Title: The School for Good and Evil
Author: Soman Chainani
Series: School for Good and Evil #1
Published: 14 May 2013 by Harper Collins
Length: 448 pages
Source: netgalley
Other info: This
will be a trilogy. Universal have bought film rights. I am looking forwards to
this.
Summary : : “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…?
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…?
Review: Every four years, two children are taken from the village of
Gavaldon, to the School of Good and Evil. There, they learn things that enable
them to become characters in fairy tales, whether they be princesses, witches,
fairy godmothers or plants. Agatha is a strange child who is thought of as a
witch, living alone at Graves Hill and having one friend, Sophie. Sophie is a
girl with blond hair and the confidence
that she will be taken to be a princess. Sure enough, they both are taken, but
Agatha ends up in the school for Good and Sophie in Evil. With their
expectations reversed and both wanting out of their schools, they both learn
things about their destinies, and themselves.
I love fairytales. The idea that all of the characters are
real people who all trained at the same school is a very intriguing one, that I
really liked.
From the start, Sophie was a bit annoying and Agatha was
more my kind of girl. It was satisfying seeing Sophie get dropped at Evil, and
seeing how she coped with it. She stayed annoying throughout. Agatha dealt with
her fate a bit better. I liked Agatha’s bluntness, which made me laugh. Both
girls develop massively throughout, realising different things about themselves
and where they truly belong. Tedros, the prince, was really irritating. He
didn’t really do much and he just got on my nerves. The supporting characters
like Hester and Dot were well developed.
The world building is great. It’s a magical setting, with
wolves and fairies, and a mysterious School Master and the Storian, a pen
writing the fairy tales. The story moves
along well. The end is very climatic, with everything happening in a blur at
once. The very end was a bit sudden.
I’m sure it’s because of the way that women are presented in
fairy tales (because I’m seriously hoping they’re not reflective of Soman’s
views), but it really irritated me that the girls at Good were constantly “I
want this boy” and wishing for boys and having beauty rooms having
beautification as a subject and such. It’s such a big thing in the book that I
can’t ignore it and it’s aimed at middle-grade people who do not need to be
shown even more these sexist extreme standards but this generally annoyed me.
Overall: Strength 4 tea to a magical fairy tale.
Oh dear viz the boys and beauty bit--that sounds like something that would annoy me in an otherwise appealling book.
ReplyDeleteThis book does seem a bit sexist and all, and teaching that to younger kids probably isn't the best thing ever. Yet I love the sound of this one, and it's great to see that both girls really do develop and change throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteLovely review, Nina! <33
This book has been on my to-read pile since forever!! Unfortunately it's been buried under a pile of other titles that I forgot about it. Your review's reminded me once again why this sounds like the perfect read for me and I'm going to bump this up on my list. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteSee I saw those beautification things as him making fun of that sort of thing not as expecting people to take that seriously - but I could see how some MG readers could not see that point he was making.
ReplyDelete