Reviews

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

illusie's review against another edition

4.0

This book was more fun than I expected. Strong characters who show great character development. Even the characters I thought were annoying ended up as characters I liked. It was a fun read with several unexpected twist.

madimoss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

rflavin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

hiddennism's review against another edition

4.0

Read this book way back in 2016, and absolutely loved it (started an entire thing at school that caused everyone in class wanting to read it). Sophie and Agatha have such a great dynamic, and them being opposites, being thrown into schools they thought the other would end up in is absolutely brilliant. Still one of my favorite fantasy books.

edenwadz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cbswelcomehome's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

emmasalas_7's review against another edition

4.0

still love this

daintyrose24's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bookph1le's review

3.0

I'm kind of on the fence about this book. While I liked some of what it had to say, particularly about the notion of the appearance of good or evil versus a person's substance, there were other things about it that bothered me. In particular, there was a thread of fat shaming I did not like, and I thought Tedros had some sexism he needed to work a little harder to overcome. Hopefully these things will be addressed in future installments, since the premise of this series does seem to be to deconstruct the sanitized and saccharine versions of fairy tales so many of us grew up on.

My other critique is I found parts of this book to be derivative. I felt a bit like I was reading some Harry Potter fanfiction taking place in an alternate universe. Who knows, maybe every fantasy middle grade novel set at a magical boarding school will feel something like this, but it didn't sit well with me.

Lastly, while I appreciated the themes of friendship, I never felt like Sophie and Agatha were a good example of friendship. Sophie straight up uses Agatha for most of the book, but when it counts Agatha is also on the verge of throwing her friend aside for a boy she doesn't really know all that well. There's some girl power in this book, but I guess I would have liked to see more of it. One of these days, I want to read a book where instead of arguing over the cute guy, the best friends look at him, shrug, and walk away while saying, "Meh. Our friendship is more important."

allysatannerrr's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0