Rating: 
Summary: Well worth the trouble of finding it
Review: For me, this was one of the books I kept wishing would never end. Several friends recommended it to me, promising me I would absolutely love it. Thus, I began it with high expectations -- and they were met. It's a very well-written novel, and the story is so enchanting, I was forced to read it all in one day. After I finished the book, I stayed awake for nearly an hour letting everything sink in. The author doesn't treat her readers like idiots; the story is replete with subtlety and discreetly-made connections that leave your mind running long after you put the book down.What is written of Erik [the phantom's] life prior to his time in the opera house (which takes up more than half of the book) provides countless explanations for unanswered questions in the play. The author's descriptive abilities are superb; the description of Erik's voice alone leads the reader off into a reverie. Some things can only be put into words. I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find plenty of fault with the book, but that's the case with every story. The point is: If you're looking for intrigue and depth in a book, "Phantom" is definitely worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother...
Review: I got this book with high expectations. During the peak of my Phantom craze, I wanted to read everything that pertained, and many fellow Phans said this was a wonderful book, so I got it from the library. I regret to say that I was NOT thrilled to the depths of my soul. I felt that Susan Kay portrayed Erik as too dark and evil a man, making not-too-subtle suggestions of demon-possession. I did not get this picture of him from Leroux's novel, but rather thought of him as a pitiful creature, whose "magic" was not really so, but rather genius. It is indisputable that Erik had the mind of a genius. But demon-possessed? Not. Susan Kay's Erik I can feel no sympathy for; Leroux's Erik I can.
Susan Kay's Erik is hard, unfeeling, coarse, hateful. Leroux's Erik is sentimental at heart, beneath a forbidding exterior, and his all-encompassing desire is to be loved and to love. He appears cruel, but he doesn't mean to be, at least not to Christine... Anyway, I felt this book was rather a waste of time. Susan Kay has an interesting writing style, but the content was not worth a re-reading... For the first time, I feel happy that a book is out of print.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favs
Review: I've had "Phantom" since February and I've already read it twice. It is one of the best books I ever read. It is the story of Erik's life from birth to death. I was intriuged and fasinated by this heartbreaking story of a man who only wanted love and acceptance. The way he was treated as a child by his mother and later in the gypsy camp by Javert brought tears to my eyes. Kay does not portray Erik as the "evil monster" that he seemed to be in the original novel. The last part of the book is told from a new prospective...by Erik and Christine. The ending is given a new twist which I personally found very satisfying. Recommended to anyone but especially POTO fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Language of Love
Review: Has anyone else noticed that on page 362 of the 1991 Corgi edition that while Erik is, presumably, writing and speaking in French, the Phantom of the Opera (an Anglification) is shortened to P.T.O. - the French version would be F. d'O or le Fantome d'Opera??
Rating:
Summary: Better Than the Original!
Review: This book is wonderful! It tells fans of the original everything that Gaston Leroux left shrouded in mystery. It shows exactly why and how Erik got to be the way he was in "The Phantom of the Opera." The only part that I found to be slightly un-realistic was the part about the "love child". Still, Susan Kay managed to at least do that part with some tact (more than I can say for Frederick Forsyth's "Phantom of Manhattan")Heck, I'm a Raoul fan, and even I loved this book. That's saying something!
Rating:
Summary: This is it!
Review: This book RULES!!!!!!! There are no ifs, ands or buts, this book is amazing! Within the first 40 pages I was in tears. People have complained this book is too unrealistic because of it's sexual content, but come on! It's not all that bad! It could have been a lot worse! I thought the book was absolutely delightful and I will probably never find a better book then this for Phantom ever again because it doesn't exsist! Kudos to Susan Kay!
Rating:
Summary: PHANTASTIC!
Review: I stumbled across this masterpiece in a used book store, not knowing at the time what a priceless treasure I had just purchased. Always and enthusiastic reader, as well as a moderate POTO fan, it took only the first 10 pages to make this my absolute favorite book of all time. Susan Kay does a fabulous job of writing a story that is far too often trivialized or misrepresented. The writing is beautiful, the plot intriguing, and the characters complex and human. Erik is represented fairly, not overly romanticized nor portrayed as a cruel villain, as he often is. His whole story is told, not just that of his last year, and his character is so real that I dare any reader not to cry along with him. I cannot imagine any author improving upon Kay's rendition of this story. BEST BOOK I EVER READ!!!
Rating:
Summary: Phantom, a heart-wrenching adaptation of a classic story
Review: The movie performance of Lon Chaney ( easily the best movie portrayal of the Phantom) cannot compare to the very real very human character of Erik, the Phantom Of The Opera. Not even the original book depicts this man as such, relegating him to the shadows of movie monsterdom. "Phantom" draws this fascinating, brilliant, tortured person into someone who is almost real enough to reach out and touch. The focus builds to the climax of the kiss which Christine grants "poor, unhappy Erik." Even the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version pales in comparison.
This is a book where you put the ALW musical on the CD player, curl up in front of your hearth, a cat purring contentedly at your side and the inevitable mug of hot tea.
Easily my favorite book of all time. Its a treat and a tearjerker from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: My all-time favorite book - BEAUTIFUL!
Review: I myself just had to confirm that 99.9% of the previous reviews on this brilliant novel were absolutely dead-on correct. PHANTOM is a beautifully written, well-researched, highly intelligent, passionate, emotional insight into Erik's enigmatic life well before the familiar story. The different perspectives of the key people in Erik's life (including himself) are all eloquent as well as informative, with perfectly timed moments of humor weaved throughout. While many and most of the story's previously written versions portray Erik to be a cold-blooded monster who hunts to kill for no just cause, this book shows him merely as a lost, tormented, highly sensitive and brilliantly precocious genius. He is nothing less than human, with all the frailities and needs and desires that we all crave. You can't help but fall in love with Erik, from his spirit-damaging childhood and his terrible young life afterward, to a grown man searching for meaning and acceptance in a world which has shunned him merely because of his appearance. His path to the Paris Opera House is laced with tragedy, but you can still see the innate good deep within him even as he falters repeatedly. His resilience is tested only by his passionate love for beauty and perfection, but he proves his remarkable understanding for what is most important in life at various intervals throughout the book. This is an incredible book, a chance to see and understand the real story, a time to really get to know Erik on so many levels and experience all that he has endured, and subsequently to love him as if he were a very real person. And though he possesses unmatched genius, numerous gifts and unbelievable passions, we see a real man, a living, breathing, feeling, beautiful man who is not quite so different from the rest of us. And though a couple of people who reviewed this book conveyed their disapproval of the book's ending, I seriously loved it. There's a very witty, unexpected twist which leaves you with a sense of relief, and not to mention how it shows a more likable, respectful Raoul who isn't too proud to accept a final responsibility he had never bargained for in the first place. I've read this book well over 100 times, each time noticing something new and different, and each time noticing one constant: the never-changing theme is love, acceptance, the beauty of the human soul, and that sometimes our most outrageous dreams/fantasies will come true, even if only for a while. This book will suck you in and never let you go and even if you tried, you could never forget it's profound insight on life and love.
Rating:
Summary: Dedictated to Phantom
Review: An utmost brilliance! Unlike other versions that signifies the relationship between Christine and Raoul to be of chief importance, or embarks upon all its pages to tell the manifest mystery of the Phantom that is but a shade of the man behind the mask, this novel's intrigue distinctly focuses on our beloved Erik. It is a story that serves to be solely the account of the Opera Ghost's haunting life, extending from Western Europe to Asia Minor to trace the footsteps of such a remarkable man. In her beautiful style of writing and artistic ingenuity, the author Susan Kay is able to provide her readers with a most profound and flawless insight into the mind of Erik, his pain, his joy, his fear...to relieve us a look of all that lies beyond the mask. And through all this, the richest conveyance of a storyline is made. Never in any page does the reader lose interest, but is drawn to pursue a most splendid unfolding. Except for perhaps personal preferences on the reader's part to the way of the plot, there is nothing I can find at fault with the novel (I especially loved the ending which others have often disapproved of, finding it to be the best part). All is told a masterful way with none of the modern language to tarnish the classical tale and telling all that is enchanting without losing authenticality and all that is sensual without being indecently suggestive. A writer myself, I look to this tour de force with great respectability. Subjectively, this is the best interpretation of the Phantom legacy.
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