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A review by defunctfridge
Rise of the School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
3.0
if i could give it 2.5 stars i would. but as i’ve been reading this series since third or fourth grade and it sparked my love for reading i’ll round up rather than down. i can’t really express my disappointment with this book. i don’t quite know what i expected considering my increasingly negative feelings of the books that began after book 4. this one was no exception to the unfortunate pattern. it’s disorganized and rushed and desperate to quickly create the familiar world in a few chapters rather then show a natural slow progress as school masters gain footing. soman tried to pack a schools years worth of events into a few weeks? two months? all together it was unnecessarily and unbearably rushed and as a result at times it felt like just words forced out and nothing more.
none of this is even touching on the audacity of soman to claim this book would have so much gay rep. i mean congrats dude you managed to write a few sentences of mere infatuation that lasted a chapter or two after essentially queer baiting for 6 books. i would never in a million years qualify this as representation as soman so clearly wants us to based on his social media posts. and the little rep that is there is either not real (aladdin’a whole chapter long plot) or just weird (looking for attractive dude to replace brothers love, bit weird and becoming a pattern considering sophie and agatha’s whole thing). it’s something that has made soman very frustrating as a writer.
throughout these now 7 books (8 if you include handbook) soman uses the same exact phrases like 20 times every book and it’s exhausting to read. yes it can work to really enforce a theme,,,when used sparingly. soman has said after the third book he wanted to age up his audience as he writes new books. his writing needs to reflect that.
at the end of the day i will read every sge book written, they are central to who i am and why i read. but i am not excited about it. when this book was announced i actually dreaded reading it. i’m dreading reading the next one. i do not want to read them. i have freinds who dropped the series after 3 and i can’t telling them to continue reading, why would i? i would never recommend this series knowing how this series turns out. and it’s not that i’ve aged. book 4 i honestly think is a great set up for a new conflict and character development as they age too. soman simply has reached the limit on expanded the world without more care and planning. i hope the next book is better, i want to look forward to this series and characters. i genuinely want to see this series succeed from a writing perspective. i don’t hate the series but i’m not happy with where it currently is.
none of this is even touching on the audacity of soman to claim this book would have so much gay rep. i mean congrats dude you managed to write a few sentences of mere infatuation that lasted a chapter or two after essentially queer baiting for 6 books. i would never in a million years qualify this as representation as soman so clearly wants us to based on his social media posts. and the little rep that is there is either not real (aladdin’a whole chapter long plot) or just weird (looking for attractive dude to replace brothers love, bit weird and becoming a pattern considering sophie and agatha’s whole thing). it’s something that has made soman very frustrating as a writer.
throughout these now 7 books (8 if you include handbook) soman uses the same exact phrases like 20 times every book and it’s exhausting to read. yes it can work to really enforce a theme,,,when used sparingly. soman has said after the third book he wanted to age up his audience as he writes new books. his writing needs to reflect that.
at the end of the day i will read every sge book written, they are central to who i am and why i read. but i am not excited about it. when this book was announced i actually dreaded reading it. i’m dreading reading the next one. i do not want to read them. i have freinds who dropped the series after 3 and i can’t telling them to continue reading, why would i? i would never recommend this series knowing how this series turns out. and it’s not that i’ve aged. book 4 i honestly think is a great set up for a new conflict and character development as they age too. soman simply has reached the limit on expanded the world without more care and planning. i hope the next book is better, i want to look forward to this series and characters. i genuinely want to see this series succeed from a writing perspective. i don’t hate the series but i’m not happy with where it currently is.