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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
funny
i honestly thought the series as a whole would be darker and scarier...and it wasnt in the slightest.
happy to be done with the series but honestly idk if i liked it enough to buy the books for my future classroom (there were too many odd jokes that idk if i would want my students to read and ask me questions about lol)
This is the final book in a great series for upper elementary school. It picks up where the 2nd book leaves off with the 5 students trying desperately to save their school from a nosy reporter looking for a big story.
"Is school out forever at the School of Fear? A nosy reporter is planning a scandalous expose on eccentric Mrs. Wellington and her unorthodox teaching methods, and the news is sure to put an end to the school. Madeleine, Theo, Lulu, Garrison, and the new student Hyacinth must convince Sylvie that their teacher and the school are perfectly normal. But how can they accomplish this when Mrs. Wellington is just so... odd?"
"Is school out forever at the School of Fear? A nosy reporter is planning a scandalous expose on eccentric Mrs. Wellington and her unorthodox teaching methods, and the news is sure to put an end to the school. Madeleine, Theo, Lulu, Garrison, and the new student Hyacinth must convince Sylvie that their teacher and the school are perfectly normal. But how can they accomplish this when Mrs. Wellington is just so... odd?"
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The third volume of “The School of Fear” consists of little but the characters turning against each other with spiteful comments and toxic behaviour. The book reads like a volley of body shaming, agist, or personal insults based on each character’s physical appearance, words or personality. What it meant to be witty banter is spiralling into vile remarks, nit-picking and sarcasm.
The plot of the first volume was great, the second one charming, but there barely is a plot in “The Final Exam”. It is extremely repetitive and predictable.
The only good part was the resolution and ending.
I read half the book with positive anticipation and attention. When the book turned out to be a huge disappointment, I quickly read through the second half. It took half a day to read. Such a shame!
The plot of the first volume was great, the second one charming, but there barely is a plot in “The Final Exam”. It is extremely repetitive and predictable.
The only good part was the resolution and ending.
I read half the book with positive anticipation and attention. When the book turned out to be a huge disappointment, I quickly read through the second half. It took half a day to read. Such a shame!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit, Murder
A little weirder than the first two, but it was a good wrap up.
Madeleine, Garrison, Lulu, and Theo are back for their third summer at School of Fear. They made lots of progress during their previous visits, but, as much as they hate to admit it, they each have some more work to do in conquering their phobias. Problem is, things aren't looking good for the School of Fear. A nosy reporter is planning an expose on Mrs. Wellington that will ruin her reputation and the school's, possibly even causing the school to be shut down. If that happens, not only will Mrs. Wellington and her trusty sidekick, Schmidty, be devastated, but the kids will have no hope of acquiring the fear-free lives they long for. Once again, they have to band together and face their fears.
This conclusion to the School of Fear trilogy is as fun and charming as the first two books in the series. The characters really drive these stories. They totally crack me up, and a lot of young (and older!) readers will relate to them. We're all afraid of something, even if we don't have a full-blown phobia. By this point in the series, the characters all know each other really well so they interact with each other in hilarious ways. As far as the plot goes, I think this is the weakest of the series. There just doesn't seem to be as much going on and they're kind of wandering around for a while. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Final Exam," and I found it to be a satisfying conclusion to the series.
This conclusion to the School of Fear trilogy is as fun and charming as the first two books in the series. The characters really drive these stories. They totally crack me up, and a lot of young (and older!) readers will relate to them. We're all afraid of something, even if we don't have a full-blown phobia. By this point in the series, the characters all know each other really well so they interact with each other in hilarious ways. As far as the plot goes, I think this is the weakest of the series. There just doesn't seem to be as much going on and they're kind of wandering around for a while. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Final Exam," and I found it to be a satisfying conclusion to the series.
Well, this was terrible. Soehow this seres went from a terrible plot, to a non-existing one to a utterly non-sensical one. But at least its over and I can now rant about it.
So, the premise of this book is that, because Dahlia told a journalist named Sylvie about the secrect school, now she wants to publish an article in the tabloid where she works at that exposes the school, Mrs' Wellington weird methods, the fact that Abernathy hated his step-mother (Wellington) so much that he lived in the woods for 55 years (we are gonna get to that later) and every embarasing little thing that the kids have done because why not.
According to these people, this is what is going to happen if the article is publish. Somehow everyone and their mother is going to look at the tabloid, believe every single word of it, transform it into international news, ruin the main characters' lives, and give Sylvie a Pulitzer Prize. Let's try to unpack all of that.
After Dahlia confeses, Sylvie spends the next month going around the school trying to get more evidence. She can't use Dahlia statement because in the book its ilegal to do that without parental consent. She even goes so far as to climb a tree and take a picture of one of the kids while they were changing clothes.
Everything about that situation is very ilegal, so why not have her arrested? Wellington knows the sheriff of the town personally, she can ask him to wait in the school until Sylvie shows up and then arreste her. They can press charges against her with ease. We know that Wellington doesn't mind abusing the law, in the previous book she called the governor of their state to force the police to drop charger agaisnt her for speeding.
So the plan to stop Sylvie is to turn Abernathy into a normal person that doesn't hate Wellington, so that somehow convinced Sylvie to not publish her article. First problem, Sylvie works for a tabloid, she doesn't need prove of anything to publish her story (if she can even convince her editor to do so). She has the testimony of Wellington's lawyer, that's how she knows things, she doesn't even need Abernathy. Second problem, why not just convince Abernathy to pretend to like Wellington for a while intead?
Third problem, the kids' plan to make Abernathy normal is teaching him visual contact, sports, to dress normally and political trivia. I'm pretty sure that's not enough. Fourth problem, Abernathy says that the last time he watched TV it still was in black and white. The first colour TV appeared in 1956. Given that this book was published in 2011, Abernathy has been living in the woods for at least 55 years.
Besides this mess of a plot there's also an incredibly unessesary romantic sub-plot between Madeline and Garrison, the fact that three kids that had an adrenaline addiction just randomly decided to just "stop doing dangerous things" and were completely cured after that, and, despite recibing no "treatment" during that summer, the kids were also completely cured of their phobias.
This series is a mess.
So, the premise of this book is that, because Dahlia told a journalist named Sylvie about the secrect school, now she wants to publish an article in the tabloid where she works at that exposes the school, Mrs' Wellington weird methods, the fact that Abernathy hated his step-mother (Wellington) so much that he lived in the woods for 55 years (we are gonna get to that later) and every embarasing little thing that the kids have done because why not.
According to these people, this is what is going to happen if the article is publish. Somehow everyone and their mother is going to look at the tabloid, believe every single word of it, transform it into international news, ruin the main characters' lives, and give Sylvie a Pulitzer Prize. Let's try to unpack all of that.
After Dahlia confeses, Sylvie spends the next month going around the school trying to get more evidence. She can't use Dahlia statement because in the book its ilegal to do that without parental consent. She even goes so far as to climb a tree and take a picture of one of the kids while they were changing clothes.
Everything about that situation is very ilegal, so why not have her arrested? Wellington knows the sheriff of the town personally, she can ask him to wait in the school until Sylvie shows up and then arreste her. They can press charges against her with ease. We know that Wellington doesn't mind abusing the law, in the previous book she called the governor of their state to force the police to drop charger agaisnt her for speeding.
So the plan to stop Sylvie is to turn Abernathy into a normal person that doesn't hate Wellington, so that somehow convinced Sylvie to not publish her article. First problem, Sylvie works for a tabloid, she doesn't need prove of anything to publish her story (if she can even convince her editor to do so). She has the testimony of Wellington's lawyer, that's how she knows things, she doesn't even need Abernathy. Second problem, why not just convince Abernathy to pretend to like Wellington for a while intead?
Third problem, the kids' plan to make Abernathy normal is teaching him visual contact, sports, to dress normally and political trivia. I'm pretty sure that's not enough. Fourth problem, Abernathy says that the last time he watched TV it still was in black and white. The first colour TV appeared in 1956. Given that this book was published in 2011, Abernathy has been living in the woods for at least 55 years.
Besides this mess of a plot there's also an incredibly unessesary romantic sub-plot between Madeline and Garrison, the fact that three kids that had an adrenaline addiction just randomly decided to just "stop doing dangerous things" and were completely cured after that, and, despite recibing no "treatment" during that summer, the kids were also completely cured of their phobias.
This series is a mess.
Really, really good. The School of Fearians have really bonded together by this point, and I enjoyed the ending to the cliffhanger set up in the second book.
Once again, the School of Fearians must face their fears. This time, the future of their school and graduation depends on it.