Scan barcode
A review by simonea
Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross
3.0
Another magical school, woohoo! It’s always a bit of a challenge to write a book about a school where magic is being thought. Due to the enormous success of Harry Potter, a lot of people are interested in similar books. On the other hand, the danger lurks in the fact that it might end up being a comparable story or even a dupe.
For myself, I’m always very interested in reading new books about magical schools. The power of Harry Potter! With that, come a lot of expectations as well. And most of the time I end up being disappointed, either because it was too similar or just not good enough.
For Miss Mabel’s School for Girls I decided to give the theme another try. I have to admit that it was mainly because of the cover (it’s sooo pretty!) and the rather unusual title. Katie Cross tells the story of sixteen-year-old Bianca, a witch who has inherited a deadly curse. Her only hope of survival is confronting the witch who cast the curse, Miss Mabel, who happens to be the head master of the local witch school. Problem: she is a bitch. Can Bianca get her to remove the curse? And at what cost?
The story of the book was quite interesting. It didn’t remind me too much of the already mentioned other magical school and brought a lot of action. The writing style is okay but not excellent. Weird sentences could be found every now and then.
What was lacking the most was the world and character building. The author was telling a story, an interesting one. Loads of descriptions, but the story went too fast. It was a bit flat. The characters where a little black and white. They were either good or bad, nice or unfriendly. But they stayed constant over the course of the story, development was nowhere to be found. It could have been great with some more depth, but was just ‘okay’ without.
Extra points go to Katie Cross for writing up a magical school where they teach algebra by the way. Go, Katie!
For myself, I’m always very interested in reading new books about magical schools. The power of Harry Potter! With that, come a lot of expectations as well. And most of the time I end up being disappointed, either because it was too similar or just not good enough.
For Miss Mabel’s School for Girls I decided to give the theme another try. I have to admit that it was mainly because of the cover (it’s sooo pretty!) and the rather unusual title. Katie Cross tells the story of sixteen-year-old Bianca, a witch who has inherited a deadly curse. Her only hope of survival is confronting the witch who cast the curse, Miss Mabel, who happens to be the head master of the local witch school. Problem: she is a bitch. Can Bianca get her to remove the curse? And at what cost?
The story of the book was quite interesting. It didn’t remind me too much of the already mentioned other magical school and brought a lot of action. The writing style is okay but not excellent. Weird sentences could be found every now and then.
What was lacking the most was the world and character building. The author was telling a story, an interesting one. Loads of descriptions, but the story went too fast. It was a bit flat. The characters where a little black and white. They were either good or bad, nice or unfriendly. But they stayed constant over the course of the story, development was nowhere to be found. It could have been great with some more depth, but was just ‘okay’ without.
Extra points go to Katie Cross for writing up a magical school where they teach algebra by the way. Go, Katie!