** spoiler alert ** *

 The way the book is written so that it’s third person and from everyone’s perspective, but mainly Brystal’s, is a little jarring
* Some of the format choices were really weird. Like italicizing whispers and having Brystal speak her thoughts constantly if she was alone and sometimes with others, but they wouldn’t say anything about it, instead of thinking. It was just a weird choice.
* Madame Weatherberry is a fountain of cheesy quotes and I am HERE FOR IT (honestly so is Brystal)
* “It took all six children to lift Mrs. Vees’s unconscious body and transport her out of the dining room. She was much heavier than they expected and it required all their strength...By the time they plopped her down on her bed and tucked her in, the students were all sweaty and out of breath. “‘Wait a second,’ Lucy said. ‘Why didn’t we just use MAGIC to transport her ?’ Her classmates groaned at their own collective stupidity. ‘Aw, man,’ Xanthous said. ‘I keep forgetting that’s an option.’” (-Lucy Goose, Page 374) BEST LINES I’VE EVER READ IN A BOOK
* The pacing of this book was a little wonky. Out of my 481 page book, it took 150 pages for Brystal to even meet Madame Weatherberry, 210 pages until they get to the academy, and 317 pages until they even left to help Madame Weatherberry, which was supposed to be the main plot of the book. The final battle was also really short for final battle standards. Not that I’m complaining. The things that are going on during these timeframes are enjoyable, they just make the plot stand still, quite often for the sake of Brystal reading and developing/explaining relationships. They were genuinely entertaining to read and were really cute, like the thunderstorm scene.
* One of the things I didn’t particularly like about the book was that nobody had to struggle for anything. If any of the students needed to do magic once they were at the school, they could immediately do it. Sure, Brystal needed help the first time, but once she did it ONCE, she didn’t struggle. They don’t have to struggle to find their magic or struggle within themselves to find out who they are, they can just do anything with a snap of the finger or the wave of a wand. They also defeated the villains WAY to easily. They all pretty much knocked all the opposers down like bowling pins.
* None of the classmates really had a personality except Lucy, who was sarcastic and kind of nasty to people. Brystal was pretty textbook protagonist- not like other girls, special, good, kind beyond belief, and the other characters had the personality as a piece of bread, except for occasional moments of jealousy or small moments like Xanthous’ shame over playing with dolls and Tangerina and Skylene thinking they were better than others because they were “born” fairies.
* “‘We’re all just a couple of mistakes away from becoming the people we despise,’ she said. ‘So don’t think WORSE of yourself, but let this change HOW you think of yourself. Start valuing WHO you are, more than WHAT you are. Prove you’re better than most people by showing more ACCEPTANCE and EMPATHY. And fuel your pride with what you EARN and CREATE, instead of what you’re born with.’” (-Brystal Evergreen, Page 411)
* I was genuinely surprised by the plot twist of the witches actually siding with the Snow Queen, and it does make sense. This was a good plot twist.
* I think the twist on magic that if you practice witchcraft, your body gets more and more animal like is really interesting and unique. I really like that.
* The Madame Weatherberry/Snow Queen plot twist was written really well. It was set up really early in the book, and it came out of nowhere. Fantastic writing there.