Our Strange Duet: Inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera

by Erin A. Craig

Christine Daaé. Her Voice. Her Story. As it's never been told before.

Our Strange Duet is a reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, told through the eyes of Christine Daaé as she rises to fame while torn between love, ambition, and the haunting secrets of the opera house, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig.

She was never just the voice he shaped . . .

A rising soprano with a gift she is only just learning to embrace, Christine Daaé has moved through the glittering world of the Opera Populaire longing to find her purpose. Instead, she finds herself caught between two men who refuse to let her slip quietly into the chorus.

One is Raoul, her childhood friend turned devoted admirer, offering her a future filled with warmth, safety, and a love that feels like sunlight. The other is a mysterious masked figure who lurks beneath the opera The Phantom. His brilliance, obsession, and dangerous devotion to nurturing Christine’s talents ignites a dark and complicated passion in her heart. As Christine’s star ascends, so does the tension between Raoul and the Phantom. She must decide who she is when the curtain falls – and what she’s willing to risk for the life she wants.

Set against the haunting, romantic world of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, Our Strange Duet allows Christine Daaé to take centre stage to tell her own story.

Erin A. Craig 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Retellings, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Gothic, Audiobook

Audible Audio

First published September 1, 2026

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig has always loved telling stories.

After getting her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan, in Theatre Design and Production, she stage managed tragic operas with hunchbacks, séances, and murderous clowns, then decided she wanted to write books that were just as spooky.

An avid reader, decent quilter, rabid basketball fan, and collector of typewriters, brass figurines, and sparkly shoes, Erin makes her home in West Michigan with her husband and daughter.

To find out more about Erin and the worlds she creates, follow @penchant4words on Instagram and Threads.

She is represented by Sarah Landis at Sterling Lord Literistic.

Reviews

[Erin Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildly excited to welcome you all to the Opera Populaire… it’s stranger than you remember it……

[Andi · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

EDIT: 120 of you! And it keeps growing... Lets shoot for the moon!

I am so glad I didn't pay a cent for this. I like to thank my friend who gave me a physical copy.

I'm not going to talk about my background with Webber and Leroux Phantom, if you know me you know me. What I am going to talk about is this book and how it is a completely different piece than the musical it is based off of. It is as if Webber spoke to Mrs. Craig and said "so I've been thinking, I absolutely hated how these bits go down in the show now that Love Never Dies is existing, can you re-write them?" And of course, she obliged to it. In changing the narrative of a few characters and rearranging events from the show, we have a book that has the outcome of Christine choosing Erik instead of Raoul.

The fact that we are using the Phantom film's Opera Populaire is bothersome.
Since the Opera Populaire is now here instead of the Garnier, the author can't seem to choose historical or fantasy. She uses the name of a cafe across from the Garnier several times but it would not be across the street from the Opera Populaire - since the Opera Populaire does not exist. This Opera Populaire is also suffering from the same issues that the Garnier has with their underground lake (however she has indicated this one gets the run off from the Seine, where the Garnier does not). Because we are adding Love Never Dies, we are also changing the time of the musical and the events at the Opera house to 1895. The author references several Russian Operas that were not popular to France until after 1900's (Eugene Onegin for one) that its as if she drew the opera out of a hat because she needed an opera to put there. Along these lines, the location of the scarf fetching has changed. In the novel the scarf fetching took place in Brittany, in here it is changed to Normandy (cannot tell if it's because we're honoring the Battle of Normandy which will take place in about 45 years). In conjunction to the use of the novel, she also chooses to give the Phantom the name Erik. The Webber musical never gives him a name, but she chooses the name Leroux has given the Phantom. She could have given him any other name but comes back to Leroux.

Those who appreciate Raoul will be not surprised (that since we are accounting for Love Never Dies) any shred of decency from Raoul is gone. Gone are Raoul's genuine care and devotion for Christine, it is replaced by liking her to that of a bauble to show off. There is also the inclusion of gambling, drinking, and the alluding to of scandalous activities. He is very superficial and quick to jump to thought without a second glance. (He also takes her to visit his now alive mother who gives her a shake down and tells her she's nothing more than a fling.)

Meg's future in Love Never Dies is heavily alluded to here. She gets jealous of Christine's suitor, the love triangle, and Christine's apparent good fortune with regards to her voice. She blows up at Christine and blames Christine for her lack of a job for six months (post chandelier fall), and then in the same breath asks Christine on how to get with the Phantom so he could make her a star. After this they are not on speaking terms until post musical events. (There is also the fact Meg becomes a dancer at Moulin Rogue because she and her mom need money.)

Mrs. Craig also rearranges events from the musical in order to fit the narrative (of Love Never Dies). Christine is told of Erik's history (not Raoul), giving her some sort of... reason... to why she makes the decision she does in the end. And what I mean by that is that Christine willingly, 100% without a doubt, chooses the Phantom. In the musical and the book, Christine chooses Erik to free Raoul because she has no other choice. In this, she chooses him because she believes genius and madness are one in the same and that if people like Mozart could be both, what makes them so different than Erik? (This is also given leverage to the fact that she does not witness the Phantom killing Joseph Buquet - his death is now up to interpretation if the Phantom killed him. Same with Piangi, too. He has five other deaths he is responsible from that were caused when he dropped the chandelier.) She is willing to go with Erik but is told to go with Raoul, leaving her upset that Erik is choosing to let her go instead.

On that same note, there is an addition of a sex scene in the form of a dream (which could be almost ambiguous) where she finds out Erik's name... to confront him of it when she's awake and when he asks how does she know she goes "I just know". (?)

There is also the fact that several songs are now real songs within the world of Opera Populaire. Music of the Night is no longer a song to the audience of the Phantom expressing his feelings for Christine, it is now a love song about Psyche and Eros in a Greek opera he is writing about. The song Masquerade is now the chorus singing a song about... a masquerade. It would have been nice to nix these additions or simply not sing them out in the text.

This book was just a really upsetting piece and so much work is being put into it thanks to the audio cast it has and the publicity it has gained (thanks to Webber's company). I felt as though I'm watching what Disney did to Star Wars only happen with Phantom. Do I like it? Not really. Can I do anything about it? No. Can I share my opinions? Of course. So here they are. It's funny that Hal Prince is given a nod in the acknowledgements where I'm pretty sure that (if alive) he would have been rolling his eyes (he was not a fan of Love Never Dies nor the changes made to the show to incorporate it before his passing). Gillian Lynne didn't get a nod, but I am sure she would have been kind of aghast seeing some of her choreography made into the text along with bits and pieces of the film.

My last bit, and probably my favorite part (and only part of this entire book) is Raoul literally gives Christine the choice of wanting to still marry him. She chooses because they seem to have undergone some shared trauma. Thus, making clear the path for Love Never Dies. So in the end, she causes her own death... funny how that all works out.

PS: Shout out to the tacky Hot Topic ring that Erik has instead of the black and gold (or silver) ring from the stage show. This one has a skull with ruby eyes, lol.

EDIT: Seeing more reviews about how accurate this is to the stage show is taking me out. Did we even see the same show? Stop. You know damn well Raoul was told the backstory by Madame Giry and not Christine. Also, Christine clearly saw the Phantom hang Joseph Buquet. Lets not whitewash his character just to get him to end up with Christine.

[S {Semi-Hiatus} · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review!*

4.25 stars!

Erin Craig is one of my favorite authors, so I was already excited to have received a copy of thid book, and a Phantom of the Opera retelling always makes me curious. Phantom of the Opera retellings are always so eerie and deliciously readable, and Our Strange Duet was exactly that. I ended up devouring it in one sitting.

The atmosphere was haunting, mysterious, romantic, and just the right amount of unsettling. Erin Craig is so good at creating dark and beautiful worlds that completely pull me in, and this book was no exception. I loved getting swept up in the story and honestly wish I could read it again for the first time.

Another Erin Craig book that I know I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
_____________________________
A Phantom of the Opera reimagining by Erin A. Craig... and I already have an advanced copy? This has to be a dream.

[Liana Gold]

Nothing like young love! This is a reimagining of Phantom of the Opera!!
A rising soprano with a gift is torn between two loves--a childhood friend and a mysterious masked figure that lurks beneath the Opera House. She must decide who she is and what she is willing to risk for the life she wants.


Many thanks to NetGalley, Random house Childrens Books/Delacorte Press and the author, Erin. E. Craig for an early copy!

Publication date: September 1, 2026

[Alex Z (azeebooks) · Rating 1 out of 5]

stop trying to make Love Never Dies happen!!!!!

(does this book canonize the fact that the phantom drinks black drip coffee? in Paris in the 1800s?)

[Monica Thomason · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a fan of the musical and I personally feel like this book doesn’t add much. I was expecting there to be something new, that changed the story of the Phantom of the Opera. Instead, I got the musical in book form.

You could argue we got more of Christine’s actual thoughts but I feel like that is portrayed when actress act the part of Christine. You SEE her indecision. Her hesitation. Every production I have seen has portrayed Christine’s complexity perfectly. I have felt like I understood her thoughts.

I just wish this book added something that changed the story, making me think a different way about the musical. But it didn’t.

[Denise Ruttan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do appreciate Erin A. Craig's writing style, though I felt lukewarm about her last book. I was, however, eager to see her take on the Phantom of the Opera from Christine's point of view, because she's been a Phan ever since 8th grade band class, and she worked in theatrical productions for a number of years. I would not say I'm a Phan, I don't have the Swiftie-levels of obsessive devotion that they do, but I'm more of a casual fan. I also saw the musical for the first time this year, so I was intrigued to try this, as this is also authorized by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Plus what a gorgeous cover.

If you're a Phan who doesn't ship anyone in particular, you ship Christine/Erik, or don't know anything about the stage production, you may enjoy this more than I did. It was basically a copy of the musical in book form with slight variations, and Raoul and Christine do end up together and until the attempted forced marriage with Erik, I felt it treated their love respectfully. The end, however, killed this for me. Christine never has any agency and never really chooses between the two men who love her. Raoul is her safe choice, and Erik is the toxic, obsessive lost puppy whom she burns for. I liked Erik in the musical because he had mystery and he had the lost puppy in spades (I love a man who's a broken lost puppy), but in this he is cruel and manipulative, and it is a darker version of him.

I didn't want Christine to end up with either of them, and in the musical I loved her choice of Raoul even if I could ship either of them. I prefer Christine/Raoul. But the way they ended up, they didn't have any passion or fire, and they just had their halcyon summer love and not the reality of living together from very different class backgrounds. Christine also gave up singing to be with him. It didn't feel like a HEA, it felt like a HEA with regrets.

My issue with a lot of m/f romance is that it centers the man in the woman's life and she can't do anything without a man taking care of her. I felt this way about this author's last book too. In my dream Christine POV, she is a stronger woman than this weak, lovesick, angsty thing who gives up her dreams for the security a man can bring, no matter whom she ultimately chooses.

I also loved the stage production because it was a play within a play, and I felt we got none of that here because we got too much of their inner thoughts. This was too straightforward of a musical in book form.

It was, however, dripping with Gothic atmosphere, the author's theatrical background really shone through, and it was full of melodrama just like the musical.

Unfortunately this was a miss for me. It just didn't quite match the magic and mystery of the stage production.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[ellie · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

— 3.5 ☆ .ᐟ 🪶 spoiler free + mini review
⤷ i cant wait to see these characters grow even more
arc

⋆˚࿔ 92nd review of the year

⌗ ꒰ my thoughts ꒱ 🎭
⤷ okay this was a really pleasant surprise! and the perf read to start my autumn month with 🤭💐 i really appreciated how fast paced, intense, and unique this book was. I need more books that have to do with theater, espc if it can be spooky hehe. ALSOO this reminded me havily of 'a stage set for villains' and ive been dreaming of finding more books with that same vibe so this was great!

unfortunately i didn't connect with the characters as MUCH as i wanted to 😭 but they its fine, you can't feel deep for everyone! in the end, im happy i got the opproitunity to read this and i will def watch the musical now 🙂‍↕️🤞 see you with my next autumn read! (THANK YOU UNDERLINED!!)

---------------

💌 — pre-read .ᐟ ⌗

𐔌 ♯┆9.21.26
⤷ happy fall yall!! so happy to be reading this and its out now! thank you underlined 🤞 i def wanna try the movie that this is based off of! (phantom of the opera)

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to see inside Christine's head and see her perspective on everything.

I know the movie of the musical was already long but I think adding some of these "extra" insights and scenes would have added to the movie even more (can't speak for the musical itself live, haven't had the pleasure of it seeing it live on stage), loved the movie and the soundtrack but the romance with Raoul ( in the movie at least), just felt really rushed and I just didn't believe it. It felt like she was just running towards comfort because she was scared and he was familiar and kind...

Getting more insight with these extra parts, I understand a bit better but still thinking my previous thoughts... my theory is she came to genuinely love him later on.

Just my humble opinion, their romance still didn't click for me.

Heard the audiobook is amazing so I will probably try that sometime in the future perhaps.

The physical hardcover is just gorgeous 😍, one of my favorite book covers ever and red ribbon bookmark just added that little extra something 👍🏼.

Would recommend, this.. ..not a retelling maybe? Not sure of the right word at the moment but it answered some things that ran through my mind on and off reading the original book, Susan Kay's book, and the movie. (Read the original book over a decade ago if remembering correctly)

Stil think Emmy Rossim was great as Christine.

[Starr ❇✌❇ · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Review to come*

[Maddie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so disappointed. I'm a huge theater kid. I was so excited for this book. I love phantom, the book looks beautiful. I was so excited.

This book is just Love Never Dies propaganda. And I'm sorry, but no one will ever convince me that Love Never Dies is good.

[Bookishness]

Soft DNF at 30%

It was gothic and enchanting with a beautifully haunting atmosphere, maybe right book wrong time!!

[Jasmine from How Useful It Is · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you PRHAudio for the complimentary audiobook! Thank you Getunderlined for the opportunity to read and review.

I loved the audiobook for this story. It has a full cast with opera singing and music. There are also audio animations. Definitely will listen to this story again.

This story followed Christine. Her dad was a famous musician but played his music at a cafe instead. He passed away early and Christine moved in with a family friend. She taught ballerinas and so her daughter Meg and Christine both are dancers at the opera house. The opera house is rumored to have been haunted by the opera ghost aka the Phantom of the Opera. He knew of Christine and took it upon himself to give her singing lessons. When the lead singer Carlotta took to the stage to play the starring role, the Phantom of the opera didn't like it and caused troubles.

Once Christine took over the starring role in the musical and sing, her fame took off. She has an amazing life with her childhood sweetheart Raoul who came to see the musical and recognized Christine as the girl he met while he was on holiday with his family.

One thing I dislike is Christine insta love with every guy she has a close contact with. She spent months with the Phantom of the opera Eric for her singing lessons and became desperate for him and his touch. But when Raoul showed up in her life, she also became desperately in love with him. The second thing I don't like about Christine is her quick decision to toss her dreams of singing aside as soon as the possibilities of being a wife seems better. Before that, she said her dreams were to sing when she was a dancer. She changed her love for guys and careers as fast as the weather.

Other than that, the story was good. Raoul sounds like a good guy only exists in books who shower his love with clothes, flowers, vacation, and all happiness money can buy. He seems to earn his money through gambling.

The French pronunciation in this audiobook is awesome. The deluxe edition of this book is gorgeous!

[Alιce ♥♠]

ahh so very excited about this 🥀

[Nenia Campbell]

Just inject it into my veinsssss

[MillennialMomReading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely obsessed with this one on audio! Phantom of the Opera was my first Broadway show experience as a teenager, and this did not disappoint. I LOVED the deep dive into Christine’s psyche by getting to hear HER voice in it. The audiobook production is amazing-it’s a full cast performance with music included and I truly feel like this book should be experienced this way by everyone. If you love Phantom, you need this. If you love immersive audiobook productions but haven’t seen Phantom, go read a synopsis of Phantom and THEN listen to this. So good!

[MyNeverEndingTBRList · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really struggling with how to rate this one...

The audiobook was amazing. I loved the full audio production, especially having the songs playing in the background while listening. It really made the experience feel special.

However, I have seen the movie and the stage musical many, many times, and I went into this expecting a retelling with different twists and a fun new take on a story I already love. Unfortunately, I just don't feel like this added anything new for me.

I think Craig is extremely talented, and I have really enjoyed her other books, which is probably why I feel so torn about this one. I wanted to love it more than I did.

3 stars

[Kenzie Deerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

SOBBING BC I STILL WANTED THE ENDING TO BE DIFFERENT😭😭😭😭😭 I love Phantom so much I can’t even contain myself. I wish this book was longer!!!

[Mikey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Our Strange Duet by Erin A. Craig! As someone who loves The Phantom of the Opera, I was so excited to read a reimagining that puts Christine Daaé at the center of the story, and this book did not disappoint.

I loved getting to experience the story through Christine and seeing more of her thoughts, emotions, dreams, and ambitions. Instead of simply being caught between Raoul and the Phantom, Christine truly feels like the heart of the story. Her complicated feelings toward both men made the romance even more interesting. Raoul represents warmth, safety, and the possibility of a happy future, while the Phantom brings this darker, mysterious, obsessive connection that makes their relationship so fascinating.

The atmosphere was probably one of my favorite things about the book. The Opera House felt beautiful, glamorous, mysterious, and haunting all at once. Erin A. Craig really captured that gothic feeling I wanted from a Phantom of the Opera retelling. There were moments where I could practically picture the stage, the costumes, the candlelight, the hidden passageways beneath the Opera House, and of course, the Phantom lurking somewhere in the shadows.

I also really enjoyed watching Christine grow throughout the story. She isn’t just someone’s love interest or the beautiful soprano with an incredible voice. This is her story, and I loved watching her discover what she wants for herself while dealing with love, ambition, fame, and everything happening around her.

One thing I highly recommend is listening to The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack while reading this book! It made the entire experience so much better for me. Having songs like “The Phantom of the Opera,” “The Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You,” and “The Point of No Return” playing while I read made certain scenes feel even more dramatic and emotional. It almost felt like I was watching the musical while reading the book.

Our Strange Duet was romantic, gothic, emotional, atmospheric, and beautifully haunting. I really loved and enjoyed this book, and I didn’t want to leave the world of the Opera House when it was over. If you’re a fan of The Phantom of the Opera, gothic romance, or retellings that give familiar characters a chance to tell their own story, I definitely recommend picking this one up.

An easy 5 stars for me!

[Cleopatra · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a horrible book. It is a terrible, awful ridiculously bad book. I can't get enough words in the English language to describe the disappointment and frustration I had while reading this. I got this as a free audiobook (which to be fair the musicality and production value was excellent) with my Spotify subscription and I want my mother fucking money back. This also was recommended to me as an Erikstine book, and I need to hunt down the liars who fooled me into wasting 14 hours of my life on this sack of shit.

Spoilers ahead.

So this is a retelling of Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, mostly the 2004 movie/theatre production with some reference details from Gaston Lareaux's original novel, which is fine until you start reading.

What happens is that a vast majority of the events in this novel occur as if the screenplay was put into a blender with some dog shit and then blended up together so that what comes out is the screenplay made worse by the dog shit and also out of order because of the blender.

This is a retelling from the perspective of Christine. Christine is an exceptionally uninteresting character. I don't mean that as in Andrew Lloyd Webber made her uninteresting. Christine is 16 in the movie but aged up in Our Strange Duet to 20 or something like that. But this Christine is just boring! Her internal monologues go on for a thousand goddamn years and they are exhausting because they are all the same. If she's talking about Raul she needs to repeat that fucking scarf story every single fucking time. And when she talks about Erik, she has to say how scared and troubled and how the Phantom, her Angel of music, is just a man and he's a MAD man. Oh my God it is so fucking exhausting.

Oh and take a goddamn shot every time Christine says something and then someone takes so long to respond "she fears they did not hear her." My god. Also beautific, so overused.

So the first five to ten chapters are pretty good at setting up Erikstine (Phantom x Christine). You get to see the Phantom, we get a really good time of setting these characters up to be the promised ending. It's great and then we get to the Music of the Night scene which falls a little short in my opinion, and after that point is where everything goes to fucking shit.

After Music of the Night we have this horrible rearrangement of conversations and events we have il muto where Christine has to play the page boy and the chandelier falling scene all in one! in this book those two events happen at the same time! Christine does not see the flyman get hanged by Erik and instead she runs with Raul up to the roof and they have their All I Ask of You conversation and it's so bad. It's Christine still of the belief that the Phantom, Erik, is an angel and not like a man and then somehow this whole event makes her connect the dots that Erik, the Opera Ghost and Erik, Her Angel of Music, are one and the same and then she and Raul go on vacation.

And when I tell you that about 45% of this fucking book is Christine and Raul on fucking vacation. I'm not joking. This book is so centered on Christine and Raul. I want my money back and this was free!!! I was told that this was for the Erikstine girls. So from here we get just endless, endless fucking internal monologue from Christine. How she loves Raul and Raul loves her and all the conversations are just them saying they love each other but there's no real development of that. We're just told that they love each other so much and so they do and it falls very flat. There's some adoring words that Raul says that even I, someone who fucking hates Raul, will say that make me think "Oh maybe you're not that much of an asshole." But that's about as far as the depth goes.

Genuinely the most depth this fucking book had was Carlotta's conversation with Christine near the end about aging and success and it was probably the first time Christine's depth had any time to shine. Her every thought is on Raul or Erik and even when her 'ambition' is shoehorned in to try and give her some autonomy, it's ripped away with her happily willing to stop dancing and singing to be Raul's wife. Like holy shit. I fucking hate this book.

We return back to the Opera House and we have the Masquerade. Here's a little bit of the retelling where Raul is pretty dismissive of Christine's feelings, but it's not really that horrible. It's annoying but like it's kind of whatever you know, it's not compared to how they made Erik seem way creepier and nastier than in the movie.

So then we get to the masquerade ball. It's a whole thing when Christine sees Erik and it's like "oh my God. My angel is a man and whoa. It's The Phantom of the Opera!" and she feels something tingly in her chest, and oh the music! We made beautiful music together but not that way! And then he disappears and she hates him again for some reason. Christine at every given moment hates the Phantom and just says how much she's so scared of him and wants him gone and doesn't want her in her life and is so scared that she and Raul will never ever ever be able to have a good life without him lurking in the shadows!

Then there's the conversation about whether they're going to make the Phantom's Opera an actual production and they do. And Raul is like Christine. You must sing and then he gets all like weird and evil about getting the gendarmes involved. And it's so silly how Christine is like. Oh my God, Raul wants to kill the Phantom, that's intolerable! Like GURL YOU KEEP SAYING YOU WANT HIM GONE AND NEVER AGAIN IN YOUR LIFE AND HES A MADMAN WHO WONT EVER GIVE UP WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?!

So she goes to her dad's grave and Erik plays the violin while she's there and she confuses that as her father coming back from the grave or from heaven or whatever. And then she and EriK have like a two-second conversation before Raul fucking interrupts them! And then Raul gets hurt by fighting the Phantom. It's not quite the sword fight like in the movie but you know, and then Christine is like "all the feelings I ever had for my angel turned to ash in my heart." Like bro, CMON WHO TOLD ME THIS WAS FOR THE ERIKSTINE GIRLIES WE NEED TO FUCKING TALK. Anyway, and she spends the rest of the book fucking hating him up until the last little bit which I'll get to.

So she hates Erik so so much but when they start back practicing for the Phantom's Opera because she decides to do it to, I don't know, save Raul or some shit like that? and she can't get it right so she summons Erik to her and I am fucking livid because we spent 15 chapters with her and Raul on vacation. But when it comes to actual interactions between Christine and the Phantom we get a GODDAMN FUCKING time skip(!!!!!!) when Christine asks for his fucking help. Oh my God I want my money back. It's so stupid.

After this we get Point of No Return. It's great and then Erik kidnaps Christine again after she rips the mask off and she's in a wedding dress now and they have this whole fucking argument about how she will never love him. He's the worst and he's killed people and just fucking stupid back and forth. They're yelling at each other and then Raul shows up.

Phantom puts him in a fucking noose and Christine has to choose between them and for some fuck ass reason (god this book is so bad) it explicitly states that Christine has an internal monologue for about 100 years while Raul is almost dying and it's about how Raul had always been her hero running into the ocean to get her scarf AGAIN and how he's a hero always protecting her and now SHE must be the hero.

And if you want your """"feminist"""retelling to be dog shit, have the book explicitly tell you the moment she needs to be the hero instead of just doing anything other than that to make it actually good.

So then Christine discovers that she loves the Phantom. She loves the Phantom and she's going to abandon her life and all of her friends and Raul to be with the man that she loves. The one who makes her heart sing! Now where the fuck did that come from and did that come from the time skip? the 3 weeks we didn't get to see? where we didn't get to see her emotions develop or grow? Did that come from her watching Eric almost murder Raul? WHERE do those feelings come from? You know where the fuck do they come from?!?!?!

So from here we get Christine choosing Erik for some fuckass reason and then what we get is her kissing him and Erik having such a big Grinch size change of heart that he decides to be a good person and to let her go free with Raul so that she may live a life that she deserves. Adorable sentiment, and so they go and that's basically the end of the book and it's really bad, it's really, really fucking bad. The end.

[meg ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall Rating: 2 stars

Characters: 3 stars
Setting: 2.5 stars
Plot: 3 stars
Themes: 2 stars
Personal Enjoyment: 2 stars
Emotional Impact: 2 stars

Would I recommend this book? No

As a huge fan of the stage production and the 2004 Phantom of the Opera film, I was convinced this retelling was going to feel like it was made for me. I am so disappointed to report that I was wrong in that assumption. Though I pictured Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, and Patrick Wilson in my head for much of the book, even that could not keep me invested in this story.

Unfortunately, my biggest struggle with “Our Strange Duet” was the pacing. Too much time was spent on Christine's internal monologue and there were numerous scenes that didn't feel as though they advanced the plot in any meaningful way. Much of the new material also felt like filler between recognizable moments from the original story, which made it increasingly difficult for me to maintain interest. I found myself struggling to pick the book up, and by the final quarter, I was skimming simply to reach the conclusion.

The retelling itself was a mixed experience. The familiar pieces worked largely because I already loved the source material. The author successfully recreated or borrowed enough recognizable moments that I could easily picture the stage production and the 2004 film playing in my head as I read. Unfortunately, the adaptation felt strongest when it was leaning on the story I already loved, while the newly developed material wasn't compelling enough to make me invested in this particular interpretation of it.

The romance was similarly complicated for me. Christine and Raoul's lack of chemistry didn't necessarily bother me on its own, since the story clearly intends for their relationship to contrast sharply with Christine's connection to Erik. Raoul and Christine's history stems largely from a brief summer romance when they were teenagers, and their relationship felt appropriately surface-level as a result. The book was very clear about how differently Christine felt about Erik, describing the way he could set her aflame in a way Raoul never could. Their shared love of music, emotional intimacy, and Erik's intense obsession with Christine were all intended to create that sense of a powerful, almost consuming connection. I understood what the story was trying to establish, but unfortunately, knowing Christine was supposed to feel that intensity didn't always make me feel it alongside her.

I also struggled to connect with Christine as a character. At times, her decisions felt irrational, naive, or inconsistent, and while the story generally provided explanations for her motivations, I didn't always find those motivations emotionally convincing. I could understand why Christine was making a particular choice without necessarily understanding why she would feel compelled to make it, which made it difficult for me to be invested in her journey.

On a more positive note, I don't think the author's writing style itself was the issue for me. On a sentence-by-sentence level, I found the prose perfectly readable, and there were certainly moments where the writing was effective. My problem was that the storytelling never managed to hold my attention. I was rarely eager to find out what would happen next, rarely felt a sense of urgency, and ultimately found the reading experience much more of a chore than I had hoped.

By the time I reached the end, I felt both relieved and disappointed. Relieved to finally have reached the conclusion, but disappointed that so much of the story ultimately led to such a lackluster payoff. Most notably, Christine's ending did not feel particularly satisfying to me. Even while contemplating wedding flowers, she was still looking for Erik everywhere she went, which made it difficult to believe that she was genuinely content with the life she had chosen. Rather than feeling like a meaningful resolution to the emotional conflict at the heart of the story, the ending left me feeling that Christine was settling rather than finding happiness.

Ultimately, I think this book simply wasn't the Phantom retelling I was hoping it would be. There are elements here that I appreciated, particularly the recognizable moments from the original story and the author's ability to recreate some of that familiar atmosphere, but they weren't enough to overcome the pacing and characterization issues that made this such a difficult read for me. As someone who came into this with a deep love for the story and film that inspired it, I truly wanted to fall in love with this interpretation. Unfortunately, I spent far more time trying to get through it than enjoying the journey.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Special thanks to Random House, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for providing an eARC.

[Jenni Howell]

Oh my GOSH I was wandering around the house reading this obsessively and singing to myself. The lyrics to my favorite Phantom songs are embedded so seamlessly into this book that sometimes I was humming the tune before I even realized why. A stunning dive into Christine's story, and a must-read for all Phantomheads!

[Sarah Brewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just phantom of the opera fan fiction from someone that wants Christine and the phantom together

[Madisyn Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read too many enemies to lovers because why was i desperate for the ending to change and for her to end up with the phantom🙃
the vibes were peak! super gothic and a lot like the movie, but it still felt fresh and interesting.
the first half i was HOOKED. i read a lot super quickly but at about the half way mark i started losing steam and getting a litttle bit bored. but i really loved the ending so i’m sticking with four stars!
if you’re a phantom fan this is a must read! also, listening to the soundtrack while listening was amazing. there are lyrics from the songs dispersed throughout which made it super fun.
🔥SPICE🔥a lot of lust and an explicit foreplay scene shown.
🤐NO STRONG LANGUAGE🤐

[Avery]

I looooooooooooove phantom of the opera and I saw this in the story and then the pretty drawings and I had to 😩

[Fifi’s Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a MUST read for Phantom fans. This was so good I stayed up until 3 reading it and I’ve missed unputdownable books like that! As someone who’s read basically everything Erin has written (I love her brand of dark fairytales) I knew she was perfect for writing Christine’s story. This perfectly captures Christine’s naivety, her innocence, her goodness, her softer and more understated type of strength.

I mean, I have my hyperfixation characters that I don’t stray from. Namely characters I feel like I can relate to. Snow White, Juliet Capulet, Winnie Foster, and yes, Christine Daae. These four characters are somewhat similar, in that they all radiate gentleness, naivety, sweetness, and youthful innocence. And this book brought to life Christine’s persona very well. It felt very much true to her.

I went into this thinking this would make it clear that Love Never Dies is canon in this book’s universe (based on other reviews I read) but after reading the ending, now I’m not so sure. I hope it’s not. Because that would be super depressing. Anyways.

This book makes you feel the same way the play does. The tone, the atmosphere, it’s all so true to the play. Erin captured Phantom’s aesthetic perfectly. I loved getting to know one of my hyperfixation characters even better. I want mooooooore

[Madilynn G.]

DNF (audiobook): A 13-year-old on Tumblr can write better fan fiction than this, and for free too.

The book’s beautiful cover, voice cast full of well-known Broadway actors and actresses, and its careful inclusion of the musical’s score are impressive on a purely sensory level. Ironically, like the Phantom’s mask, it’s all just a pretty facade.

•


TL;DR
In this age of illiteracy we (Americans) are currently in, simplifying stories down to their most basic and trite themes and components does not bode well with me.

•

I am obliged to share my thoughts even though I DNF’ed, because I am very opinionated and very particular when it comes to Phantom-related things.

- THE EPIGRAPH: “The Phantom of the Opera is about love. It’s as simple as that.” This really told me all I need to know about where this book was headed. Turns out, the love this epigraph refers to is, of course, the romantic tension between the Phantom and Christine — which is totally healthy, laudable, and the pinnacle of true love, guys!!! /s

- Within the first five minutes, I read one of the worst sentences I’ve read in recent memory: “[The mirror] was an enormous behemoth, taking up an entire section of the room and towering over me like a giant.” Seriously, how did that get past the editor???

Revealing the Phantom’s true name in the prologue was certainly … a choice. I’m imagining reading this as someone who had little exposure to Phantom before this book, their sense of suspense and mystery ruined because they learn the infamous “Opera Ghost” and “Angel of Music” is actually just some dude named Erik. Names have power, and choosing to reveal this one so early humanized the Phantom in a way that was anti-climactic rather than impactful.

[RavenCantRead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our Strange Duet

Erin A. Craig does it again! A masterful and beautifully written gothic YA retelling of The Phantom of the Opera from the perspective of our beloved heroine Christine Daae!

When I first heard that Erin was given the reins for this story I was THRILLED! Nobody does atmospheric/gothic YA like Erin A Craig! And you know when ALW gives someone the helm to help expand this story…you can trust that judgement!

This is so beautifully done! Christine’s story is expanded on, her relationship with Raoul and her life before the Opera Populair. We also get to know the inner workings of her mind and her complicated feelings surrounding Erik, The Phantom, her Angel of Music. We see her conflict, her desire and confusion, the feelings of betrayal but her reaction to his music. It’s all written so beautifully while still maintaining the naive and optimistic voice that a woman like Christine would have.

Erin also does a magnificent job of intertwining the lyrics from the show throughout without it feeling heavy handed or like I’m just reading the lyric book. There are even a few nods to Love Never Dies (iykyk) that I screeched at!

If you are like me and are a HUGH Phan of Phantom of the Opera this will tick all the right boxes! I laughed (the managers keep their whimsy) I cried (the monkey music box makes his appearance) and I immediately put on the 25th anniversary and laughed and cried some more!

Thank you so much to Penguins Random House Childrens Books / Delacorte Press and Erin A Craig for the e-ARC, you’ve made this theatre kids heart soar!

[Kyle Webb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, which I was so excited for!

Unfortunately, the way this book is being marketed is doing it a huge disservice. Our Strange Duet is billed as a reimagining of The Phantom of the Opera from Christine’s perspective, except it’s actually just the musical in written form. If you’ve already seen The Phantom of the Opera, there’s no need to read this book. You already know the entire story. There’s nothing reimagined about it except for a little more (incredibly dull) backstory on Christine. But even those things are things that are already hinted at in the musical.

It’s also not nearly as compelling as the stage show. It’s categorized as YA but the writing level feels middle grade and frankly I was bored. I’m so so bummed because I thought this had so much potential based on how it was described. Feels like a big bait and switch.

[CBW · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the love letter to phantom of the opera I desperately needed. It’s a gorgeous combination of both the musical and the film that adds extra elements that expands on the characters and helps make some of their decisions make so much more sense. Getting a peak into Christine’s mind and seeing how her thoughts play into her choices was such a joy. I read this book while listening to instrumentals of the soundtrack and it was everything to me. I wish I could put into words how much I enjoyed this book. Plus for the hardcore fans, it leads to the set up of Love Never Dies, letting the Christine and Erik fans have their moment of knowing what comes next.