reubenalbatross 's review for:

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
4.5
adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
This story was sandwiched by even more of Lewis’ fucked up ideas about how children should be raised and a good smattering of sexism. 

It definitely was not a promising start with the vilification of co-ed schools (this one being called "Experiment House"): 

1. The kids were "allowed to do what they liked", which meant "horrid things, went on" and the kids were never reprimanded (i.e. weren’t beaten up). 

2. Onus is put on the fact that "Bibles weren't encouraged" at the school, and also seemingly that women held a lot of the positions of power within the school. 

I truly don’t understand why Lewis was SO against children not being abused, let alone treated kindly, and apparently all in the name of God??? He was probably upset they weren't all still in the mines. This is obviously carrying on from the weird precedent of Eustace being evil because he was progressive (not even fucking anti-religious). 

Then when we return to the school at the end, when describing the headteacher of "Experiment House" he says:
 
"And then the Head (who was, by the way, a woman) ..." 

SO goddamn sexist in context. The sexism isn’t anywhere near as obvious in Narnia, I assume because I’m used to sexism being more prevalent in this sort of fantasy world, but when we’re back in the real world, just oooof. 

However, this same paragraph does also contain pretty accurate commentary on people in power: 

"...the Head's friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn't much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after." 

But whether this was Lewis commentating only on women in power, or it expands to everyone in power, I’m not so sure. 

Then the whole time in Narnia was really great. Definitely the best ending until this point, and the story is probably the strongest. 

Puddleglum was 100% the star of the show; he’s the best bit of character work in the series by far. This was definitely aided by the fact that he’s been the least preachy ‘good’ character, but mainly its that Lewis portrayed him in a very comedic, Pratchett-esque way. A true gem. Also probably helps that I was picturing him as Tom Baker the entire time.   

So overall, a largely great read, only let down by Lewis’ crazy views on child rearing at the beginning and end.