Reviews

Red School (Part 1) by Soman Chainani, Victoria Aveyard

thebooklovingpanda's review against another edition

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4.0

Blurb:Fantasy titans Victoria Aveyard and Soman Chainani team up in a two-part graphic novel event! Featuring your favourite characters from 'Red Queen' and 'The School for Good and Evil' series.

I mainly read this because the digital download is free (go to the Red School website to order) and because I love 'The School for Good and Evil'. Also did I mention it was free? The SGE fandom (from what I could see anyway) seemed conflicted about the art, but personally I loved the artwork, especially the rendering of the castle's architecture and Sophie's outfit!

The plot itself is pretty good, builds up a mystery (I liked the flashback exposition!) to be resolved in Pt. 2. I wasn't entirely sure where in the SGE canon this was set...before the end of Book 1? Doesn't really matter anyhow. There's some classic SGE ridiculousness that made me chortle too.

I haven't read 'Red Queen' but I'm absolutely going to now -because I need want to meet that gorgeous girl (lady?) with the white hair, spiky earcuffs, silver armour, purple cape and vampy lipstick...wow. (If you know her name, please let me know! Obviously without spoilers.) She gave me big Hester and Sophie vibes (two iconic SGE characters)!

Overall this was surprisingly good given that I really had no idea what to expect, and I'm pretty excited for Pt. 2!

caitlinjoyful's review against another edition

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5.0

5 stars

I've never read red queen but it is now on my TBR.
This comic was so much fun, going back and visiting characters from the school for good and evil.
I totally recommend it.

straciehniezdo's review against another edition

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3.0

Well, this was a nice path down the memory lane. I used to be a big fan of both series. But then a life happened, my taste changed, I stopped reading for a while...
What I'm saying is I read only the original School for good and evil trilogy and the first two Red queens books.
I found this combination quite interesting tho, so I was looking forward to this.

It's good.
However this format doesn't really offers much space for any character developement, world building, explaining what happened, how it happened, how these worlds work together...
It's a nicw bonus content, but it'd work better as a short story.

I loved that art tho.

emmabjork's review

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3.0

This is such a fun idea! I love the concept of this story, and the art is spectacular. Can’t wait for part 2

dannymor's review against another edition

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2.25

Um... what did I just read?
I'm gonna be honest with you, I was a little confused throughout this whole thing. 
First of all, the worlds just don't work together at all. The authors just meshed them together hoping they would make sense, but it ended up just feeling they rushed to start with the story. 
Speaking of the story, it was alright. The whole "fog turning people evil" was a little cliche but the action scenes were really good and I really liked that part of the art style. 
I would say that the story lacked a lot in character. The things that make these books compelling, at least for me, are the characters. Here they were shell versions of themselves. Cal and Thederos looked 40 (in the art style) and were such jocks!!!! Where did the lovable prices I knew have gone? Sophie was pretty much the same if we're comparing her to the start of the series, which I believe is when this comic takes place. Mare was the only ok character there. 
This felt so much like fanfiction to the point where I went back to the website to check that it really was written by the authors of the book. But then again, I did enjoy it to an extent but was also deeply disappointed because I wanted so much more out of this. As a fanfic, this is really great. But don't go into it expecting too much.

pendrag0n's review against another edition

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3.0

Better than the first.

paulajimenez's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

the_shelf_elf's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.0

crystalm17's review against another edition

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4.0

It's been awhile since I read Red Queen and I only read the first book in A School For Good and Evil but I really enjoyed this. Also, Mare is beautiful!

ziyuelan's review against another edition

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4.0

Read it because I had loved the Red Queen series and this was just a fun throwback to the series.
I didn’t really know when this was going take place but it happened to be before the big betrayal of Maven so I’m kinda happy we get to see that Maven.
The art work is honestly stunning so props for that.