DFAmy Eye weighs in on The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.  Here’s the synopsis from Amazon.com:

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option. Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ? The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

And here’s what Amy has to say:

I had been looking forward to reading this book since it came out. And unfortunately, my wait wasn’t worth it. I’m just going to get down to it since you can read the synopsis at the top of the page. We have princes and princesses, witches and all sorts of other disturbing creatures. That’s my kind of book. But as I started really getting into it, I was appalled at what I was seeing.

I thought I was going to get either a redemption book or a book that teaches real beauty lies within, and physical beauty is only skin deep. What I got was – ugly is evil, beauty is good. That was really the theme except for one really throw away line where Aggie smiles a real smile and people see her differently because she is happy. But, later on, that is even taken away because she grew more beautiful as the story goes on. She changes and looks more like the princess she was supposed to be.

Princesses in the story are all awful, shallow, mean twits. There is really only one or two redeeming people in the entire castle. They totally ignore Aggie because she isn’t pretty, and they are terribly mean to her when they are confronted with the fact they have to talk to her. THIS NEVER CHANGES UNTIL SHE BECOMES PRETTY. I’m just in awe. Let’s teach that beauty is everything. Because the little throwaway scenes where they tried to show “beauty doesn’t matter” is eaten up by the scenes where the princesses love Sophie (the actual evil witch) when Sophie shows them how to be PRETTIER.

This isn’t a book about good and evil, it’s a book about a freaking beauty pageant. Aggie was the only character you can give a crap about. No kind, empathetic teachers, no real evil to contend with – unless you count Hester’s neck demon. It’s like they were afraid to deal with real issues and instead used killing off people and animals in order to create the vile feel. Newsflash – death and destruction aren’t the only source of evil. The characters are all so flat and shallow that I could slip the entire bunch of them under my door.

We have a PRINCE – yes, seriously – A PRINCE who KICKS A BUNNY! And he’s supposed to be swoon-worthy for these princesses? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. He has all this fake internal monologue “when will someone see past my looks and see the real me?” Never, because you’re a jerk who gets mad and kicks bunnies and could never believe that someone who doesn’t look the way you want her to could be worth your time. BUT – after she starts shining herself up a bit… that’s when you make your move. You are starting to feel like there could be more, but you are too ashamed of yourself to admit it. Only when the outside is a nicer package will you do anything about it.

Sophie, we had your number from the first page. You never once fooled anyone with your “goodness.” I thought maybe a real redemption would happen for her – but nope. And I love at the end of the story, you only want your friend, yet again, because you have nothing else. That’s not friendship. That’s using whatever “tools” you have at your disposal.

And the part at the end that got me?? When the “Nevers” – the evil ones – and the “Evers” – the good ones – get in a fight, their looks changed. The Evers had done something against their rules and imagine this in this story THEY TURNED UGLY. The Nevers followed the Evers rules (defending themselves) and turned beautiful. I have such a major issue with this book. Let’s forget the shallow characters, let’s forget that friendships in this book (except for Aggie’s love of Sophie) are all based on what you can get from the people around you, let’s forget that relationships in this book can make or break a princess because a prince can live fine on his own, but the princess HAS TO HAVE a prince – because without one, she is WORTHLESS…Let’s forget that beauty is apparently all that matters in life. If we forget about all of that, we have nothing left to the story. At all.

Even the way the book ended – total cliffhanger. Way to really kill it. You don’t wrap up a darn thing AT ALL. You drag us through a book by the beauty pageant sash through every shallow comment and character only to realize there is NO ENDING. NO ENDING AT ALL. I’m tired of the authors who feel like they don’t have to give the readers what they came for. A COMPLETE STORY. You gave us a beginning and a really long middle. No ending, no wrapping anything up. We wanted to finish the book so we can at least say we did, but you never delivered. We held up our part of the bargain. We read it cover to cover, but you decided that you wanted to take us all on a ride and then trick us. Don’t give us an ending so we “have” to buy the next book. Well, it’s not happening. You tricked me once. It’s not going to happen again.

and PS… the em dash is a tool. Not the only punctuation available. If I never see another em dash again it will be too soon. Don’t overuse punctuation to a point it becomes a distraction. Just sayin’.

By Angela Yuriko Smith

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.

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