Title: Sing Me Forgotten
Author: Jessica S. Olson
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication date: March 9th, 2021
336 pages
3/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Isda does not exist. At least not beyond the opulent walls of the opera house.
Cast into a well at birth for being one of the magical few who can manipulate memories when people sing, she was saved by Cyril, the opera house’s owner. Since that day, he has given her sanctuary from the murderous world outside. All he asks in return is that she use her power to keep ticket sales high—and that she stay out of sight. For if anyone discovers she survived, Isda and Cyril would pay with their lives.
But Isda breaks Cyril’s cardinal rule when she meets Emeric Rodin, a charming boy who throws her quiet, solitary life out of balance. His voice is unlike any she’s ever heard, but the real shock comes when she finds in his memories hints of a way to finally break free of her gilded prison.
Haunted by this possibility, Isda spends more and more time with Emeric, searching for answers in his music and his past. But the price of freedom is steeper than Isda could ever know. For even as she struggles with her growing feelings for Emeric, she learns that in order to take charge of her own destiny, she must become the monster the world tried to drown in the first place.
Review
“I pretend to be human, but the mirror does not lie.”
Jessica S. Olson, Sing Me Forgotten
I had high hopes for this book and sadly by the end I was just… disappointed. Isda is a ghost, she lives in the catacombs of the opera house her master runs. She isn’t supposed to exist, as a gravoir her kind is killed at birth due to their ability to manipulate memories while people sing. She has never left the opera house and the only human she has interacted with in her 16 years is Cyril – her master and savior. That is, until Emeric showed up – a janitor with the voice of an angel that makes Isda determined to know him.
Honestly, I was loving this book until the ending so please take my review with a grain of salt. It is not a traditional romance ending and it irritated me because after everything Isda and Emeric went through it just wasn’t fair. And yeah okay, I know that’s the point and it has it’s purpose but MEH. It just doesn’t do it for me – after Isda gives up everything and works so hard in this book to save Emeric it’s devastating that she doesn’t get the ending she deserves, in my opinion. But I digress, other than this main complaint – I did enjoy the book. The writing utilizes some prime imagery and the magic just leaps off the page. It’s a very unique world with a fairly well explained magic system that didn’t require too much info-dumping at the beginning.
I’m told this is a genderbent Phantom of the Opera retelling but honestly I don’t know shit about Phantom of the Opera so I can’t speak to how true this is or how closely it follows the original story. So there’s that.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 