One Star out of Five
I was on the proverbial fence the whole time while reading this novel, which, judging by the blurb, I should have adored. Instead, I was left with a persistent “meh” feeling.
First, the good. The character dynamic between two rather unlikely friends, Sophie and Agatha, was fantastic. At first, I was afraid this pairing of a “good girl” (Sophie) and a “bad girl” (Agatha) was going to borrow from tried and true tropes. Instead, what’s presented here is a switcheroo that really works. Thus, one character we assume must be “good” isn’t all that good, and one character we assume must be “bad” really isn’t evil at all. Thus, the character dynamics between the two leads play off of the idea of appearances being deceiving, and it works in a very entertaining way.
That being said, I liked Agatha more than Sophie as, despite her Wednesday Addams-like vibe (and I love Wednesday Addams!), she is a nice girl who’s just misunderstood. She is willing to stand up and not allow herself to be bullied nor is she silly or superficial. Plus she’s witty and intelligent, so all of these elements combined make her a genuinely fun – and sometimes funny – character. But as far as Sophie was concerned, I failed to make any sort of connection with her. She was catty, vain, selfish, and deserved a good slap across the face or kick in the pants now and then. I didn’t hate her as Sophie, in time, sees the error of her ways, but for the most part she’s stuck in either “mean girl” or “me-me-me” mode, which made her insufferable.
World-building-wise, this novel makes inversions to fairy tale settings. The two schools here, the School for Good and the School for Evil, were creative environments but seemed like Harry Potter‘s Hogwarts if Hogwarts was an all-girls school where all of the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs were catty, goody-little-two-shoes who got sorted into the Good school, and all of the Slytherins were crude, rude kids who got sorted into the Evil school. In the same way, Agatha, Sophie, and their fellow students attend classes to learn how to be good or evil. That’s not to say the concept itself of the two schools was poorly executed, and it was charming in spots, but my biggest issue with this book was its pacing.
This novel is slow from start to finish. Normally, I can forgive a slow-going novel if its characters and story have enough pull to compel me to continue investing my imagination. But it wasn’t until the 50% point before I finally felt there was a clear end goal for Agatha and Sophie. Plotwise, this novel begins as a school days story where Agatha and Sophie have to contend with some new and different surroundings, all while trying to maintain their friendship. Later on, the girls encounter the School Master, the mysterious being who “kidnaps” children to attend either school and writes their ultimate fairy tale. Willing to do anything to return home to their families, Sophie and Agatha enter into a deal with the School Master: if they can answer a riddle (“What’s the one thing Evil can never have, and the one thing Good can never do without?”), then they will be free to go. Thus, the remainder of the book shows the girls trying to solve the riddle – both together and separately – as well as engage in general shenanigans.
As charming as all of this should have been, it didn’t connect with me, and it was all of these said shenanigans and goofy misunderstandings that fell flat. I’m all for stories that offer up fractured fairy tales, but this one took too long to set up its principle plot. The secondary characters tended to bleed together, with their only distinction being that they either attended the School for Good or the School for Evil; and the lead characters stayed in their same developmental ruts until the last few chapters. So ideally, this is for patient readers who don’t mind reading chapter upon chapter of kooky, directionless mischief; petty chatter; gross out gags; and faceless secondary characters.
Likewise, this novel became a little too heavy-handed with its “girl power” message. To set up female characters as contrasts who learn from the errors of their ways is fine. To not have a central love interest in a story is fine. But part of this novel’s fairy tale inversion is that princes/boys aren’t needed, which I take issue with because it seems to laud a type of feminism that pronounces males as warts upon the earth, getting in the way of girls running the world. That’s a harsh way to view the world, fictional or not. But for this to be marketed for the middle grade crowd, I would have to disagree as, message-wise, this is too in-your-face with the boy hate.
In the same way, Agatha and Sophie’s friendship evolves though its end result in this novel seems purposely vague. While I it could be taken that both girls learn to see past their differences and grasp how they need each other in a spirit of sisterly love, it could also be taken that they have developed a same-sex attraction to each other. Once more, the dynamic is left up to speculation but I, personally, would have preferred the friendship-to-sisterhood pairing as opposed to anything else.
Overall, The School for Good and Evil was not as quirky or charming as its cover or blurb imply. Rather than being a fun, funny read, it’s a rather lengthy, slow-moving tale about two girls from two different backgrounds who, for the most part, are a fun pairing. While some of the story elements here are unique, others are predictable and the girl power message leaves a sour taste at times.
Content:
Language – Any profanity used is minimal and confined to the PG arena.
Violence – Violence is all fantasy-based, meaning magic and magical creatures cause mayhem as opposed to weapon-induced bloodletting. Also, it’s worth noting that there are some crude, gross out moments, from characters farting to discussions about warts and other gag-worthy moments.
Sexual Content – None, as the most any characters do is flirt and kiss. Though judging by something Agatha and Sophie do later on, their relationship may or may not retain vestiges of lesbianism.
Sci-fi Fantasy Lit Chick 