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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
annoying mary sue characters. not for me.
This book left a bad taste in my mouth :'(. A pale-skinned, blue-eyed race has been practicing eugenics for years, and they grandfather in our blonde waifish protagonist to their private school. She almost didn't qualify because she has brown eyes. But hey, at least she's not like those other "stupid" or boorish "chubby, brown-skinned" races, who are inferior intellectually and morally, and - at best - are grateful for any menial labor the pale race throws their way.
....
See what I mean?
But hey, maybe you're not in the mood for positive messaging in your middle grade fantasy. Maybe you're just here for the magic and glitter. Ok, let's talk glitter:
Sophie the Snowflake is the Bella-est of Bella Swan's: Wah, I'm so smart and magical and misunderstood and well-ahead of my peers. I feel like a loner even in my own family. But when a magical teenager shows up and tells me how amazing I am, I instantly romanticize him, allow him to kidnap me, adopt his family as my own, and want to abandon my life for his world.
The "wise", emo protagonist is tropetastic, as is the magical boyfriend and the hidden magical race and being whisked off to magic school... I can't be mad that these tropes are in this book; they're tropes for a reason, and any one of them could be a sub-genre onto themselves. But there is something particularly icky about how the tropes were handled in this book. Sophie isn't an older teen on the cusp of adulthood, uncertain of her future, ready to leap into a wild romance or adventure that will test and shape her. Sophie is 12! She is not even a teenager, being treated with the same level of maturity as a high school senior. No upperclassman should be whisking her anywhere. Fitz's behavior is predatory: He grooms her by telling her how special and unique she is, negs her family and her school, then isolates Sophie. He makes decisions for her without informing her, consulting her, or waiting for consent. He insults everything about her, from her intellect to her diet, while championing her looks and anything she has in common with him, like her magic. He is an arrogant, racist elitist, who immediately makes her feel ashamed of her family and upbringing, and insinuates that Sophie will only continue to be special to him if she molds herself to be exactly like him.
A looot of red flags. A LOT! There are far superior magical academy or paranormal boyfriend or parallel world stories out there.
....
See what I mean?
But hey, maybe you're not in the mood for positive messaging in your middle grade fantasy. Maybe you're just here for the magic and glitter. Ok, let's talk glitter:
Sophie the Snowflake is the Bella-est of Bella Swan's: Wah, I'm so smart and magical and misunderstood and well-ahead of my peers. I feel like a loner even in my own family. But when a magical teenager shows up and tells me how amazing I am, I instantly romanticize him, allow him to kidnap me, adopt his family as my own, and want to abandon my life for his world.
The "wise", emo protagonist is tropetastic, as is the magical boyfriend and the hidden magical race and being whisked off to magic school... I can't be mad that these tropes are in this book; they're tropes for a reason, and any one of them could be a sub-genre onto themselves. But there is something particularly icky about how the tropes were handled in this book. Sophie isn't an older teen on the cusp of adulthood, uncertain of her future, ready to leap into a wild romance or adventure that will test and shape her. Sophie is 12! She is not even a teenager, being treated with the same level of maturity as a high school senior. No upperclassman should be whisking her anywhere. Fitz's behavior is predatory: He grooms her by telling her how special and unique she is, negs her family and her school, then isolates Sophie. He makes decisions for her without informing her, consulting her, or waiting for consent. He insults everything about her, from her intellect to her diet, while championing her looks and anything she has in common with him, like her magic. He is an arrogant, racist elitist, who immediately makes her feel ashamed of her family and upbringing, and insinuates that Sophie will only continue to be special to him if she molds herself to be exactly like him.
A looot of red flags. A LOT! There are far superior magical academy or paranormal boyfriend or parallel world stories out there.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
this was fun
4.5
This was so good! I need the next books asap!!
This was so good! I need the next books asap!!
Such a fun, light-hearted fantasy read with just enough complicated secret plot to keep you wanting to find out more. I wish I had found this book back when I was a kid. It has so many great aspects that are slowly making me fall in love. In essence, it gives Harry Potter vibes; a kid taken from their family to go live in a magical world finds out they are the chosen one. Only in this book feels a lot more real, delving into aspects about this Harry Potter fails to address. Additionally (though I was a little scared sometimes) there is not a heavy focus on romance even though the main character has multiple friends who are boys. I greatly appreciate the room this leaves for exploration of the world around her and who exactly she is as the 'chosen' one. The only reason I did not give this book five stars is because it was not earth-shatteringly good (although it was good) and there was one character I kinda started to not like near the end for reasons unrelated to the book itself.
I've read this before, but a new one is on the way so I figured I'd reread it. I liked it better the second time around, but it still wasn't that great. Probably closer to a 2.5.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fun and quick read - you really feel for Sophie as she's uprooted from everything she's ever known and tried to find her way in a new world. The book skews younger than my normal reads though, and I prefer something a little older. Great book for elementary/junior high, though.
This book wasn’t Good — there were probably 10 books worth of content all smushed into this one, the characters were pretty flat, and no emotional beats were given more than two pages to breathe — but I did stay up until 5 am reading the entire second half of it in one sitting, so that’s gotta count for something. I’m very excited to talk about this with my
middle school book group today.
middle school book group today.
J'ai enfin lu ce classique de la fantasy jeunesse!
Honnêtement, j'ai quand même pas mal levé les yeux au ciel. Il y avait beaucoup de choses qui me semblaient trop rapides ou acceptées trop facilement par Sophie.
Cependant, je me suis secouée les puces et mis en tête que c'était, après tout, de la jeunesse, pour des lecteurices de moins de 12 ans donc ça ne m'étonnait plus tellement. Il faut que ça avance vite pour elleux.
Et puis finalement, le monde créé était intéressant, le personnage de Sophie fouillé et les explications données logiques dans le contexte.
Donc oui, j'ai bien aimé et j'ai envie de lire la suite!
Honnêtement, j'ai quand même pas mal levé les yeux au ciel. Il y avait beaucoup de choses qui me semblaient trop rapides ou acceptées trop facilement par Sophie.
Cependant, je me suis secouée les puces et mis en tête que c'était, après tout, de la jeunesse, pour des lecteurices de moins de 12 ans donc ça ne m'étonnait plus tellement. Il faut que ça avance vite pour elleux.
Et puis finalement, le monde créé était intéressant, le personnage de Sophie fouillé et les explications données logiques dans le contexte.
Donc oui, j'ai bien aimé et j'ai envie de lire la suite!
This book gave me Harry Potter vibes. I did find the beginning of the story to have a lot of information about the world but I was soon immersed in the storytelling.