Journey Of The Mask

by Nancy Hill Pettengill

In The Phantom Of The Opera, Leroux gave us the tragic story of a lonely, disfigured man who was hopelessly drawn to a woman he could never have. In the end, he died of a broken heart.Or did he?What really happened to him in the spring of 1882? Here is the rest of the story, taken from the papers of an indisputable source-Erik, the Phantom.Erik gives up his cellars and malicious games in favor of one last, desperate attempt to find the acceptance he has always sought and never found. No longer alone and with an unfamiliar sensitivity struggling to surface, his efforts to rejoin life above the ground appear successful until his own past threatens to throw him once more into the fires of hell. His journey to the edge of that hell and back, twisted and strewn with obstacles, tests him in ways he could never have anticipated."I would finally be rewarded for all the years of humiliation and degradation that I had suffered. No one would stand in my way!"No onebut Erik himself.

Genres: Retellings, Fiction, Historical Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2000

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Besides the plot point where Erik is Marie Laveau's right hand man 🙄😒😑 it was a pretty decent story 😆

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the worse Phan fic I have read, but definitely not the best. The first half of the book was excellent, in fact almost worthy of four or five stars and the writing was wonderful. Then....Erik kidnaps Christine by tricking her into returning to his lair. Interesting plot twist, not sure it is very plausible as this is several months after she chooses to leave with Raoul. That in and of itself would not be so bad, but THEN Erik decides to book passage to New Orleans, Louisiana, with Christine (he gives her some kind of drug to make her sleep) and so is able to pass her onboard as his wife. Okay, I am somewhat willing to go along with this, ALTHOUGH if I were Christine I would have been trying every feasible means of escape off that boat once I were in possession of all of my faculties. OF COURSE it just went downhill from there. The worse example would be Erik getting involved with voodoo after he marries Christine in New Orleans. I don't know, that was just the last straw for me. I finished reading the book but it's not one of my faves for certain and I don't recommend it.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like another reviewer said this book wasn't the worst I've read in the phantom fiction genre but its far from the best. As I recall this started out great, I was really into the writing but once passage for New Orleans was booked I started to loose that verber. Erik's character is suppose to be a tragic one, and his infamy is rendered pointless (as ironic as that sounds) if he is running off into the sunset in the end. Though its not like LND where Erik becomes obnoxious and you don't really care what happens to him but he does go down that path (just nowhere near as bad) I don't want Erik to be miserable, but I don't want him to be a sappy character either, its a balance thats hard to keep.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked most of this book. The problem with sequels is that things don't always end up the way you imagined they would. I found this a satisfying ending to such a popular tale but things didn't always go the way I wanted. If you're looking for a good possible ending to "The Phantom of the Opera" than you should pick up this book; especially if you wanted Christine to end up with Erik and not Raoul.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have so many conflicting feelings about this.

This definitely was not the story I was expecting based on the blurb. I'm not sure what it was, but it definitely wasn't this.

This reads like the author is fully aware of the original story, but still ships Christine and Erik anyway. Which is really, really messed up.

What this comes down to is this: woman trauma bonds with her abuser and the mark he has left on her after she was forcefully rescued from him has never left. Even so, her abuser still tracks her down and manipulates her into being near him. The trauma bond kicks into gear, combined with love bombing and suddenly she thinks shes in love with him.

At first Erik seems sweet, but he does EXACTLY what Leroux's Erik would do if he ever found a domestic life with Christine. His trauma, which is not his fault, but his actions most certainly are - it never leaves him and continues to take over his life. As a result, he seeks out the darker aspects of life in order to numb his pain. He becomes an addict. At one point, he is even SAed by a woman as he spirals into a dark life style, but then becomes so consumed he gets to the point where he ACTUALLY r@pes Christine. It isnt so much as worded that way and maybe it is worded in a way that makes it seem like she's okay with it but we know what's actually happening.

While she should have never married him in the first place, Christine ABSOLUTELY should have left him.

Also, Erik SEVERAL TIMES mentions how she is essentially a child and he is an old man. Then throw in his ED experience on their wedding night and the constant threat of heart attacks.

Oh, but the grief of losing a child is enough to give him a 180 and suddenly he's the best husband ever and everything is okay.


I love Phantom of the Opera. It is my forte of interest, I have studied it high and low. Once upon a time I loved it on the surface level but overtime it has become a complex study of trauma, abuse, mental health struggles, sociology, anthropology, and female empowerment. I can both love it and recognize what a fowl, awful, horrendous person Erik is. He is not responsible for his abuse, and it is not his fault. He IS responsible for not being an asshole and not treating people he is supposed to love. The truth is this story is probably exactly how he would act. Man deserves sympathy and help, but also deserves to be arrested.

Ultimately, it feels like what the author is trying to do is stay true to the original canon of who Erik is, but also trying to give him the romanticized happy ending. The result is a romanticization of a toxic relationship with abuse, SA, and grooming, which then tried to excuse all of that by giving him a redemption story triggered by the death of a child.

I enjoyed this story for the complex analysis of Erik's psychic and the understanding that he is a terrible man. I did not enjoy it for it's romanticized and dismissal of awful, disgusting, domestic abuse.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me this book was one of a kind! I loved it. It is the "true" story of what really happened with the Phantom of the Opera, and it is also a revised version of the original book. The whole story is The Phantoms point of view on his life situations. His real name was Erik and he was not your average Phantom. No, he was a man who fell in love with the beautiful Christine Diaa. Erik was born with a face deformity, which he always hated and said it was because of an accident he had. The story starts at a notice that Erik has died, where he immediatly takes off in talking about what happened in the Opera house and how he faked his death to capture Christine and take her from Paris to the wonders of New Orlenes where he then tells her she can leave and go back to Paris, or stay with him. She chooses the latter one and they become man and wife. There are many mystories about his past, and the things he has done that no one really knows.
This book really takes you into the world of someone who has been casted out and been rejected for all their life. It is a very funny book as well, and i do recomend it to anyone that is interested in having fun and escaping their own reality to venture into someone elses realm.

:D Enjoy

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge Phantom of the Opera Phan!! hahaha. Picks up where the Gaston LeRoux book left off. If you do not like Raoul, you'll love this book, if you do...then I suggest you read something else.

[Janelle Bourinot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Interesting perspective!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book for any Phantom phan, but it has a very morose ending. Erik is a very strong character in the beginning as well as Christine, and then the book slowly starts to become worse.