The Doom of the Haunted Opera - The House With a Clock in Its Walls 6

Lewis Barnavelt #6

by John Bellairs

When Lewis and Rose Rita explore an abandoned theatre, they discover an unpublished opera score entitled 'The Day of Doom'. Ignoring a strange omen, they show it to their music teacher, who heralds 'The Day of Doom' a masterpiece. Little do they know that the eerie Henry Vanderhelm, the composer's grandson, arrives with a plan to awaken the dead and enslave the world!

Soon, all the adults are enamoured - and enspelled - by Henry Vanderhelm. A mysterious fog descends upon New Zebedee and everyone is trapped inside it. It is up to Lewis and Rose Rita to stop the dead coming back to life.

For fans of Goosebumps.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Magic

164 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

John Bellairs (1938–1991) was an American novelist. He is best known for the children's classic The House with a Clock in its Walls (1973) and the fantasy novel The Face in the Frost (1969). Bellairs held a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University and a master's in English from the University of Chicago. He later lived and wrote in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Bellairs goes Phantom of the Opera on Lewis and Rose Rita! Not really.

The Adults, uncle Jonathan and Mrs Zimmerman, are called to a friends funeral in FL and leave the kids at home. Rose Rita and Lewis explore an abandoned opera house in town for a school paper and Lewis unleashes a curse when he finds a music score in the Orchestra. From then on, a mysterious man sweeps into town claiming to be the grandson of the author of the Opera and he wants to put on the Opera.

The music is haunted and will bring about the end of the world. I love opera, but I think it's funny that an opera could bring about the end of the world. The theatre people that come out to put the town on are great, my kind of people. This book was spooky and it seemed the villain would easily win. It was a nail biter to just about the last page. This is one of my favorite Lewis Barnavelt stories. I think it's just about the best one.

Sadly, this is the last story with Lewis that John Bellairs wrote. He didn't even finish this story. He ploted and started this idea, but Brad Strickland finished this after John's death. It's one of the last he told. The series does go on for another 6 books, but Brad wrote and plotted them all and I feel this is really the last book.

I will miss having new John Bellair books I have one more series of 4 books and then I have read all his stuff, so stay tuned. I'm going to finish them.

[Elena Rodríguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If you go out again before the great night, you will pay the most horrible penalty. You have been warned ".

Sexto libro de la saga de Lewis Barnavelt. Para aquellos que no conozcan esta obra, el primer libro se compone de “El reloj de la casa de la pared” una novela que recomiendo, sin lugar a dudas.

« Well, you see Lewis, magic is a bit like gold or silver. It doesn’t exist just anywhere. There are places that have veins of magic running through them, just as you find so places where magic flows more strongly than elsewhere ».

No te esperes una gran novela, simplemente se tratan novelas cortas ambientadas en los años 50 para un público más joven en los que la magia y el terror un papel fundamental. Cuando estés en un bloqueo lector esto pueden ayudarte. Asimismo, si quieres empezar a leer en inglés, también te los recomiendo. Se pueden leer sin problema pues si vocabulario y narración no son muy complicadas.

Tampoco recomiendo leerlos de seguido, simplemente cuando a tu cuerpo le apetezca algo más “relajado”. Los personajes son todos muy tiernos y agradables y no pasa nunca nada lo suficientemente triste para dejar la lectura. Como he dicho se trata de libros ambientados hacia un público más pequeño.

“The trumpest shall sound and the dead shall be raised”.

[✦BookishlyRichie✦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the Bellairs books I never read and can say that I have now! This one had a lot of scary and really cool moments and I really want a copy of it to own now. It was action packed and so much fun. :)

[Christie K.Rowling · Rating 3 out of 5]

No está mal aunque siguen gustándome más los primeros tomos...siento que está saga no va a remontar nunca más al nivel de sus inicios.... ¡¡pchsss!!

Aun así, pronto seguiremos leyendo los siguientes 🙃

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'll be the first to admit that i love john bellairs. love love love him. some of his books, first read when i was 10 or 11, gave me the heebie-jeebies well into adulthood. i'm very glad that brad strickland took up the torch and all, but i admit that i can tell it's more his story than mr. bellairs'.

one thing that tends to irritate me about books that follow an author or a certain field (i'm looking at you, star wars books) is that sometimes the new authors tend to throw in things that show they read all the earlier books, too. (this is especially noticeable in some of kevin j. anderson's star wars books, where i can see him writing and basically saying "HAY GUYZ CHECK THIS OUT I READ ALL THE BOOKS AND SAW ALL THE MOVIES LIKE, EIGHT THOUSAND TIMES AND DID YOU REMEMBER THIS ONE LITTLE THING THAT HAPPENED SO DID I!" this happens a couple of times in this book, where mr. strickland rehashes some of the earlier books in an unnecessary way. it slows down the dialogue. also, making johnathan and mrs. zimmerman randomly go to florida seemed a little contrived.

i do love the stories. i really do. i just think i'll stick more to the ones that mr. bellairs was able to finish in his lifetime. it's a subtle difference, but i love his style so much better.

[Amber Scaife · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman leave town for an old friend's funeral, Lewis and Rose Rita think they'll have a quiet couple of weeks researching a school project on the local defunct opera house. They're wrong, of course, because the opera house is haunted, of course.
We love this series for its great characters and its spooky-but-not-too-scary atmosphere. Perfect for kiddos who like supernatural sorts of stories but don't actually like to be scared.

[SHANE ELLIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deliciously spooky. The graveyard scene is enough to give any adult nightmares, let alone a child. I loved this book.

[Elizabeth Barrett Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strickland does an excellent job of continuing Bellairs' series and developing Louis and Rose Rita in particular.

[Tiffany Spencer]

The Doom of the Haunted Opera

Jonathan shares a letter with Mrs. Zimmeron, Lewis, and Rose Rita. Lucious (a leading sorcerer that moved to Florida after the war) has written to them because he is dead. He has a granddaughter and doesn’t know he’s a wizard. He wills Johnny head of his estate and willed him all his magical books. He has some amulets and he wants Florence to come along. He’s worked all the travel arrangements out with his lawyer and leaves his card. Mrs. Zimmerman goes to to talk about how magic is so strong in their area that even the wakest magicians can get a little taste of it. Luscious was the head of an organization (that she and Jonathan belong to) that guards the magic and keeps the evil-doers out. They talk about attending the memorial for Luscious the day after tomorrow. Lewis won’t too go but they say he has school. So, they’ll get Holes to watch him. Now Lewis and Rosa Rita can continue to work on a school project about a historical event.

Lewis comes up an idea to use the town's Opera House. Rose Rita’s grandfather is over it and they can interview him. So, they go to check the Opera House out first. Mr. Fiber gives them permission. He gives them some flashlights. It’s bigger than they thought. While fooling around on the piano on stage, Johnny starts to tap out a jingle for Pepsi Cola on the keys. They make a thunking, flat, sound as if stuck. He opens the lid to find a sheet of papers that says “The Day of Doom” an opera in English. Lewis feels a chill and thinks Rose Rita is standing beside him, but it’s a man whose tall and thin wearing a jacket with fur lapels. Hes ghastly white and looks like he’s been dead for a month. He warns him to beware of the haunted opera. He means to be king of the opera. He’s evitating now. Then he disappers into a cloud of vapor.

Lewis starts to scream. He runs from the room and into Rose Rita and he tells her what he saw. She thinks its just his imagination. He shows her the papers. Rose says they should show it to Mrs. White (their music teacher). Lewis says he doesn’t know. It was what he was holding when he saw the ghost. So, Rose tells him to just go put them back, but Lewis is too scared too. They decide to go see her grandfather. Lewis doesn’t want to tell him about the ghost so she says they can leave that out. He tells them about how the theater came to be built and he was commissioned to design it. The theatre closed in 1919. It closed because of poor attendance, but the town blames it on a string of bad luck. Then Mr. Vanderhelm left town and took all the money on opening night. After this the shows were canceled and the theatre was locked up (even after a 99-year contract was signed). Then he shows them pictures from the opening. Weirdly in one of the pictures, he’s alone when he remembered VEmanuel Vanderhelm being there with him. There’s also a picture of Mordicai (a manager that skipped out when all the bad luck started happening). Lewis recognizes him as the ghost he saw from earlier.

Johnathan calls but Kewis doesn’t tell him about the ghost and the script in the piano. Lewis and Rose Rita tho are written up in the paper because their music teacher is so impressed by the finding. Lewis says it just doesn’t fill right. Not long after that they hear something high-pitched coming from the yard. Kewis recognizes the tune and then realizes it’s “Jailbird” a cat that his Uncle cast a spell on. He now whistles off-key. That night Kewis dreams that he and Rosa Rita are at the opera house and it’s full of men and women dressed in their finiest. He’s drawn to the stage where a skeletal man is playing the organ. He tells them to check his head at the door and there’s no room for whistling cats. Then bats fly out his mouth. As the people start to run toward the exit he notices they don’t have heads. As he makes it to the exit he ducks behind some seats and two balls come toward him. It’s the heads of Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmermon. Then the man playing the organ comes up beside him twists his head and pops it off.

Mrs. White throws a special program of a performance of some of the songs from the opera. On that day, before the performance Rosa Rita and Lewis both discuss the bad dreams they’ve been having. Mrs. White starts to play and Kewis doesn’t really care for it. But the music gets a lot of applause when she’s done. Some think she should have a recital. Others want to put on a show and reopen the opera house. On the way out, they see a stranger who asks about if it’s the school of the children who found the opera. He says his grandfather was Vanhelm and they take him inside to meet the music teacher. Henry overhears adults talking about getting someone to perform the opera Henry makes his presence and connection known. He gives them his blessing and financial assistance. Lewis tho notices something weird. Wasn’t he holding a copy of the Chronicle when he entered the school?


There’s a write-up in the paper and class is canceled because everyone wants to help spruce up the opera house and hold auditions. Something about it doesn’t feel right to Rose and Lewis so they try to call Mrs. Zimmerman and Jonathan a couple of times but a long-distance connection can’t be made to Florida either time. The next morning Mrs. Holez can’t get her favorite station on the radio. Lewis tries to call out again but there’s still no connection. So, he goes to visit Rose Rita whose dad is upset because he didn’t get the paper that morning. They decide to go outside town to see if they can ge a line. On the way there they run into a gray fog and then realize they’ve been going in circles. They can’t get out of the own. They’re trapped!

Lewis and Rose Rita go to the graveyard and see that the town is surrounded by the fog. They speculate that Mr. Vanhelm was the one who closed them in when he sang and that he might really be his grandfather. They think that one of Mrs. White’s songs “The Awakening” was what called him there. When they try to get out of the graveyard, they notice a changing statue that keeps following them. (Maybe to keep the dead in). Lewis has an idea. They can go to the other members of the Wizard Council and tell them, but each house they find is nothing but an empty lot and no one seems to have any clue who they’re talking about. So, finally, even though Rose Rita’s mother never believes her they decide to go to her. Only when they get to her house, she’s left a note she’ll be late. She got a message from Mr. Vanhelm inviting her to try out for the opera.

In one of Jonathan’s magical books that have records of the meetings of the Magician’s Society, it says that in the winter of 1nineteen (nineteen) Emanuel came to New Zebedee with a opera he’d written. Then people started to try out for it. Mr. Fenster went to see Mr. Macklavery. He told him that he thought Emanuel wasn’t what he seemed so Mr. MacLavery agreed to meet with him. He said he’ll never forget meeting that sinister man. He tried a spell on him but he had a concealment spell on him. Mr. Fenster showed him that the opera was an evil enchantation. One so complex it would take many voices to complete. After the people did the incantation he’d become the king of the dead. After this mr. Nester disappeared. There was said to be a face-off between Macklacky and Emuel and because Emanuel was never seen again he was thought to be dead and the theatre was closed. Lewis later sees his sitter talking to Mr. Vanhelm. He’s given her a part in the chorus. He thanks Lewis because the opera was his fault. A weird way to word it but Lewis thinks it's accurate because terrible is about to happen and it is his fault. Rose and Lewis think of someone Mrs. Zimmermon mentioned Mrs. Jagger and they pay her a visit. But she says she’s given up magic. She was never any good at it. She gives them a little more information tho. The spell would awaken all the dead sorceres and they’d posses the bodies of the living. He’d be the king of all of them.

Mrs. Jagger tries to contact Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmermon through scrying but the only thing that appears in the water is a goldfish. She tells them she’ll try to figure out what went wrong. On the way home, Lewis is surrounded by ghosts who try to trap him to become one of them, but they vanish into the fog. When he gets home, Hannah (his sitter) is there with Mr. Vanhelm. Because she never knows where he is she tells him he’ll have to stay in until his uncle gets back. Mr. V anhelm says he should tho be allowed to see the performance. Lewis then passes out.

When he awaken he’s in his room and there’s a note warning him not to go out before “The Great Night”. It says not to defy him. His soldiers are everywhere. Rose Rita and Mrs. Jagger come by and happen to see Jonathan’s face in the magical mirror. She cast an enchantment on it in hopes that the next time he’s in a mirror they can catch his attention. After this, they perform a ritual that consists of dressing oddly and singing “Row Your Boat” backward and forwards. From this, they hear a magical announcement that Vanhelm will attempt to be king of the dead tomorrow night. It says he can be stopped but someone will have to have the right score. They all plan to go to the theatre to sabotage the instruments to slow him down.

Mrs. Zimmermon and Lewis hear an announcement about New Zimadee’s town being lost in a fog and they decide to head home. Jonathan can’t get any calls out. Mrs. Zimmermon can’t even see it in her scrying mirror. A paper man traps Lewis in what appears to be a well. Lewis realizes it’s the well of Mordecai Fenster. Lewis decides to call on the ghost of Fenster and it works. He says if the spell is broken he’ll depart. If not he’ll rise up and be under Vanderhelm’s control. He tells about how he hide the score in the old piano. He tells Lewis to lose what he can and then vanishes. Rose Rita is able to contact Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmermon through her car’s mirror. She says there in New Zimadee but can’t get past the fog. She then sends Rose Rita to her house for a special pearl amulet and gives her instructions what to do.

Kewis is able to get out of the trapdoor by using a skeleton’s arm that Fenster left but he finds out that the opera is starting an hour earlier than scheduled. If all goes as plan it’ll be thirty minutes before the dead arise. By using the amulet, Rose Rita and Mrs, Jagger are able to clear up the fog. Lewis comes out just as the others are trying to get in. The adults go in. Vanderhelm sees them and the cast sings faster and faster. He sends down a bat but Mrs. Z immon finishes it off. But she staggers. Vanderhelm begins to sing and a chair transforms into a monster. Jonathan destroys it easily but grabs his throat and stumbles backward. Mrs. Jagger starts to chant but Vanderhelm silences her. Lewis and Rose Rita run to the stage and start to diss Vanderhelm’s singing. They throw out insult after insult. In this time the adults cast a spell, the cast rush off stage, and he loses his voice. The cast runs toward Vanderlem and then he disappears as the score (of papers) scatter. The set is now ruined and the cast comes out of their trance. The spell is not broken Mrs. Zimmerman recommends that the auditorium be turned over to the school. Mildred Jagger gets invited to join the Magical Society for her spells with the mirrors.


My Thoughts
Pretty good! I had my reservations about starting this series again but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with these stores. There were some good scary moments going on in this. Good imagery. Such as the man levitating next to Lewis by the piano. Then appearing again when he was in the well. Then there was the image of him using the skeleton hand to get out of the trap door. Then there was the transforming statue and the ghosts clining to him as he rode home. The ending battle was even good between Zimmerman, Jonathan, Mrs. Jagger, and Edwards’s grandson. I was so happy that Mrs. Jagger got invited to join the society! She really did deserve it! I think that was the best part in my opinion. It always just feels good when the person who seems like the one that’s down on luck gets a chance (especially in magic).

Rating: 7 and a half

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book many years ago on super discount at a bookstore. I’m sure I bought it because the cover art was by Edward Gorey. It got packed up with other books and left at my parents’ house, never touched until recently when I started finding and taking my stuff.
Imagine my surprise when by page two I recognized all the characters from the movie The House With a Clock in Its Wall, which I love.
It is a perfect book for what it was meant to do. It is an easy read. The plot line is engaging. It has suspense. I would have liked a little more interconnection, but as it is a book meant for children I’ll let it pass.
I enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone.

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look at that amazing Edward Gorey cover! I am always down for a good John Bellairs (or Brad Strickland) scary story. I've been reading these for over 25 years and I don't think I'll ever get tired of them.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a kid, this was one of the only two Barnavelt novels I had read (along with "The House With a Clock in Its Walls," still the top pick). The Gorey illustration from the front cover stuck with me for years, though I remembered little of the plot other than the graveyard scene. Rereading as an adult, it's still probably my second favorite in this series thus far, though the seams show a bit. Most important here is the fact that Bellairs and Strickland have embraced the potential for sheer weirdness that the magical New Zebedee setting allows, to a greater extent than the Johnny Dixon stories, complete with a Weeping Angel almost two decades before Doctor Who created them, and a finale which I suspect is strongly influenced by the climax of "Beetlejuice."

[Justin K. Rivers · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the exotic travels of Rose Rita and Lewis in their prior two adventures, coming back to Michigan seems somewhat anticlimactic. I love the title of this book, but it doesn't quite live up to its potential. The idea of a haunted opera is interesting, but the plot hinges on enough randomness to make it seem a bit weak. Although the conclusion is a rather typical Bellairs-style resolution, Strickland has already demonstrated that he can do a bit better.

I did like the incremental subjugation of the town, although I don't find their town to be particularly interesting. And seeing Rose Rita and Lewis trying to save the day without any of the adults was satisfyingly suspenseful.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, finaly back to just the right amount of creepiness. I adore this series, and this was one of the best ones in it so far. Operas of the dead and a fog that traps the whole town, and Lewis and Rose Rita being themselves trying to save everyone, it's perfect.

And can I just say how awesome the ghost was? He begins by being so spooky and doing the ghost voice, then just starts talking normally when asked to. Made me laugh, it was great.

[Matthew Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly run-of-the-mill Bellairs (Bellairs-type, anyway) adventure, given a bit of a lift by two interesting concepts:

(a) the idea of a magical spell so complex that it can only be cast by a fully staged operatic performance; and

(b) the incidental inclusion of a monster eerily similar to the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who!

[Ken B · Rating 4 out of 5]

The town of New Zebedee is cut off from the outside world by a powerful wizard who wants to raise the dead and enslave them. Uncle Jonathon and Mrs. Zimmermann are out of town on wizard business and are unaware of the happenings in their hometown, leaving Lewis and Rose Rita to figure out how to stop the evil wizard's plans.

4 STARS

[Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books, even with the shift to Brad Strickland. I actually enjoyed all of the details from past books, the little bits of magic (whistling cats) that are everywhere in the house of a wizard. there are some really spooky moments in the story, but it's also all about friendship and having hot cocoa after a scary experience in a cemetery.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a creepily wonderful as the previous five Lewis Barnavelt novels! There is a scene with ghosts chasing Lewis on his bike that really got me based on an experience I once had in my own life. This one felt more like Bellairs and less like another author than the last book. I'm not sure if that is kudos to Strickland or whether Bellairs wrote most of it but I loved it!

[Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book by John Bellairs I learned that friendship can go to extremes.One way that I noticed is when they walked on a ledge of a building to get a sacred charm to save a friend. Then all of a sudeden the building just breaks down and gets destroyed.

[Tara Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I normally LOVE Bellairs, this mystery, written in part by Bellairs and finished by Brad Strickland, just didn't appeal for me.

[Nocturna Syn]

Der Fluch der alten Oper. by John Bellairs (2002)

[BOBBI · Rating 4 out of 5]

good read, has interesting twists to it.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brad managed to finish this one well. Another wonderful Lewis Barenvalt tale.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, scary, and adventurous book! It may be the reading level of a 7th grader, but it still has that magical feeling of horror that Goose-Bumps used to give us. Highly Recommend!

[Alec Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like seeing the development of Lewis and Rose Rita’s relationship. This one moves really fast with some great scenes. Certainly one of the best of Strickland’s J.B. books.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 | I miss Ms. Zimmermann!

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is what I’m talking about! With Strickland finishing writing the Lewis Barnavelt series that John Bellairs started, we’re back to wonderfully written and carefully crafted gothic horror for the children’s audience (and those of us who refuse to grow up). Lewis and Rose Rita are once again faced with a magical opponent when they find a cursed opera during a school project, leading to an adventure that rivals the creativity, suspense, and comedy of the book that started the series off. Tracing back into New Zebadee’s history, the pair are faced by another of the town’s dark wizards who was defeated by the magical consortium many years ago. While some of the adventure is structured exactly the same as the first novel (adults absent, Lewis conquering his fear, spooky graveyards, magical spells gone awry, etc), Strickland introduces new imagery and spellwork throughout to make this story stand out on its own and keep us on the edge of our seats as the situation grows dire for Lewis and Rose Rita. For a pair of relatively hapless kids, these two are slowly hitting their stride as they problem solve around the villain’s moves with more independence than previously, and it is their brilliant idea to heckle the magician out of performing his perfected cursed opera! Absolutely ridiculous as a finisher, but this kind of creative thinking that does the trick is a perfect way to end the story with a moment of laughter.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather enjoyed this book. I think that part of me wanted to like it, because I knew that it was the last of the novels that were, at least partly, conceived by John Bellairs. From this point forward, I believe the remainder of the Lewis novels were written by Brad Strickland directly.

I rather enjoyed the way that Lewis and Rose Rita have grown together. We really haven't had much of an opportunity to see these two characters interact. The only other instance was The Figure in the Shadows and sadly, Lewis spends most of that book under the spell of the foe.

I'm not at all certain that Strickland has kept straight some of the trivia from earlier books. For instance, the make of Jonathan's car. But these are, well, trivial matters and only distract the reader briefly.

[Liz Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sixth installment in the Lewis Barnavelt series. Lewis Barnavelt and his best friend Rose Rita explore an abandoned theater house and Lewis discovers an old playwrite’s notes for The Doom of the Haunted Opera, which gives a bad omen.
He decides to show it to their music teacher anyway and she wants to remake the play. But then bad things start happening, an evil spirit is involved that wants to take over the world, and Lewis gets trapped in a tiny space under a trapdoor in the theater where he finds the skeleton of the past manager who ran the theater before it was closed.
This book has a really good plot!

[Knilly Frickers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will admit, I'm probably not the intended audience for this book, so take my review with a sizeable helping of salt.

I found the beginning to be a bit slow as it took a while to set up the whole plot, but once the action was in motion, I really enjoyed it. For the most part, it was paced well and very entertaining.

At some parts, I thought the humour was very forced ( specifically, the playful insults between Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmermann ).

Other than that, it was a fun and enjoyable read !