Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

26 reviews

ednam0dewannabe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, and Fatphobia

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, and War

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I know a lot of the stereotypes presented in the book are based on tropes often seen in fairytales, but when you spend all 500 pages reenforcing them instead of showing how good and bad people can’t just be categorized into archetypes, it just becomes sexist, fatphobic, and a bunch of other problematic shit. I just don’t understand what exactly was the author’s goal – whether to dismantle or reaffirm fairytale tropes, because it comes off as reaffirming them.

The romance also doesn’t make sense. I know romances between princes and princesses are also part of fairytale tropes, but they were definitely trying to force something real between Agatha and Tedros, and there was just no chemistry at all. Like the only thing that drew him to Agatha during the tests was a “feeling”, and after realizing that she’s good and not a liar, he’s in love with her all of a sudden? Ok. The characters, as well as the story, were very two-dimensional and had no growth, and the ending felt rushed.

I also want to add on that Sophie and Agatha are supposed to be best friends but not only was Sophie a shit person, but she was also a shit friend. Readers are provided plenty of context on why Sophie is perfect for the School of Evil, but we don’t see any good memories between Sophie and Agatha that show why they’re friends with each other. Instead, you see Sophie barge her way to Agatha’s house regularly to build good credit, give her nasty cookies, and call her ugly.

The book felt long and tedious to get through because 1. we saw way too much of Sophie’s POV, especially for how insufferable and unselfaware she is. 2. Agatha just gets manipulated over and over and over again. ENOUGH.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

l_myers's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. I read them once as a kid and have now returned to read again. Definitely an easy light hearted read for anyone.I will probably always suggest this series.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence and Blood

rumireads's review against another edition

dark funny

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

• I haven't encountered a book so viciously fatphobic in at least a decade
• the way it sexualised 12 year olds is absolutely disgusting (I can see why they aged the characters up for the movie)
• weirdly homophobic as well. kids calling each other gay as an insult might be accurate but it's certainly not something that I'd like to model for them??
• I think this author has a reeeealy poor opinion of women 

please don't give/recommend this series to the youths, it's genuinely awful towards most kinds of people 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Torture, Blood, and Kidnapping

_ren's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Reads like fanfiction to me. An amazing, great world, but with obnoxious tropes and characters. This was definitely written by a beginner writer.

APPARENTLY, THE AUTHOR COMPLETELY RUINS IT IN THE 2ND BOOK, SO I WILL NOT BE READING THE REST OF THE SERIES.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Kidnapping, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Transphobia

hayleyvem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, and Torture

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

ninahuynh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I can't help but rate this book 4.75 stars! This is technically a reread, as I have read it once during middle school. Now as an adult, I can see the appeal of the book to my middle school self and still do enjoy the book. There are moments when the characters get on my nerves, but I have to remember that they are children and trained to think in certain ways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fatphobia and Death of parent

thecourtofreading's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this has always been a childhood favourite of mine; i remember being obsessed with this world and the characters, and now the movie is out on netflix i decided to reread ... as an 18 year old. and i'm still absolutely bewitched by it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Fatphobia

Minor: Misogyny, Blood, and Death of parent

ednam0dewannabe's review against another edition

sadly I don't have enough time to read it :c

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body shaming, Blood, Vomit, and Death of parent

ceceliane's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Blood, and Death of parent