Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

5 reviews

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

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic friendship, and Body horror

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Torture, and Slavery

rumireads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal death, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Torture, Blood, and Body horror

squinnittowinit's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Fun idea, but execution fell flat for me with several problematic issues played off as jokes again and again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, and Sexism

Moderate: Body shaming and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Ableism

thejunoverse444's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

 read this in the 4th grade, clocked agatha and sophie as gay before i even clocked myself can i get an amen 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Misogyny and Ableism