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madamenovelist's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Transphobia
I cannot decide if I like/dislike the gender commentary in this story because it flip flops almost as much as Sophie/Agatha/Tedros and whatever-they-have-going on. Occasionally there’s something vaguely transphobic in the narrative that’s countered three seconds later with something unintentionally deep about gender essentialism. Very fun world building but good luck sorting out how you feel about this series.lawbooks600's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Score: Six points out of ten.
Man, this was worse than the first book, so much so that I'm a little disheartened, the first book was alright and I hoped the second one would be a much needed improvement to the series. It wasn't. It's highly unlikely that I'll read the third and final instalment in the trilogy since it's more than 600 pages, and I don't think it's worth my time. It starts (more like continues) with the main characters Sophie and Agatha and after the events of the first book the School for Good and School for Evil don't exist anymore. Instead there are new gender segregated schools (Really? They were co-ed and now this. Come on.) called the School for Girls and the School for Boys. More flaws surfaced as I read through more of the narrative. First, I struggled to connect to any of the characters, second is the pacing, since the books I read recently were all slow paced (and sometimes that can let me explore character dynamics or other aspects of the novel but if the characters aren't that well written, what's the point of the slow pacing? I don't get it. It doesn't work here.) The second half of the story had nothing much happening and it fizzled out in the end. Shame. At least the bonus content (of which there were 50 pages) were intriguing enough for me to read and were better than all 430 pages of the book combined.
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Full trigger warnings: Blood depiction, physical assault and injury, death of people, sexism, slavery mentionedneko_reads's review against another edition
this book just takes everything the first book worked for (not much) and killed it. the lgbtish relationship? NO we just couldn't be happy with that, there has to be some boy involved
this book just shows the weirdest sexism reversed, homophobic, tasteless book. so the main characters have no character anymore. sophies character is dead, shes just quiet and agatha is TERRIBLE. now her entire world is tedros. Tedros has no character, its terrible.
also the quote "whats a boy? someone who wishes for a girl. whats a girl? someone who wishes for a boy. whats someone who kissed a girl? DEFINITELY A BOY" homophobia if I've ever seen it.
anyway ill shut up about how much I hate this now like IT IS THAT BAD
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent
lakinglaze's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
hayleythegoose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death, Violence, and War
Minor: Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment
ashleylowry's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
booktrovertreader's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, and Murder
carmineslamp's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Death and Gaslighting
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Torture
Sexism in reference to the girls calling the boys born slaves and the boys just fucking hating women, I guess.xandra_lyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Pros: pacing and end were much better than the first book
Cons: the animosity between the genders is horrible. I know toxic masculinity wasn't a word back then, but this shows the awfulness of it without having the characters realize how awful it is. I also hate how these characters go through horrific things and have ZERO PTSD. The cruelty is awful and sad, and I don't think anyone actually treats people that way - and if they do, then toxic masculinity has been destroying people for so long, we no longer care that it's put into a children's book.
Moderate: Death and Torture
Torture: tedros is beaten, and although it doesnt go into the details, it goes into his state of mind before and after and it's heartbreakingjaidlyn_7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Slavery