Welcome Blog Review Policy My Novels Giveaways Restorer's House

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

DNF Review- The School For Good and Evil- Soman Chainani

“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…?

 

DNF Review




I stopped reading this at 300 out of 488 pages….. I hate doing that but I put this book down on May 31st and simply cannot convince myself to pick it back up.

The concept of this novel was good, two girls get taken to the schools for good and evil and are taught to be become heroes and villains in fairy tale stories.

The characters were fun, colorful and well thought out. Except Sophie, who I will get to later. The imagery was great, so imaginative…Very Harry Potteresque with the classes taught, books read and teachers.

However the good students are all pretty, perfect and snotty while the bad students are all evil, ugly and disgusting, I thought the author could have played around a little more with these stereotypes.

Then there was the big ole plot twist. Which was OBVIOUS .

Sophie always thought she would be a princess, she is beautiful and blonde selfish and vain. She winds up in the school for evil and spends the entire book whining about it, trying to make the son of King Arthur fall in love with her and treating her BFF like shit, all the while realizing she is becoming the most powerful villain to be seen. Sophie is the number one reason I cannot finish this book. She is horrid, there are absolutely no redeeming qualities about her and every time she came into the plot I just rolled my eyes, gritted my teeth and tried to read her stuff faster and faster.

Then there was Agatha, the kind of ugly, witch, who has a hairless cat, wears all black and lives in a cemetery. She is nice, sweet and shy. She winds up in the school for good and thinks it is stupid and silly and just wants to go home to her cat and cemetery. She thinks Sophie is her best friend and spends the entire book saving Sophie, acting like doormat and trying anything to get home, while realizing she has some major good powers, like talking to animals.

The plot line took FOREVER to get started and when I gave up I still wasn’t totally sure where the hell the story was going. This was middle grade fiction kind of traipsing into YA territory and honestly was too long. The cover is beautiful and the synopsis intriguing, hence why I picked it up in the first place.

So over all 2.5 stars, on goodreads rounding to 3 this book just didn’t do it for me and Sophie was so annoying it just wasn’t worth finishing.










No comments:

Post a Comment

I love getting comments! Also please let me know if you are a new follower, I always follow back!

This is an award free blog, I love the thought, but I just don't have the time.
Thanks!