The Great Gatsby

In high school, I was never forced to read The Great Gatsby. I do see why all my friends hated it though. I didn't hate it, but I didn't absolutely love it. There was practically no plot, but we only saw things from the narrator's POV Nick Carraway. There wasn't much to his character. He didn't really add anything to the story. Daisy Buchanan was a total ditz. Some things she did and said, I rolled my eyes multiple times. I liked when we found out that Daisy and Gatsby were former flames. Didn't see that coming at all. Tom Buchanan was a jerk, but I did feel bad for him when his mistress was run. He was cheating on his wife, Daisy, with another man's wife Myrtle Wilson and Daisy knew about it. I liked Gatsby and how he always said, "Old Sport" and his devotion to Daisy. I liked Jordan Baker and really wanted her to end up with Nick. In the end, I knew multiple people were going to die, but I didn't know that Gatsby was going to be one of them. I saw it coming about 3 or 4 pages before it happened. Really curious to see how they do the film. Be on the look out for that review on my other blog.

Phantom of the Opera

I recently finished Phantom of the Opera and I didn't really like it, but I didn't hate it either. Let's talk about characters. Raoul was a baby. At one point, he was crying while Christine was singing. I was like, "Get it together man!" Christine was annoying. And Erik, I didn't feel for him like I did in the movie. In the movie, I tend to lean toward Erik more than Raoul, but Raoul is good too in the movie. In the book, Erik is described as having a 'death's head' like a skull. He has exposed eye sockets, no nose, and no lips. Kinda gross, whereas in the movie, he's very attractive except for the burn on his face. It doesn't distract from him at all. Some characters names were changed in the movie and I'm very happy Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to make Erik attractive. You also find out the reason for the 'keep your hand at the level of your eyes'. I always suspected it was so you couldn't be strangled and I was right. Reading the book, I didn't feel what I feel every time I watch the movie. Overall, I would have to give this a 3 out of 5 stars, sadly.