Stagestruck Vampires: And Other Phantasms
by Suzy McKee Charnas
List Price:
Our Price: $8.34
You Save: $6.61 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Suzy McKee CharnasEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-31
ISBN: 1892391392
Number of pages: 328
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Book Reviews of Stagestruck Vampires: And Other Phantasms
Book Review: "Beauty and the Opera" - The Best of the Lot
Summary: 4 Stars
Beauty and the Op?ra (a.k.a. The Phantom Beast) is actually a short story amidst a conglomeration of other works published in a book entitled Stagestruck Vampires and Other Phantasms. I read most of the other stories and stopped reading because, quite frankly, they're not my cup of tea. In my opinion, Beauty and the Op?ra was the best of the lot. For those looking for a review of the entire anthology, you may want to stop here. This review is aimed at those "Phantom of the Opera" fans who are considering the book for this story alone.
Written in the first person, it is many years after the incidents at the Paris Opera House had taken place and Christine recounts the true story of what had happened between her and the Phantom.
During Christine's first performance of Faust, she suddenly felt a pair of powerful arms enfold her as she dropped through a trap door into the depths of the Opera House. From there, the Phantom carried her through his labyrinth, across the lake on a small boat, and into the confines of his lair.
While there, he asks her to live with him in the city above as his wife. When she becomes evasive, he not only reveals his terrible deformity but he also confesses all that he has done to bring her to this end (i.e., Buquet's murder, the falling of the chandalier to name a few). He then tells her that her lover, the Vicomte's, life depends upon her answer this night. Thus saying, he opens a curtain to a window which reveals Raoul lashed to a chair in which he was vainly struggling to free himself.
In Ms. Charnas' version, Christine, though very young, is not altogether na?ve nor as pliable as the Phantom would have liked. She agrees to his terms, but with one condition. She will live with him for the duration of 5 years, after which time he must free her. As he considers her proposal, Raoul challenges the Phantom to a fight from the confines of his prison.
Enraged, the Phantom accuses Christine of lying to him, that she was merely playing games in order to free her precious Vicomte. When she protests her innocence, the Phantom challenges her to prove it. As proof, she takes his hideous head into her hands and kisses him passionately.
The Phantom then relents, telling her that he will release Raoul and that he will "submit my hatreds to your authority." But he informs her that she must marry him first, as he will not allow her reputation to be marred and so that there will be "no misunderstanding" as to his expectations of her as his wife.
Christine agrees - but she refuses to live with him in the city above. They must make their home in the cellars of the opera house where he has lived for so many years.
While the Phantom carries Raoul's prone body to freedom, Christine considers her promise. Believing that once freed Raoul will gather the citizenry to release her, she is certain that she will not be condemned to fulfill her side of the bargain with the Phantom.
But over the ensuing days and weeks, Raoul doesn't return to rescue her, and she finally has to face the realization that for the next 5 years, she belongs to the Phantom amidst their strange agreement. While he is her master in music, she is his master of conscience.
Outside of Susan Kay's Phantom, this is one of the few published phics that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. While Ms. Charnas' story doesn't delve much into the Phantom's past, it does give us an excellent view of his character. She provides an interesting and believable Phantom. Christine, though young, stands up to the man who would bend her to his will if given the chance. The story of this dubious couple dwelling in the recesses of the Phantom's labyrinth for the 5 years that Christine promised is compelling and endearing. To those of you who detest a whiny, immature, and frightened Christine, I'm sure you'll like Ms. Charnas' version much better. I love how she ends her story:
"Awaiting my own exit, I live my days in this brash and cynical present as other people do. But I nourish my soul on the sweet pangs of looking back, more than forty years now, to the time when the Op?ra Ghost and I lived together underground, in a candlelit world of passion and music.
"I have thought of writing an opera about it, but time seems short and I know my limitations. Someone else will write it, someday. They will get the story wrong, of course; but perhaps, all the same, the music will be right."
Given the proliferation of less than adequate self-published POTO fics out there, I would recommend this book (yes, just for this one story) to any POTO fan/collector who truly enjoys GOOD Phantom-based fiction.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in The Ultimate Phantom of the Opera Source List
The Phantom of the Opera (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2005-05-03; DVD
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Phantoms Don't Drive Sports Cars (The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids, #32)by Debbie Dadey, Marcia T. Jones
Scholastic Paperbacks; Published: 1998-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
![Phantom of the Opera [VHS] Image](/images/Phantom-of-the-Opera-VHS-1578482461-X.jpg)
Phantom of the Opera [VHS]Allumination; Release date: 2000-07-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $4.90
Price in other shops:
Batman: Masqueby Mike Grell
DC Comics; Published: 1997-11; Comic; Book
Best price: $4.33
Price in other shops:
Night Magicby Charlotte Vale Allen
Island Nation Press; Published: 1997-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.48
Price in other shops:
David Spencer, Rob Barron - Phantom Of The Opera: Theatreworks/ USA Original Musical ProductionRelease date: 2006-03-21; Music CD
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops:
Stagestruck Vampires: And Other Phantasmsby Suzy McKee Charnas
Tachyon Publications; Published: 2006-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops:
Masque Of The Swan (Denise Little Presents)by Rebecca Ashe
Pinnacle; Published: 1996-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.80
Maskeradeby Terry Pratchett
HarperTorch; Published: 1998-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
The Phantom LoverRelease date: 2001-01-16; DVD
Best price: $234.99
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Vampires at the Operaby Christine Prebler
L & L Dreamspell; Published: 2007-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.13
Price in other shops:
Letters to Erik: The Ghost's Love Storyby An Wallace
Outskirts Press; Published: 2008-01-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.93
Price in other shops:
Madrigal: A novel of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Operaby Jennifer Linforth
Highland Press; Published: 2008-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.39
Price in other shops:
Phantom Variationsby H. D. Kingsbury
Lulu.com; Published: 2008-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.71
Price in other shops:
The Return of the Phantom: Le Couer Loyalby Etienne de Mendes
AuthorHouse; Published: 2007-06-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.97
Price in other shops:
The Vampire Tapestryby Suzy McKee Charnas
Orb Books; Published: 2008-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.52
Price in other shops:
The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. WatsonW.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 1995-03-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.39
Price in other shops:
Impact Parameter: And Other Quantum Realitiesby Geoffrey A. Landis
Golden Gryphon Press; Published: 2001-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.05
Price in other shops:
The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.80
Price in other shops:
The Phantom Returnsby Stefanie Cole
JimSam Inc.; Published: 2007-10-24; Perfect Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.56
Price in other shops: