Review: Phantom by Laura DeLuca

Title: Phantom
Author: Laura DeLuca
Series: N/A
Pages: 262
Publisher: Pagan Writers Press
Date Published: March 30, 2012
Format: ebook
Genre: Contemporary/Suspense (YA)
Source: Provided by RABT

Synopsis:
The “Phantom” was a musical phenomenon that Rebecca had always found enchanting. When her high school drama club chooses “Phantom” as their annual production, Rebecca finds herself in the middle of an unlikely love triangle and the target of a sadistic stalker who uses the lines from the play as their calling card.  Rebecca lands the lead role of Christine, and like her character, she is torn between her two co-stars—Tom the surfer and basketball star who plays the lovable hero, and Justyn, the strangely appealing Goth who is more than realistic in the role of the tortured artist. Almost immediately after casting, strange things start to happen both on and off the stage. Curtains fall. Mirrors are shattered. People are hurt in true phantom style. They all seem like accidents until Rebecca receives notes and phone calls that hint at something more sinister. Is Justyn bringing to life the twisted character of the phantom? Or in real life are the roles of the hero and the villain reversed? Rebecca doesn’t know who to trust, but she knows she’s running out of time as she gets closer and closer to opening night. Only when the mask is stripped away, will the twenty first century phantom finally be revealed.

My Review:
Okay, so Phantom of the Opera is one of my all-time favorite musicals. In fact, typically when I'm writing my reviews I'm either listening to Phantom, Wicked, or Rent, so I was absolutely THRILLED when asked to participate in the Reading Addicted Blog Tour's online tour of Phantom by Laura DeLuca! (wow what a mouthful...) I thought Laura did an excellent job bringing Phantom into the 21st century :) I was guessing who the "real" phantom was all the way until the ending and I DEFINITELY did not see that finale coming!

Becca was cute. I liked her, but she did kind of bug me at first with the whole "I want to fit in so I just CAN'T call attention to myself, but oh! *angsty swoony sigh* I love the play SO very much! I MUST try out in order to stay true to my over dramatic self!" lol...okay so it wasn't that bad, but it did initially rub me the wrong way and took me a bit of time to get over it before I could actually start liking Becca as a character again. But of course as she begins to plan for her auditions you start to feel her nervousness and stage fright and it made me like her that much more because of her vulnerability

The two love interests were FABULOUS! I absolutely adored the original concept of the phantom. That melancholy, tortured soul who hides away from a world who doesn't want him. He's literally the original goth, and I'm sure a great inspriation to those gothic twisted teenagers everywhere. Justyn played his part to a T! I didn't like how he was reffered to as a goth freak, because in my school one of the biggest cliques were the goths so I always think it's funny when they get treated like they are SOOO weird and freaky, but he was really great. He was so sweet and even though it was kind of corny, I would have totally swooned out of my mind if a guy would have sung me lines out of my favorite play to tell me that he loves me. So freaking cute! Tom did a really good Raoul as well, but I did think he was a little too much the cliche'd popular kid. I loved that he was blonde (my favorite type) and that he surfed (my favorite sport) but he was also really antagonistic towards Justyn and I hate it when any character is really hostile towards another for superficial reasons like that (unless of course that hostility is because they LURVE the heroine so much that they hate to see her with anyone else!) Still they both played their roles extremely well and added an awesome level of angst and drama to an already dramatic play!

I really LOVED Christine/Becca's audition scene. You really feel her stage fright as she gets up to audition because she has loved this play for so long and you can just tell that it would kill her to not get the part. It was this eerie combination of creepy and cool when she spots Justyn watching from the wings and she starts to sing to him as if he's the phantom already. It was one of those cool moments when you really feel like you are living the moment that the characters are and you forget everything but the story and the scene you are living. So cool!

I really enjoyed all the characters and how they were really believable and realistic. But they were nothing compared to the story! Everything was excellently paced to the point where I never found a moment where I wanted to stop reading! There were some definite intense and terrifying moments where your heart is practically beating out of your chest and you can't figure out what's happenning and all you can think is "WHAT!?!?" So yeah...definitely a fan of Laura DeLuca now :) All in all, the story was really unpredictable for being a remastered version (kinda) of a popular play and story that a lot of people already know.