The Phantom of the Opera

Under the Paris Opera House there's a labyrinth of cellars and passages, and something living down there that the company calls a ghost. He writes letters, he makes demands, and when he isn't obeyed, people start to get hurt.

This isn't jump-scare horror. It's the slow dread of being watched, of a voice coming from nowhere, of a story that keeps circling back to an old tragedy under that opera house. There's obsession here, and a fair bit of heartbreak tangled up with the fear.

Gaston Leroux wrote it as a serial before it came out as a book, and there's something in that shape you can still feel: it moves in instalments, each one leaving you wanting the next.

Good for a night when you want atmosphere over gore. Candles lit, something with a Gothic edge, and enough plot to keep you turning pages rather than checking the clock. It rewards patience, and it's worth knowing that a century of adaptations all trace back to this one.