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avaa1000's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Bullying
ailsaod's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I read this book because I saw some clips of the show and thought it looked interesting. I thought there was opportunity for some interesting trope subversions but this book is trying too hard to subversive and ends up contradicting its own message.
At the beginning I was quite excited because I thought Sophie and Agatha were an interesting contrast with internal vs external goodness. Agatha is the village weird kid but is very kind but rather asocial while Sophie is externally very pretty and tries to be nice but is such a mean girl that it is actually quite nasty. There is a random comment saying that Agatha dressed up as a bride for Halloween once because marriage scares her and I thought that was the best (and funniest) thing! This exciting beginning is over rather quickly though as we then head to the school and the book begins to get tangled up in its own themes.
I think the author was going for the angle that there is more to being a good person than being a knight if you are a boy or a damsel in distress if you are a girl and that the gender roles that we see played out in so many fairy tales are restrictive but this didn't really come through. The story points out these things but never quite gets to the point of saying what it will do instead so I'm left with the final impression that the 'moral of the story' is that everyone sucks but that's ok if you are beautiful and can't wait to get married to the first boy to acknowledge your existence like a good little air-headed princess. In fact if you aren't frothing at the mouth at the thought of dating boys and being vapid then you must be evil! Yea no thank you. We even head into the territory of external appearance being determined by your morality in the climax of the book which I guess is in fitting with the fairy tale setting but not a great mindset to have nowadays when this logic says that everyone who isn't conventionally attractive and living a heteronormative lifestyle is a bad person.
On another note the "friendship" between Agatha and Sophie was extremely tedious. They have the communication skills of characters in a shoujo romance anime and are stuck in a continuous cycle of falling out, almost making up and then falling out over something different. I honestly don't understand why Agatha is always willing to go so far out of her way for Sophie when Sophie will never even thank her and always blames her for EVERYTHING. Who needs enemies when you can have friends like this!?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Classism
Minor: Child death
niseag's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Moderate: Sexism
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.
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.
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
hayleythegoose's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Sexism
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Blood, Death, and Homophobia
fastizfurious's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Body shaming, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Misogyny
Minor: Violence
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 asI 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 withSophie'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.
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
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
Although the book is written for a younger audience I think anyone who enjoys fantasy books like Harry Potter will also enjoy this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Minor: Kidnapping, Death, Homophobia, Death of parent, Child death, Sexism, and Grief
chrisljm's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I know a lot of the stereotypes presented in the book are based on tropes often seen in fairytales, but when you spend all 500 pages reenforcing them instead of showing how good and bad people can’t just be categorized into archetypes, it just becomes sexist, fatphobic, and a bunch of other problematic shit. I just don’t understand what exactly was the author’s goal – whether to dismantle or reaffirm fairytale tropes, because it comes off as reaffirming them.
The romance also doesn’t make sense. I know romances between princes and princesses are also part of fairytale tropes, but they were definitely trying to force something real between Agatha and Tedros, and there was just no chemistry at all. Like the only thing that drew him to Agatha during the tests was a “feeling”, and after realizing that she’s good and not a liar, he’s in love with her all of a sudden? Ok. The characters, as well as the story, were very two-dimensional and had no growth, and the ending felt rushed.
I also want to add on that Sophie and Agatha are supposed to be best friends but not only was Sophie a shit person, but she was also a shit friend. Readers are provided plenty of context on why Sophie is perfect for the School of Evil, but we don’t see any good memories between Sophie and Agatha that show why they’re friends with each other. Instead, you see Sophie barge her way to Agatha’s house regularly to build good credit, give her nasty cookies, and call her ugly.
The book felt long and tedious to get through because 1. we saw way too much of Sophie’s POV, especially for how insufferable and unselfaware she is. 2. Agatha just gets manipulated over and over and over again. ENOUGH.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexism, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Child death, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Violence, Murder, Slavery, War, and Torture
Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Racial slurs, and Stalking
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
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