Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

4 reviews

_alyssar_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Child death, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Medical content, Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Mental illness

samantha_06x's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Loved the book the author developed the magical lore and world building well, by slowly introducing the elements as the main characters discover the new world we are able to learn and understand with the characters as apposed to being frustrated by their ignorance. 
The book does a good job of making you as a reader become invested in Sophie despite her questionable decisions and ultimately want a happy ending for the 2 main characters. 
Lost a star as

I felt the end was slightly rushed with the appearance of the headmaster which was quickly resolved which did not give me as a reader enough time to experience the shock of the twist fully as the plot swiftly moves on.

 
As well as this when linking being evil to ugliness there will always be some issues as the concept of ugliness is inherently racist/abelist/fat-phobic. I don't think this was handled well with

Sophie's insults towards Dot being fat. If Sophie's comments were evidence of her evilness this would be slightly better. However this is not the case as at the end of the book when the villains are transformed to be good and given 'makeovers' Dot's body is described to transform into an 'hourglass figure'. I was shocked at this unnecessary addition which justified Sophie's comments.

Although the book is written for a younger audience I think anyone who enjoys fantasy books like Harry Potter will also enjoy this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Minor: Kidnapping, Death, Homophobia, Death of parent, Child death, Sexism, and Grief

_ren's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Torture, Sexism, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Gore, Grief, Body shaming, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Classism, War, Vomit, and Violence

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Cursing, and Kidnapping

Minor: Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia