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popthebutterfly 's review for:
The School for Good and Evil
by Soman Chainani
Disclaimer: I bought this book on my own. Yay me! All opinions are my own.
Rating: 3.5/5
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Recommended Age: 12+ (violence, scary bits, questioning on if you’re truly good or evil)
Publisher: HaperCollins
Pages: 488
Amazon Link
Synopsis: The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.
This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.
But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?
The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.
Review: This book was amazing for the most part. I love the plot of this book. I felt that it was really unique and interesting throughout. I felt that the characters were very vivid and descriptive. The settings were detailed and I loved all the little things that the book included from other fairy tales. And I feel like this will be an interesting series.
The only downsides were that the book was incredibly slow and I feel that the book could have ended sooner. I definitely think it suffers from over-explanation of details and that the author really droned on and one about things that didn’t have any bearing on the overall plot. I also felt that this book could have been cut in half and it would have been better.
Verdict: Overall, excellent start to a series and I’m excited for the next one.
Rating: 3.5/5
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Recommended Age: 12+ (violence, scary bits, questioning on if you’re truly good or evil)
Publisher: HaperCollins
Pages: 488
Amazon Link
Synopsis: The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.
This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.
But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?
The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.
Review: This book was amazing for the most part. I love the plot of this book. I felt that it was really unique and interesting throughout. I felt that the characters were very vivid and descriptive. The settings were detailed and I loved all the little things that the book included from other fairy tales. And I feel like this will be an interesting series.
The only downsides were that the book was incredibly slow and I feel that the book could have ended sooner. I definitely think it suffers from over-explanation of details and that the author really droned on and one about things that didn’t have any bearing on the overall plot. I also felt that this book could have been cut in half and it would have been better.
Verdict: Overall, excellent start to a series and I’m excited for the next one.