Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

5 reviews

strawberrymushie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Classism, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Death of parent

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

2.0

 I read this book because I saw some clips of the show and thought it looked interesting. I thought there was opportunity for some interesting trope subversions but this book is trying too hard to subversive and ends up contradicting its own message.

At the beginning I was quite excited because I thought Sophie and Agatha were an interesting contrast with internal vs external goodness. Agatha is the village weird kid but is very kind but rather asocial while Sophie is externally very pretty and tries to be nice but is such a mean girl that it is actually quite nasty. There is a random comment saying that Agatha dressed up as a bride for Halloween once because marriage scares her and I thought that was the best (and funniest) thing! This exciting beginning is over rather quickly though as we then head to the school and the book begins to get tangled up in its own themes.

I think the author was going for the angle that there is more to being a good person than being a knight if you are a boy or a damsel in distress if you are a girl and that the gender roles that we see played out in so many fairy tales are restrictive but this didn't really come through. The story points out these things but never quite gets to the point of saying what it will do instead so I'm left with the final impression that the 'moral of the story' is that everyone sucks but that's ok if you are beautiful and can't wait to get married to the first boy to acknowledge your existence like a good little air-headed princess. In fact if you aren't frothing at the mouth at the thought of dating boys and being vapid then you must be evil! Yea no thank you. We even head into the territory of external appearance being determined by your morality in the climax of the book which I guess is in fitting with the fairy tale setting but not a great mindset to have nowadays when this logic says that everyone who isn't conventionally attractive and living a heteronormative lifestyle is a bad person.

On another note the "friendship" between Agatha and Sophie was extremely tedious. They have the communication skills of characters in a shoujo romance anime and are stuck in a continuous cycle of falling out, almost making up and then falling out over something different. I honestly don't understand why Agatha is always willing to go so far out of her way for Sophie when Sophie will never even thank her and always blames her for EVERYTHING. Who needs enemies when you can have friends like this!?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Classism

Minor: Child death

_ren's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Reads like fanfiction to me. An amazing, great world, but with obnoxious tropes and characters. This was definitely written by a beginner writer.

APPARENTLY, THE AUTHOR COMPLETELY RUINS IT IN THE 2ND BOOK, SO I WILL NOT BE READING THE REST OF THE SERIES.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Torture, Sexism, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Gore, Grief, Body shaming, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Classism, War, Vomit, and Violence

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Cursing, and Kidnapping

Minor: Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia

hayleyvem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Violence, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Torture, Child death, and Confinement

Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Homophobia, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Lesbophobia

a_libra_library's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Bullying, and Classism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, and Toxic friendship