Our Strange Duet

• Author: Erin A. Craig
• Genre: YA Historical Fiction
• Publication Date: September 1, 2026
• Publisher: Delacorte Press

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing me with an ARC of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

A reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, spotlighting Christine Daaé as she rises to fame while torn between love, ambition, and the haunting secrets of the opera house from #1 New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig.

Inspired by Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel, Le Fantôme de L’Opéra, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a mysterious masked figure who lurks beneath the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it.

He falls madly in love with a young soprano, Christine Daaé, and devotes himself to nurturing her extraordinary talents, employing all of the devious methods at his command.

Our Strange Duet centres Christine’s emotional journey and her agency within this sweeping, atmospheric opera.

For someone who doesn’t really like musicals and only rarely watch them, I find myself surrounded by people who love them. It is only in recent years that I’ve watched classics like The Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof, and really loved both of those. However, I know nothing about Phantom of the Opera but I do know that I have loved Erin A. Craig’s writing, so I was willing to take a chance on this one.

I clearly didn’t read the summary well, because I had originally thought this was an adult read but only discovered that it was YA until I sat down to write the review. It was also hard to classify this one—it is a musical retelling, historical fiction, and a romantasy all in one. Naturally, it was all new to me so it felt original, although I have seen some feedback that said the story was predictable when compared to the original. Also, I was running behind on reading this so I decided to read part of this as an audiobook, which had a full cast and all kinds of background sounds such as singing, practicing scales, and sounds that you’d hear making it sound like I was at an actual production.

The story centers around Christine, a dancer in the corps at the Paris Opera House with dreams of using her powerful soprano achieve her true dream of becoming a singer rather than a dancer. However, Carlotta is the opera house’s principal singer and is automatically given the main role. Staff relies on Carlotta so much that there is no understudy to her roles. Which works fine, although there is a little push back on the more mature Carlotta playing young roles, until the ‘opera ghost’ haunting the theater causes an accident that threatens to hurt Carlotta and she walks away.

As for pacing, the story was a bit slow-moving, especially in the early part of the book. The author takes a lot of time setting the scene, which I didn’t really mind as someone new to the story, but for people who are already familiar with the world of Phantom this might be a really slow, boring, and unnecessary section in this much depth. Between the big plot points, a lot of the material felt unneeded and slowed down the pacing of the novel further.

The characters and their development was one of the high points of the read, for me. Christine’s job as a dancer gives her plenty of opportunity to deal with her female coworkers. She crosses paths most often with Meg, a fellow dancer whose mother owns the theater; and Carlotta, the diva who always stars as the lead female singer. While her relationship with Meg is that of a best friend, they also give each other a bit of space that speaks to a long-term, supportive relationship. The connection between Christine and Carlotta changes over the course of the story: initially Christine doesn’t even register on Carlotta’s radar, but then Carlotta becomes aware of Christine as first a threat to her position but her adversarial stance towards Christine continues to change. Additionally, Madame Giry serves as a stand-in for maternal attention.

As usual, Craig does a fantastic job of creating a vivid and atmospheric image of a world within a world—the family nature of the opera house juxtaposed with the wider world of Paris in the early 20th century. The glamour of the theater is in stark contrast with the shabby world that Christine lives in, and the appearance of ‘the theater ghost’ is welcome to her, since she is convinced that he is the ‘angel of music’ who her father credited for his gift. When he begins training sessions with Meg so she can be a stronger singer, it only reinforces her belief. Things change over time, and I was honestly so disappointed with how long it took Christine to see what is staring her in the face. Knowing that this is actually a YA book made it feel a bit more realistic and less disappointing to see how insipid and naïve Christine is. 

Overall, this was a really enjoyable read, even if you’ve never seen Phantom. The pacing was a bit slow for my taste, and often had short sections that were faster-paced with a lot more sections that dragged and sometimes felt repetitive and unnecessary. On the other hand, the characters and their arcs were done really well, despite the presence of one of my least favorite tropes—the love triangle. It felt as though there were things that Christine liked about the Phantom aside from her reaction to his looks, while also leading her childhood friend Raoul on. At times, Christine was a bit frustrating to read about, but she grew on me over time. And by the end of the book, I was left with a strong urge to watch the musical.

Bottom line: A great story, with some pacing issues, that kept my attention from start to finish, although it may be somewhat predictable if you’re already familiar with the bones of Phantom. 

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