Of Metal and Wishes (Of Metal and Wishes, #1)

by Sarah Fine

[cornerfolds]

It was pure luck that brought Of Metal and Wishes across my path. I saw the second book in the series in a Waiting on Wednesday post recently, saw "Phantom of the Opera retelling," quickly found out it was a series, and searched my local library! I was so excited when I got my hands on this that I started it immediately and I was not at all disappointed.

I have never been a fan of the steampunk genre (is it a genre?) and didn't actually realize this book fit that bill until it was too late to back out. There are metal spiders, metal appendages, metal rooms, metal war machines... there's metal in the title! But it really did work in this book. The setting is so realistically portrayed that it all fit together and I could see it like I was there. The mood was dreary and I felt like everything was shrouded in dust (or metal shavings) and it was amazing.

The characters were one area I wasn't totally sure about at first. The society this book is set in is one in which women are extremely suppressed, have no rights, and are viewed as property. While this was really, REALLY hard for me to stomach, I did come to terms that this was just the way the world was and did not reflect the heroine, Wen (Christine), who is remarkably strong against such terrible odds. Although she is deeply respectful of her father, she also finds ways to be strong in her own way.

And of course a Phantom of the Opera retelling would not be complete without a love triangle! In fact, I think Phantom of the Opera was THE original love triangle (okay, maybe not, but I'm saying that) and that is why it works here. I will admit I felt incredibly confusing emotions over this. I have always been a Phantom fan but this book had me feeling things for Melik (Raoul) that I had to come to terms with. This book has made me a Raoul, er... Melik fan. I think this is because this is the first time I've ever seen the Raoul character written as multi-dimensional. The Ghost (Phantom) of this story is so easy to sympathize with, but I also understand the fear and uncertainty that Wen was feeling throughout the book. This whole situation is just a very uncomfortable one.

My one, very minor complaint is that the writing seemed a little strange. It almost seemed like it was written in a different language and then translated to English. Then again, maybe this was done purposely to add to the overall feel of the story.

This is a fantastic retelling that totally blew me away! It made me want to watch the movie so bad (incidentally, I did) and I was picturing scenes in the film as I read along with this new retelling of the story. It wraps up nicely at the end very similarly to how the movie (and original book) left off so it could really be read as a standalone in my opinion, although I'm very excited about book two! I highly recommend this to retelling and Phantom fans!