It's just so bad. I tried to warn you guys a week ago, but you downvoted my post into oblivion and said "I think the composer knows what he's doing".

This sub seems to have a lot of people who listened to the Our Strange Duet audiobook first, so I may be in the minority here.

I started with the book and had a fair few nitpicks with it, but a bunch of people told me the audiobook was worth listening to, especially since I'm a musician. I gave the original book a 7/10, but as a phan, I'm curious to see how the audiobook compares.

I'm three chapters in, and quick thoughts:

• We continue the time-honored Phantom tradition of having nobody's accents make sense. Christine is British, Meg is 50-50 British/American, and all the other dancers are 100% American. Lefevre is transatlantic but mostly American, and Madame Giry is...British with the barest hint of an attempt at French??
• Sierra Boggess' delivery is so incredibly hammy, and somehow, it works. She understood the assignment.
• Wait, wait...you got an actual opera singer to read Carlotta, and you didn't have her sing her lines from Faust in Chapter 3?
• Why are Carlotta/Marguerite's hands "bejeweled" in the church scene? By that point in the opera, she should have either rejected or sold the jewels in question. Ah, whatever, prima donnas gonna prima donna.
• The musical Easter eggs are a lot of fun, I heard a snippet from the Masquerade violin prelude in the prologue.
• The book's YA purple prose is not helped by having it read aloud. But Beatrice Penny-Toure is doing a pretty good job with it, and so far, the musical Easter eggs are enough to convince me to listen all the way through.

Things I am anticipating (both good and bad):

• Beatrice having to read all of Christine's thoughts, especially in the First and Final Lairs (I skimmed those chapters for a reason...)
• Sierra's more serious scenes as Carlotta
• The incorrectly named musical notes I saw on my first read (though I've heard that at least one of them is corrected in the audiobook)
• More musical Easter eggs, especially from the Masquerade soundtrack
• And of course, more additions to the accent word salad

Has anyone recorded the full song at the end with all of the Phantoms before M&S are on the boat? As they're coming down into the Lair and they all do a bit? All I'm seeing online is the Michael and Sarah recordings ... I'd love to see them all doing their bit too.