This just occurred to me: More than once, my "Erik" has been hung up on keeping a promise, or at the very least trying to make Lily feel assured by promising.

Leroux Erik thinks promises are for schmucks.

Good going, Jennifer! Real careful book-studying you're doing there.

I gave up on doing the updates because I just really couldn't find the inspiration to write them out, even though tons of things were going through my head and sticking out while I read it. But, a little bit ago, I read the last page.

Things were how I remembered them, but not how I remembered them at the same time.

If this book was all I'd ever known, I don't know how I'd feel, but knowing so much more and being able to connect it to everything else I've experienced to do with this story, it was rather fascinating. And... I owe SO much more to Leroux's real character of Erik than I thought.

I also didn't realize that, pretentiousness and saccharine quality and romance-centricity aside, the musical actually expresses a lot of what I read in these pages.

Anyway, as I said, I finished the last page just a bit ago, was sort of putting myself in the character's places (mostly Erik's) during the last couple chapters, but I thought I would calmly finish the book and be done. Lo and behold, a few minutes later, I was sobbing.

lol

It's funny that this thin 274-page book is so important and life-changing to me and could produce the beginning of my career as a writer myself.

I don't think I'm done crying; I'll probably do more of it later.