This is a fantasy adventure where two children are stolen and forced to attend a school of good and evil. Although, they are split up and put into the opposite school they initially thought they were going to be in. ( )

No one knows a girls’ friendship like a guy, amIrite? Just kidding, totally sexist of me, just like this entire hetronormative mess of a Hogwarts derivative with more contradictory messaging than a Miss Universe pagent. It can’t decide if it wants to deconstruct fairy tales or affirm them (think Shrek, with less humor); similarly, the definitions of ‘beauty’ and ‘ugly’ (I hearby challenge Chainani to read [b:The Beauty Myth|39926|The Beauty Myth|Naomi Wolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388197585l/39926._SY75_.jpg|836516] by Naomi Wolf), as well as definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ I will tell you the truth: what it ultimately does is affirm all of those things in the most conventional fashion. (In some cases, literally through fashion.) Add the final scene, which will feel like a semi-cliff-hanger to some, and you have a hot mess of a book.

Chainani clearly did his Rowling research and thought “how can I capitalize on this magical school goldmine?” But instead of wasting time in the mundane world and spreading development over seven books, he accelerates full speed into the magical school with classes, contests, secret night adventures, and survival in the woods. There’s a remote castle in the woods where ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ are taught. There are teachers who are present but have virtually no authority and a mysterious School Master. Magical creatures abound to enforce the rules. There is even a culminating trial where only one house/side can win (and it’s been Good for two hundred years), followed by a fancy dress ball. If all of this sounds Potter-iffic, I think that’s because it’s meant to, and I believe that’s why it appeals to many readers despite it’s inherent and profuse problems.

The lead characters are Sophie, a beauty-obsessed twelve year-old looking for a Prince, and Agatha, the introverted and ‘ugly’ daughter of a village ‘witch,’ and her only friend. Every four years, two children disappear from this isolated village, perhaps to become lead characters in a future fairy tale. One person becomes the ‘good’ character and one person the ‘bad' lead. Sophie’s been primping for the ‘Good’ role for years (because according to their definitions, ‘good’ means ‘lovely,’ along with a token good deed or two). However, when Sophie is kidnapped, Agatha follows, trying to save her friend. Pink and primped Sophie is dropped at the dark, scary School for Evil, staffed by wolves and goblins, and homely, sloppy Agatha is left at the School for Good, staffed by fairies and princesses. Although she's certain she's in the wrong school, Sophie still sees it as the chance to find her Prince while Agatha focuses on returning home.

Worth seeing what happens, maybe? At first, Chainani seems to be doing something interesting with making both schools equally horrible, just using a different kind of metric. Also like Hogwarts, we get a variety of hands-on learning, but what’s unique is that it is about being ‘ugly’ or ‘beautiful’ as much as magic. Classes on the ‘good’ side include 'how to be beautiful,' and classes on the ‘evil’ side include ‘uglification.' (It's worth noting that classes follow conventional definitions of these words).

Eventually some classes are combined between Team Good and Team Evil so that we get to see the two interact. These situations particularly suck because the lessons in ‘identifying good’ and ‘identifying your prince/princess,’ set up Sophie and Agatha in opposition to each other over a particularly heroic Prince. Sophie becomes obsessed with the idea that she is both in the wrong school and deserves the Prince while Agatha spends her time helping Sophie achieve her goal, because a kiss from a Prince will solve a riddle.

So, let’s see: a three-way love triangle. Attractiveness is about your image, not your behaviors. Friendship is a tool to accomplish a goal. Being the subservient ‘helper-friend’ is okay, as long as your friend does some personal growth in the end. Girls operating under the philosophy of “If your true love kisses you, then you can’t be a villain,” with the corollary, “For every Ever, there is only one true love,” followed by “So if a girl doesn’t get asked to the Ball, then she fails and suffers a punishment worse than death. But if a boy doesn’t go to the Ball, he gets half ranks.” Categories of good and evil both suck, except when they don’t. Friendship means being a doormat to your friend’s needs, and not expecting reciprocation in respect or understanding.

Do I have that about right? Man (again, I mean this literally), this is some stellar messaging.

I had stayed with it because–major spoiler here–I had read Agatha and Sophie kiss at the end, so I thought the path getting there was going to be normative-deconstructive.

Spoiler: It wasn’t. It was super hetro-normative. And total nonsense, by the way. If you read enough of your fairy tales, you know that evil comes in very beautiful disguises (all the better to fool you with), and that the quality of most young heroes and heroines isn’t that they are beautiful, but that they are kind (to animals, to mysterious old ladies, etc) and that trying to ‘win’ anything without humility only gets you bloody feet, thrown in prison, turned into a goose, or other terrible things.

I would never, ever, ever, recommend this book to anyone, and certainly never give it to a young woman as a present (it's so girl-beauty centric, it's clearly not meant for hetro-norm boys). [b:Castle Hangnail|22504710|Castle Hangnail|Ursula Vernon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408312316l/22504710._SX50_.jpg|41951499] takes a much better look at an essentially ‘good’ girl trying on an ‘evil’ role for young people. My ultimate standard of how you can really start deconstructing ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is The Good Place–which would have been expecting a lot, I grant you, but I was at least hoping for some elementary work on what ‘good’ really means. Since Chainani never separated out the idea of ‘ugly’ from ‘bad,’ and ‘good’ from ‘beautiful,’ I guarantee that both this book and any tie-ins aren’t going to win any Good Awards in my world.

One-and-a-half-stars, rounding down because I read the next book is even worse with it's messaging.

Update: so this is a movie/series now? Gross. More people looking at a cash cow and not for the next generation of queens. ( )

Initial Thoughts

I heard really good things about this book so my expectations were higher.

My New BFF

I liked Agatha more than Sophie. I found Sophie shallow and annoying which was probably done on purpose. I was annoyed with how Agatha depended on Sophie and was glad when she started breaking away. I liked how much growth we saw in Agatha and was really impressed with how she turned out. I’m looking forward to seeing how much she grows in the next book.

My Crush

I really liked Tedros even though he was a pretty typical male character. He did start evolving farther into the book though which saved him a little. I especially loved how he was absolutely sure he was good and always did the right thing. He is a teenager though so sometimes his emotions got in the way but that made him more realistic than some of the other characters. We didn’t see a whole lot of him in this book but I hope he becomes more prominent during the series.

Writing Style

I loved how we never quite knew what was going on. The character makes you think like their not at the right school but then you have suspicions that they really aren’t. Then the characters do something and you’re so sure they’re in the right schools. It’s all a mess but it was great. I felt like some of the characters weren’t as developed as they should have been but the world building was fantastic.

Closing Thoughts

I think this is a really unique series. I loved that it wasn’t a fairy tale retelling but more of a continuation of the modern day fairy tales. So if you like retellings but you’re getting a little bored then give this series a shot. It is aimed at more of a younger audience but I feel like anyone can enjoy it anyways. The characters are younger but it’s written with a slightly older voice. I’m glad I decided to give this book a shot and I’ll be reading the next one shortly! ( )

Fun book to read. ( )

Wow! This book has such an interesting premise. What would you do if someone told you that you were evil? I felt bad for poor Sophie. I loved that Agatha was determined to help her friend no matter what. The ending was a bit surprising. I really didn't see that coming. Overall, an excellent start to a series that I have to read more of. ( )