"This year best friends Sophie and Agatha will discover what it is to be a student at the fabled School for Good and Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy-tale heroes and villains. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she''ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shape-less 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, among handsome princes and fair maidens 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 and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale . . . is to live through one." |
Wow, what an adorable little book. SO it was pretty alright. OBVS was a cover buy because wowowow how amazing is that cover?! Love it. And to be fair, the story started out really strong, but overall I think it was just way too long and had too many chapters and events that the story really could have done without, which ultimately just left me feeling 'meh' about the whole thing. But let's discuss that a little more.
SO YA, the actual premise of the book (the whole good and evil schools thing) was really fun and yay even though you could pretty much guess everything that happened (I mean it is a children's book, so by nature it's pretty straightforward and easy to follow), it didn't make it any less enjoyable. Although some people have called it "Harry Potter-esc," I found it to be very unique and wow, surprisingly dark! Like if a young person read it, I don't think they would pick up on some of the subtleties, but as an "older person" reading it, I was pretty shocked by how truly evil the evil character actually was. I thought that aspect of the story was done very well, and really enjoyed it! Another great aspect of this novel was the imagery. You really got a wonderfully clear sense of how colourful and storybook-ish the setting was. And coolcoolcool I found out that this book is possibly being made into a film! And not only that, but it will be made by the same directors (or producers - I don't know lol) that created the most recent Disney adaptation of Alice and Wonderland. WHICH IS PERFECT, because the descriptions of the setting, and even just the overall mood of the book, totally give off that same type of aesthetic vibe. SO YAY how cool would that be to see? :)
But okokok, back to the thing about the book being too long. YAAA I just found that some parts dragged on and on forever, and that a lot of events had no real purposes. Sometimes it felt like things were just going around and around in a circles, and that the story really could have done without them. By the end of it, it just felt like the whole thing was too long, and my excitement for the story had already tired out. The next book in the series is shorter (I believe), so maybe that addresses the problem I had with this first one. Pretty sure that I'll get to it soon, because ya all in all, this first instalment was pretty solid, even though it wasn't the best thing I've ever read. BUT I know that first books in series and trilogies aren't always the greatest, and that if you stick it out and get through the others, there's usually a really good payoff :) I gave this one 3/5 stars, and would suggest you check it out if you find the premise intriguing, because although it could have been probably 100 pages shorter, it still delivers a great storyline.
SO YA, the actual premise of the book (the whole good and evil schools thing) was really fun and yay even though you could pretty much guess everything that happened (I mean it is a children's book, so by nature it's pretty straightforward and easy to follow), it didn't make it any less enjoyable. Although some people have called it "Harry Potter-esc," I found it to be very unique and wow, surprisingly dark! Like if a young person read it, I don't think they would pick up on some of the subtleties, but as an "older person" reading it, I was pretty shocked by how truly evil the evil character actually was. I thought that aspect of the story was done very well, and really enjoyed it! Another great aspect of this novel was the imagery. You really got a wonderfully clear sense of how colourful and storybook-ish the setting was. And coolcoolcool I found out that this book is possibly being made into a film! And not only that, but it will be made by the same directors (or producers - I don't know lol) that created the most recent Disney adaptation of Alice and Wonderland. WHICH IS PERFECT, because the descriptions of the setting, and even just the overall mood of the book, totally give off that same type of aesthetic vibe. SO YAY how cool would that be to see? :)
But okokok, back to the thing about the book being too long. YAAA I just found that some parts dragged on and on forever, and that a lot of events had no real purposes. Sometimes it felt like things were just going around and around in a circles, and that the story really could have done without them. By the end of it, it just felt like the whole thing was too long, and my excitement for the story had already tired out. The next book in the series is shorter (I believe), so maybe that addresses the problem I had with this first one. Pretty sure that I'll get to it soon, because ya all in all, this first instalment was pretty solid, even though it wasn't the best thing I've ever read. BUT I know that first books in series and trilogies aren't always the greatest, and that if you stick it out and get through the others, there's usually a really good payoff :) I gave this one 3/5 stars, and would suggest you check it out if you find the premise intriguing, because although it could have been probably 100 pages shorter, it still delivers a great storyline.