted and this was a book that I could not stop reading (or talking about). Were some elements predictable? Yeah, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

For Libraries: Buy this & watch your readers fall in love with the magical world of Isda and Emeric.