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A review by golden_lily
Witherwood Reform School by Obert Skye
3.0
Lemony Snicket meets UF. Some cute moments but an unsatisfying end. Review to come.
Edit: Witherwood Reform School owes a lot to A Series of Unfortunate Events and that's my biggest problem with it. There's a fourth wall breaking narrator. A pair of siblings, one of whom is an inventor, dropped off with evil caretakers because of their dead/missing parents. A mystery, a generally morbid atmosphere, a false hope, and a "to be continued" ending. I just found it too familiar.
Tobias and Charlotte are a lot more mischievous than the Baudelaire children would ever dream of. I really wanted to like the gravy prank, but the writing made it gross and mean instead of funny. After the prank goes awry, their father drops the kids off at a nearby reform school, to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, he then immediately drives off a cliff, as you do.
Abandoned at the school, the kids are immediately thrust into the mystery, as they flee monsters guarding the grounds, find a hidden boy who's not all there, and struggle to escape. The mystery is fine, probably the best part. The school has some fun touches, but I didn't see enough time devoted to them.
The illustrations are pretty. They have an old school feel that make me think of the 90s and the books I read as a pre-teen. I really liked the full page portraits of Tobias and Char, it helped me picture them and fit with the book. There are a lot of flourishes and page decorations that made the book feel grand. While I don't like how the guardians were depicted, the illustrations were my favorite part.
My big problem with this book is the end. The plot was light, but the utter lack of a conclusion ruined it. If even one of the mysteries was solved, it would have been a lot more satisfying and made me want to read a sequel. Instead, I think I'll go read The Bad Beginning again instead.
Edit: Witherwood Reform School owes a lot to A Series of Unfortunate Events and that's my biggest problem with it. There's a fourth wall breaking narrator. A pair of siblings, one of whom is an inventor, dropped off with evil caretakers because of their dead/missing parents. A mystery, a generally morbid atmosphere, a false hope, and a "to be continued" ending. I just found it too familiar.
Tobias and Charlotte are a lot more mischievous than the Baudelaire children would ever dream of. I really wanted to like the gravy prank, but the writing made it gross and mean instead of funny. After the prank goes awry, their father drops the kids off at a nearby reform school, to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, he then immediately drives off a cliff, as you do.
Abandoned at the school, the kids are immediately thrust into the mystery, as they flee monsters guarding the grounds, find a hidden boy who's not all there, and struggle to escape. The mystery is fine, probably the best part. The school has some fun touches, but I didn't see enough time devoted to them.
The illustrations are pretty. They have an old school feel that make me think of the 90s and the books I read as a pre-teen. I really liked the full page portraits of Tobias and Char, it helped me picture them and fit with the book. There are a lot of flourishes and page decorations that made the book feel grand. While I don't like how the guardians were depicted, the illustrations were my favorite part.
My big problem with this book is the end. The plot was light, but the utter lack of a conclusion ruined it. If even one of the mysteries was solved, it would have been a lot more satisfying and made me want to read a sequel. Instead, I think I'll go read The Bad Beginning again instead.