Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Es kann nur eine geben

I picked this up because I enjoyed the film, although I didn't realise it was based on a children's book. It did contain some very undisguised dark themes though, so if it wasn't for the age of the characters, the writing style and some of the humour, I'd be tempted to call it YA.

It's a shame to see that children's stories still rely on fatphobia and making fun of "ugly" people for humour, and there was a lot of stereotyping of what "good" and "evil" people look like – although a lot of this is critiqued by the narrative, there were some blurred lines: for example, while we are shown that being mean to Dot about her fatness is bad, the author also mentions her size nearly every time she appears, and her size and appetite makes up most of her characterisation. Thankfully, there wasn't a hooked nose in sight, unlike in the film.

While the plot dragged a bit in places, I really enjoyed the characters in this book and loved the portrayal of a character's descent into madness and the protagonists' respective identity crises. It was a really fun, if dark, read.

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bookiesncookies's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Listen, if you had told me a year ago that my favorite series of the year, the ones I can't put down, the ones I binge through, are ones about small cursed children who have magic in them that they don't know about, that go to magical schools, ugh *chef's kiss.*

All the Evergirls trying to plan their ballgowns ahead of time, plus contingency gowns
Agatha accidentally eating a fairy upon arrival
Tricking their reflections to pass the bridge
The deep mystery of the reader mural, the proof of the balance of good/evil, the School Master's riddle, and so many other threads that start to be woven in book 2, and hopefully book 3
Agatha reading more of her Good textbooks and falling in love with that world
Locking Dot out of the coven
Sophie trying to prettify her uniforms

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saskiajva's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.25

This book started so strong and I really loved almost every single part of it. The plot is cute, creative, and unexpected.

One central theme of this book revolves around how your actions are what make you beautiful/ugly, and not vice versa, which I loved, but I felt like there could have been some improvement to how that theme was executed. Specifically once the characters started physically changing appearance in correlation to their actions, it almost had the exact opposite message

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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

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rumireads's review against another edition

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dark funny

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I haven't encountered a book so viciously fatphobic in at least a decade
the way it sexualised 12 year olds is absolutely disgusting (I can see why they aged the characters up for the movie)
weirdly homophobic as well. kids calling each other gay as an insult might be accurate but it's certainly not something that I'd like to model for them??
I think this author has a reeeealy poor opinion of women

please don't give/recommend this series to the youths, it's genuinely awful towards most kinds of people

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_ren's review against another edition

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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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hayleyvem's review against another edition

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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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