Review: RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

Title: RoseBlood

Author: A.G. Howard

Publisher: Amulet Books

My rating: 2 stars

Well, that was disappointing.

Let's take a moment to consider how much I was looking forward to reading this book. I LOVE the Phantom of the Opera, so when I saw that this book was a retelling of it, I was thrilled.

RoseBlood follows the story of Rune Germaine, a teenager with an inhumanly beautiful voice. Rune has been able to flawlessly sing even the hardest opera arias since she was a child, but her gift has a price: it compels her to break out into song at random and drains her completely of her energy whenever she sings. After a tragedy, Rune's mother sends her away to RoseBlood Conservatory, an elite musical academy for highschoolers, rumored to have ties to the legendary Phantom of the Opera.

At RoseBlood, Rune finds herself the victim of many terrifying and vicious pranks. She is also being haunted by a mysterious young man with a violin who watches her and appears in her dreams. He is Thorn, son of the Phantom of the Opera, who is planning a terrible fate for Rune.

As Rune and Thorn grow closer, they realize that they have a special connection, but they must fight against the evil phantom, or Rune will lose her voice and her livelihood forever.

I was really, really hoping I would enjoy this book, but sadly, it left me disappointed.

The first comment I must make about this book is that it's incredibly boring. It took me more than a week to read it, and by the end, I was practically skimming because I just wanted it to end.

The plot unfolds at a sluggish pace. Nearly everything that took place was anticlimactic. There are two points of view, Rune's and Thorn's. Because of Thorn's point of view, I always knew what he and the phantom were planning for Rune, so none of the pranks or hauntings were scary or exciting. Rune's point of view bounced back and forth between her describing relevant things in the story, and spouting useless, boring drivel about clothes, food, knitting, and dumb drama between her classmates, who were so boring and flat that I didn't even care.

This was the kind of sluggish, thick prose that made me want to fall asleep while reading. I had to reread passages over and over again just to understand because my brain was so bored. The character's emotions and reactions seemed delayed, like everything was happening in slow motion.

I also had huge issues with how much "telling" there was, rather than "showing" in the plot. Literally, the author would skip over important events in the book and then recount them later, including passages that should have provided important character development. For example, Rune learns how to control her powers and prevent fatigue seemingly overnight, and the author skips over most of it.

As for how the author reinterpreted the Phantom of the Opera story, personally, I didn't really like it. I didn't feel like she really added anything new or exciting to the story. The truth behind Rune's powers was almost like something from a cheap YA paranormal romance. I suppose this is more of a matter of personal preference, but I don't feel it did the story of the Phantom justice.

To me most of the characters were flat. Rune was your typical heroine with powers who is sad and doesn't like having a special talent. She seems to have no dreams, convictions, or desires in life. There is nothing about her that stands out at all.

The other characters were equally boring. Despite his sexy French accent and the fact that he's basically the son of the phantom of the opera, I wasn't the least bit interested in Thorn. He was supposed to "love" Rune, but he couldn't stop lying to her, and because the author failed to give him any realistic emotions, I could not sympathize with his decisions. 

The rest of the characters were like filler characters: they existed simply for the sake of existing. Rune instantly became friends with an assortment of classmates, who were at times humorous, but I couldn't help but get the feeling that the author was trying to trick me into thinking they were actually memorable and important.

I could almost laugh at how the author tried to create "drama" between Rune and the rest of her classmates. There's one part where Rune says, "This place isn't just an opera house, it's an opera: unrequited love, jealous rivals, personalities, stalkers, sabotage, and vandalism." LOL. Listen. I know about operas, and this book is nothing like an opera plot. If this were an opera, there'd be 2+ love triangles, multiple cases of mistaken identity, murders, suicides, adultery, evil spells, conniving queens/kings/nobles, evil witches/wizards, outlandish pranks, and possibly angry gods/monsters intervening. This book is far too dull and tame to be compared to an opera.

Similarly, the romance was boring and anticlimactic. Rune and Thorn are basically "soulmates", although the author uses a fancier term for it. The author took the "soulmates" thing as an excuse to not build any actual romantic tension between Rune and Thorn. We are simply supposed to believe that they're totally in love because the author tells us. Much of the development of their relationship was skipped over.

This is the kind of romance writing that I absolutely hate. It was instalove, except even more boring than usual. There's no tension in their relationship, no development, no real connection between them. What should have been an epic romance was instead clichéd and dull.

I gave this book 2 stars, rather than one, because I think there were some good ideas. Some, I guess? I liked some of the concepts, but I felt they were all executed badly.

In sum, this book was badly paced and boringly written. If you're going to write a Phantom of the Opera retelling, I expect magic. I expect heartbreak, tragedy, intrigue, mystery, and passion. And unfortunately, this book lacked all of the above. This was a big disappointment.

Ok folks! The official review is over! But if you want more, I couldn't help but include a section on some of the inaccuracies in the way the author wrote about opera singing. So if you're gonna keep reading, get ready for some pointless nitpicking! I'm mostly writing this up for fun. I am a classical singer myself, so I have a lot of expertise on the subject.

None of these things really negatively affected my view of the book, because I know these details are totally minute, but I'm feeling nitpicky and unreasonable, so here goes :)

The biggest, most glaring error was the fact that the teens as RoseBlood were performing the opera The Fiery Angel by Sergei Prokofiev.

Ok. FULL STOP. Trust me, The Fiery Angel is the LAST opera that teenagers would ever perform. Like, ever. Lemme talk about a few things here to explain this:

Firstly, teens actually really don't sing opera. Though teenagers who plan to pursue careers in opera usually take classical voice lessons in high school, it's generally frowned upon for them to perform actual opera repertoire (meaning songs and scenes from operas). A young singer who was more advanced might be allowed to perform a simple piece from an opera, usually from a composer like Mozart who wrote music for lighter voices, but high-schoolers would never perform a full-length opera. Especially not Prokofiev!

This is because in classical singing, it's extremely important for young singers to not attempt repertoire that's too difficult. Singing very advanced repertoire at a young age can cause the voice to develop abnormally, or completely ruin a voice. Operatic voices actually take decades of training to develop fully--for most female singers, vocal maturity isn't reached until around age 30. So really, high school is like step negative-one in classical singing. Operas like The Fiery Angel are written for fully mature voices, not teen voices that have just begun to develop! It's unlikely that any high-schooler would even physically be able to sing the music from an opera like this, unless they had unusual vocal maturity.

I suppose in Rune's case, it made sense because she was supernaturally gifted. But in the case of the other singers? No way.

A credible teacher would NEVER give repertoire like The Fiery Angel to a high-school student. Honestly, these RoseBlood people sound like shady hacks to me. Who allowed them to open a music conservatory??

Now, the second thing: Let's talk a bit more about this specific opera. The Fiery Angel by Sergei Prokofiev is very seldom performed. Why? Because it's an extremely strange tale that includes sexual hysteria, demonic possession, and cannibalism. Not stuff most people would want teens to perform, don't you think?

It's basically about a woman named Renata who has been possessed by an angel since childhood. Renata became infatuated with the angel and asked him to come to her as a human so that they could be together. Though the angel was angry about her demand, he agreed. Soon after, Renata met a Count, and believing he was her angel, she married him. However, the count quickly abandoned her.

Fueled by sexual hysteria, Renata became obsessed with finding the angel and embarked on a quest with an errant knight to find him. Ultimately, she discovered that the man she married was not, in fact, her angel. Losing hope, Renata joined a convent to cleanse herself of hysteria. Renata is deemed by the leaders of the convent to be demonically possessed, but when they try to exocise her, all the nuns become possessed, and Renata is sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Not exactly a happy tale, huh? When performed it's sometimes listed as an "adults only" performance.

Not to mention, the music is extremely bizarre. Listen to a few minutes of it on Youtube and you'll know what I mean! The composer purposefully made it chaotic and dissonant to match the troubling story of the opera. Not to mention, it is very challenging music to sing and perform, and I sincerely doubt even a college student, much less a teen would be able to execute it properly.

I understand that the subject matter of the opera kind of went with the theme of the book, but it's still inaccurate! 

I think that's all for my little rant. Please excuse my shameless snobbery and perfectionism (What can I say? It comes from being a singer). If you've read this far, thanks for reading this silly rant!

I hope you're reading something good right now, and I'll see you in my next post!

Stay bookish,

Kitty

Note: Hi there! If you've noticed, I've been MIA for a while. That's because I was busy finishing school, and then I was on vacation. Now I'm back, and hopefully I'll be posting more this summer. See ya then!