Our Strange Duet by Erin A. Craig, 400 pages. Delacorte (Random House), 2026. $20
Language: PG (12 swears, 0 ‘f'); Mature Content: PG-13 (kissing in dreams, Off page sex in a dream, over clothes chest touching) ; Violence: PG (off page deaths)
BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - ADVISABLE
APPEALS TO: HS - MANY; MS - SEVERAL
20 yo Christine’s love of music was inspired by her deceased musical father who promised that she would be visited by the angel of music. She believes the angel has come to her to build her singing voice and help her become a great and famous singer. She’s never seen her teacher and only hears his voice as he gives her instructions. Her dreams seem to be coming true when the lead vocalist loses her voice and Christine is thrust into the leading role. Strange, dangerous things start to happen in the opera and Christine begins to doubt whether or not her teacher is truly an angel. The Rosa Josephine is the signature rose of the Phantom. The Phantom tells the story of Josephine creating the rose to emulate her love for Napoleon, which is interesting.
I like how Raoul stands up to his mother when she belittles Christine. Beautiful confectionary-like descriptions of costumes. When Madame Giry tells the story of helping a young Erik run away from the carnival, my heart went out to him and I feel like she was very brave to help. I especially like this retelling of The Phantom of the Opera because of the thorough descriptions of Christine’s thought process helping her to make the choices she made.
The ethnicity is predominantly white with Italian lead singers.
LynnDell Watson, Delta High Librarian

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