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tinkithesquirelll's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism, Violence, War, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
lawbooks600's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Representation: Implied minor Asian character
Score: Six points out of ten.
Man, this was worse than the first book, so much so that I'm a little disheartened, the first book was alright and I hoped the second one would be a much needed improvement to the series. It wasn't. It's highly unlikely that I'll read the third and final instalment in the trilogy since it's more than 600 pages, and I don't think it's worth my time. It starts (more like continues) with the main characters Sophie and Agatha and after the events of the first book the School for Good and School for Evil don't exist anymore. Instead there are new gender segregated schools (Really? They were co-ed and now this. Come on.) called the School for Girls and the School for Boys. More flaws surfaced as I read through more of the narrative. First, I struggled to connect to any of the characters, second is the pacing, since the books I read recently were all slow paced (and sometimes that can let me explore character dynamics or other aspects of the novel but if the characters aren't that well written, what's the point of the slow pacing? I don't get it. It doesn't work here.) The second half of the story had nothing much happening and it fizzled out in the end. Shame. At least the bonus content (of which there were 50 pages) were intriguing enough for me to read and were better than all 430 pages of the book combined.
Score: Six points out of ten.
Man, this was worse than the first book, so much so that I'm a little disheartened, the first book was alright and I hoped the second one would be a much needed improvement to the series. It wasn't. It's highly unlikely that I'll read the third and final instalment in the trilogy since it's more than 600 pages, and I don't think it's worth my time. It starts (more like continues) with the main characters Sophie and Agatha and after the events of the first book the School for Good and School for Evil don't exist anymore. Instead there are new gender segregated schools (Really? They were co-ed and now this. Come on.) called the School for Girls and the School for Boys. More flaws surfaced as I read through more of the narrative. First, I struggled to connect to any of the characters, second is the pacing, since the books I read recently were all slow paced (and sometimes that can let me explore character dynamics or other aspects of the novel but if the characters aren't that well written, what's the point of the slow pacing? I don't get it. It doesn't work here.) The second half of the story had nothing much happening and it fizzled out in the end. Shame. At least the bonus content (of which there were 50 pages) were intriguing enough for me to read and were better than all 430 pages of the book combined.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery
Full trigger warnings: Blood depiction, physical assault and injury, death of people, sexism, slavery mentionedmapleleaf_rag's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Holy mother of god these books are like crack. The only issues I had with it was that a lot of moments came off as sexist, homophobic, and weird. So queerbaity, too, I really didn’t realize the extent of it when I read these as a young girl. Really thought Filip and Tedros would go somewhere. So sad about Yara/Tristan, I loved them so much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, and Transphobia
neko_reads's review against another edition
dnf. i just could not put myself through this, and its kinda sad because I kinda wanted to like it since I used to but no. just no
this book just takes everything the first book worked for (not much) and killed it. the lgbtish relationship? NO we just couldn't be happy with that, there has to be some boy involved
this book just shows the weirdest sexism reversed, homophobic, tasteless book. so the main characters have no character anymore. sophies character is dead, shes just quiet and agatha is TERRIBLE. now her entire world is tedros. Tedros has no character, its terrible.
also the quote "whats a boy? someone who wishes for a girl. whats a girl? someone who wishes for a boy. whats someone who kissed a girl? DEFINITELY A BOY" homophobia if I've ever seen it.
anyway ill shut up about how much I hate this now like IT IS THAT BAD
this book just takes everything the first book worked for (not much) and killed it. the lgbtish relationship? NO we just couldn't be happy with that, there has to be some boy involved
this book just shows the weirdest sexism reversed, homophobic, tasteless book. so the main characters have no character anymore. sophies character is dead, shes just quiet and agatha is TERRIBLE. now her entire world is tedros. Tedros has no character, its terrible.
also the quote "whats a boy? someone who wishes for a girl. whats a girl? someone who wishes for a boy. whats someone who kissed a girl? DEFINITELY A BOY" homophobia if I've ever seen it.
anyway ill shut up about how much I hate this now like IT IS THAT BAD
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Violence, Death, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent
hayleythegoose's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-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
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Homophobia, Sexism, Transphobia, Slavery, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Torture
Moderate: Death, War, and Violence
Minor: Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, and Death of parent
rumireads's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Torture, Child death, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Bullying
wren_acorn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Loved this. Was super entertaining. However, when I have kids they are not allowed to read this series before they develop critical thinking skills and they will read it with me because the gender stereotyping and heteronormativity in this book is, well, a lot.
Docking points for being a tad problematic and because it’s not completely perfect, though I found Soman’s writing improved from the first book. Also wtf happened to Agatha. She changed so much from the first book…
I hear this is commonly thought of as the worst book in the series so I’m excited to see where the story goes from here.
Docking points for being a tad problematic and because it’s not completely perfect, though I found Soman’s writing improved from the first book. Also wtf happened to Agatha. She changed so much from the first book…
I hear this is commonly thought of as the worst book in the series so I’m excited to see where the story goes from here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Minor: Body horror and Homophobia
carmineslamp's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
AHHHHHHHHH. I feel like this is such good middle grade fantasy. I'm in college and I still find myself riveted by it. I loved some of the twists and squinted at others, but eh, what do you expect.
WHY WERE TEDROS AND FILIP SO GAY FOR EACH OTHER??? THOSE ARE TWO HOMOSEXUALS. BRUH. BRUH. AND TRISTAN??? BRO, SHIT R U I N E D ME
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Death and Gaslighting
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Torture
Sexism in reference to the girls calling the boys born slaves and the boys just fucking hating women, I guess.jaidlyn_7's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Slavery, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Death