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.

“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.

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.

“I am the Channe Opera House Ghost. Bearer of nightmares. And just as worthy to walk under an open sky as anyone else.”

At birth, Isda was considered a monster. She was ruled unworthy of life because of her deformed face, an indicator that she was a gravoir, someone capable of manipulating people’s memories as they sang. But she was rescued from death, hidden away, and raised by Cyril, the owner of an opera house. While she must remain hidden in the shadows, she is well cared for and, in return, she uses her ability to keep Cyril in business. When a young man with an enchanting voice is hired on as the opera house’s janitor, Isda’s safe, secluded world welcomes a risky change and, with that, threats she’d never imagined.

I adored this book. It was imaginative, meaningful, and beautifully written, packed with drama, romance, horror and action. I was mesmerized by the story, so pulled in that I found myself audibly urging distressing scenes not to happen. (They didn’t listen!). There were moments that made my heart flutter with happiness mingled with moments that tore it apart.

One of my favorite explorations in books is the notion that the monster isn’t always as obvious as we think. Olson did a wonderful job embracing and illustrating that theme throughout the story. While this was rooted in fantasy, it says something honest and challenging about humanity and it does so in a heartbreaking way.

The chemistry between Emeric and Isda was magical. I truly appreciated the slow relationship building, which led to an authentic connection. I was completely in love with these characters, both separately and together.

I had not expected to feel this way about Sing Me Forgotten. I went in hoping for a fun read that might warrant four stars in the end. Instead, this will haunt my memory for a very long time and is, undoubtedly, at the peak of my mountain of favorites.

While the Phantom of the Opera influence exists, Sing Me Forgotten is seductively unique and compelling. It brings fragments of the original’s inspiration into the tale, but proves alluring in its own special way. If any aspect of this book appeals to you, I urge you to get your hands on a copy as soon as you are able!

I am immensely grateful to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for my digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Sing Me Forgotten is available for preorder and will be published on March 9, 2021.

What a great book! I loved this gender-swapped Phantom and could NOT put it down. The magic woven through the book was incredible and I think Olson nailed her debut!

4.2/5 stars

'But that's the problem with believing. It doesn't guarantee truth'
-Isda


What a heart-wrenching, heart breaking ending! That last scene/part when Isda walked away in that terrible weather, with all those injuries and all kept lingering in my mind! I can't help but be reminded by a lot of the kdramas I've watched when she and Emeric said their goodbyes that way!

I don't regret reading this book at all and I strongly demand a book 2!! I need the to know what happens next!

In the ending, when Isda walked away in that snow with her hood on, I imagined her to be back in a second book with so much prowess. I don't know why. I just suddenly pictured it. Please let there be a second book.

I have to admit, when I read the plot of this book here on Goodreads, I got intrigued and asked for an ARC. (Fortunately, my request was granted. Thank you to Jessica, to Inkyard Press, and to Netgalley btw.) At first, I thought the author was using a lot vocabularies to describe one or two emotions in one scene that I kept thinking this was exaggerated. Sometimes, I would just skip some sentences when emotions are being described again. But I realized that maybe the protagonist is just the way she is and that is how the protagonist really describes her emotions because she is inclined to finery.

Then it was starting to get action-packed that I skipped my meals just to keep reading. It was a lot of suspense when Isda was trying to escape the police and at the same time having a race with the time in order to save Emeric! I kept imagining what those elixir would taste in my mouth too. Sometimes I would unconsciously open my mouth a little during the scenes where Isda was gulping elixir.. haha! Furthermore, the transition of Isda's personality from someone so gullible to a strong one is something that I can relate to.

I really hope though more scenes with Emeric were detailed in the book rather than practice/tutorial lessons in Isda's crypt already happened in 2 months'

Great story and such a great read. I love adding books such as these to my classroom library! These are the books that keep my students voraciously reading!!!

Magical. Lyrical. Marvelous. Stunning world-building in an alternate France where some people are born with the ability to siphon away others' memories. And I adore gender-bent retellings, and this book was a delightful twist on the Phantom of the Opera story with a powerful, monstrous girl who's been hidden away her whole life. I adored Emeric as the rising young opera star, and that ending punched me right in the Feels. Definitely recommend this book!

Thank you so much to Inkyard Press for the ARC of this book!

Sing Me Forgotten by Jessica S. Olson is a gender-swapped phantom of the opera retelling. Isda, our phantom, is a girl with a monstrous face. Twisted and scarred and terrifying to any who sees it. She's kept in a crypt under the opera house run by her foster father Cyril, only coming out to use the magic she was born with to change the memories of the patrons so that they keep wanting more of the performances. She's fine living on the memories she lives through until she meets a boy with a beautiful voice and even more beautiful memories. While Isda soaks in the joy that is Emeric, she soon realizes she's more powerful than she knew, and with that power, she can change not only her fate but everyones.

I'm not terribly familiar with Phantom of the Opera, so I didn't have that to draw comparisons to, and honestly, I'm glad I was able to go into this with fresh eyes!

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Olson does a great job of putting us into Isda's mind to see where her emotional state is at. She's a great character because of how awful she can be. She loves music passionately, is good at it. She cares deeply for her foster father Cyril, and she comes to care deeply for Emeric. But underneath all of that there's still a sliver of darkness in her that rears it's head at times. She's quick to anger and quick to violence. There's a part where she smiles after someone is hurt, and it gave me chills. I love morally gray characters like this. You want to root for them, but should you really?

Emeric is a ray of sunshine. He's funny and charming and genuinely a lovely person. He was the light to Isda's dark, and I think his glaring flaw was turning a blind eye to what Isda was and what she had done. He was a well fleshed out character, complete with a past and a goal, and I felt a connection to him. Cyril, Isda's foster father, was also great because I could never quite put my finger on what his motives or intentions were. We're kept guessing until we aren't.

Honestly, the real star of this book is the music. There were moments when Isda and Emeric were singing together that I felt like I could hear it. It gave me chills to imagine it, and Olson does such an incredible job with the imagery in these scenes. Even when Isda is using her magic while people are singing, it feels so powerful.

Overall, a really fantastic read. I do wish there'd been a bit more time spent on the world-building and the magic system, but overall I definitely enjoyed myself!

So beautiful and poetic. What I particularly liked are little nods to the original. Heartbreaking but it couldn't be any different.

This book is not necessarily a happy story; but it is one that will resonate with you. The heroine Isda was born a gravoir, someone who can listen to memories when people sing; she is locked away for her own safety, as people are out to kill gravoirs. She was saved by Cyril, the owner of an opera house, where she lives as the "Opera Ghost". However, her life takes a turn with the appearance of a boy named Emeric, a talented singer in his own right. As people around her reveal their true selves, it becomes hard for her to figure out who to trust - and ultimately, she takes her fate into her own hands. I want to follow her story, and see what she does next.

I really enjoyed the storytelling employed throughout - the author weaved the narrative well, I found it easy to read and compelling. However, I felt that in the later part of the story, Cyril's motivations fall flat and seem misdirected, which made it hard to understand some of his actions. I did appreciate how complex the characters were, and overall I liked the story as a whole. I hope there's more Isda stories in the future.

This was a beautiful, haunting and, I'll say it, heartwrenching book (GLARES AT THE AUTHOR).

A gender-bending retelling of Phantom of the Opera, the author does some incredible world-building, along with some truly lovely character development. Isda is a flawed character, young and hopeful and a bit sad, too. The phrase "morally ambiguous" comes to mind too - when your gift of magic is abused by a person who you love and claims to love you, well, that might mess a girl up. But when she starts to realize what her power can do, that's where things get really dicey, and her use of her magic almost veers into addiction, with some horrible consequences.

The magic system of Isda's world is a bit tragic and dark, and I was fully invested in Isda's character. It's not often I come into a novel and am rooting for a character other than the main character, but Emeric was a treasure and I loved him. (I also was left with an overwhelming urge to eat buttery caramels. Thanks.) Emeric's character grounded me into the story, let me see the good side, the beauty AND the tragedy of the magic that has marred Isda's life.

This book was spilling over with music, magic, love, deception, and heart-pounding adventure.

This was one of those books I added to my shelf and vaguely remembered the synopsis before I dug in, and it so thoroughly surprised and delighted (and maddened) me, keeping me up into the wee hours of the night before breaking my heart.

This beautiful gender-bent YA retelling of The Phantom of the Opera rips your heart out, sautees it with olive oil, and spits on it for good measure.

You know when you read a book, and it completely crushes you? You love it, and you hate it at the same time. You love it for all the wonderful feelings it evoked, yet you hate it for making your heartbreak, and your eyes filled with liquid sadness.

This book was that for me.

I knew after reading the synopsis that this was something I was bound to enjoy. I’ve always loved Phantom, both the Broadway and movie versions. From the moment I read the opening, this book lured me in. I was already hooked by chapter two. I loved Jessica’s writing style. There were many moments at the beginning where I felt like I was Isda. Immersive books like that are my favorite! It’s one of the things Adrienne Young (like Jessica Olson) does so well.

Isda was different from most YA heroines I’ve become acquainted with. She was beautifully flawed, and the ferocity and grit in her always surprised me when it sprang up. This girl is vicious. Her world views her as the villain in the story, and she plays upon that out of spite. She really channeled the hardcore angst of the Phantom. I was vibing.

Her banter with Emeric was really adorable too! This fluffy, caramel-scented bean was so adorable. AND I STILL AM HURTING FROM THAT ENDING. JESSICA, I DON’T THINK I CAN FORGIVE YOU.

I loved how the author wove the music into the magic system of the world, as well. It just made perfect sense for the story. It also really played upon the tones of the original world in Phantom. It was mysterious, sad, and mystifying. It read much like some of the old gothic classics.

The only thing was that ending. I won’t say more, but it HURT. I hAtE bittersweet endings. IT’s EATING ME ALIVE, DUDES.

Operatic in its telling, Olson takes you on the journey that allows Isda to find love, contentment in herself, and so much more. If you want a good gut-wrenching, gothic, angsty cry (😂), this is the book for you.

Big thank you to Inkyard Press + Netgalley for sending me an ARC copy of this book!