flamingo2023's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
stacy_85's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- 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
defunctfridge's review against another edition
3.0
if i could give it 2.5 stars i would. but as i’ve been reading this series since third or fourth grade and it sparked my love for reading i’ll round up rather than down. i can’t really express my disappointment with this book. i don’t quite know what i expected considering my increasingly negative feelings of the books that began after book 4. this one was no exception to the unfortunate pattern. it’s disorganized and rushed and desperate to quickly create the familiar world in a few chapters rather then show a natural slow progress as school masters gain footing. soman tried to pack a schools years worth of events into a few weeks? two months? all together it was unnecessarily and unbearably rushed and as a result at times it felt like just words forced out and nothing more.
none of this is even touching on the audacity of soman to claim this book would have so much gay rep. i mean congrats dude you managed to write a few sentences of mere infatuation that lasted a chapter or two after essentially queer baiting for 6 books. i would never in a million years qualify this as representation as soman so clearly wants us to based on his social media posts. and the little rep that is there is either not real (aladdin’a whole chapter long plot) or just weird (looking for attractive dude to replace brothers love, bit weird and becoming a pattern considering sophie and agatha’s whole thing). it’s something that has made soman very frustrating as a writer.
throughout these now 7 books (8 if you include handbook) soman uses the same exact phrases like 20 times every book and it’s exhausting to read. yes it can work to really enforce a theme,,,when used sparingly. soman has said after the third book he wanted to age up his audience as he writes new books. his writing needs to reflect that.
at the end of the day i will read every sge book written, they are central to who i am and why i read. but i am not excited about it. when this book was announced i actually dreaded reading it. i’m dreading reading the next one. i do not want to read them. i have freinds who dropped the series after 3 and i can’t telling them to continue reading, why would i? i would never recommend this series knowing how this series turns out. and it’s not that i’ve aged. book 4 i honestly think is a great set up for a new conflict and character development as they age too. soman simply has reached the limit on expanded the world without more care and planning. i hope the next book is better, i want to look forward to this series and characters. i genuinely want to see this series succeed from a writing perspective. i don’t hate the series but i’m not happy with where it currently is.
none of this is even touching on the audacity of soman to claim this book would have so much gay rep. i mean congrats dude you managed to write a few sentences of mere infatuation that lasted a chapter or two after essentially queer baiting for 6 books. i would never in a million years qualify this as representation as soman so clearly wants us to based on his social media posts. and the little rep that is there is either not real (aladdin’a whole chapter long plot) or just weird (looking for attractive dude to replace brothers love, bit weird and becoming a pattern considering sophie and agatha’s whole thing). it’s something that has made soman very frustrating as a writer.
throughout these now 7 books (8 if you include handbook) soman uses the same exact phrases like 20 times every book and it’s exhausting to read. yes it can work to really enforce a theme,,,when used sparingly. soman has said after the third book he wanted to age up his audience as he writes new books. his writing needs to reflect that.
at the end of the day i will read every sge book written, they are central to who i am and why i read. but i am not excited about it. when this book was announced i actually dreaded reading it. i’m dreading reading the next one. i do not want to read them. i have freinds who dropped the series after 3 and i can’t telling them to continue reading, why would i? i would never recommend this series knowing how this series turns out. and it’s not that i’ve aged. book 4 i honestly think is a great set up for a new conflict and character development as they age too. soman simply has reached the limit on expanded the world without more care and planning. i hope the next book is better, i want to look forward to this series and characters. i genuinely want to see this series succeed from a writing perspective. i don’t hate the series but i’m not happy with where it currently is.
julia_taylors_version's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
katreadsalot's review against another edition
5.0
I enjoyed being back in this world! Chainani is an absolute genius. I so enjoy how he plays with fairy tales.
caitlin_034's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
5.0
god. everything he writes in incredible this universe is so enticing. i just love these characters and this book made me like rafal?
leightonlawliet's review
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
fast-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
4.0
disneygirl08's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
yanners's review against another edition
1.0
Let’s put this out on the table—this wasn’t good.
What I was expecting: an all-out war pitting Good against Evil, maybe even throw in a school of morally grey, resulting in a centennial of smoldering rivalries and boiling animosity, with forces of Evil ultimately crushing Good and upturning any semblance of fairytale endings we grew up with, in the process crushing the dreams any little girls had in becoming a princess that summons birds and squirrels
What I got: interminable endless torture with an unrelenting migraine like the sort you get from a hangover
Suffice to say I was disappointed. The plot was in shambles because it was ending yet not ending and ending and still not ending. We started off simple with a tale of the two brothers and Aladdin before it spun off into an entire Dune’s worth of developments with sibling betrayal (the most anticlimactic kind) introducing other random players like Hook and Marialena or what’s-its-name and Fala and a whole bunch of people.
The three main characters blossomed into a whole cast just jostling for the limelight that it got really confusing and dreary to read because there were five different POVs scrambling to update me on what I missed while I journeyed with Rafal to the bottom of the ocean, or watched Aladdin become some lovestruck hero sidling up to his girlfriend like no other. That's right, Aladdin had devolved from his debonair thieving ways to become some wish version of a Ken doll. He's besotted with a goody-two-shoes princess who I've never heard of before and was the gayest Disney character there ever was in the first fifty pages. Meanwhile, James Hook is a sniveling coward who tries to be a pirate but fails superbly.
We're occasionally reminded of the Storian with nifty summaries thrown in at the beginning of chapters like "The pen maintains the balance between Good and Evil. Without love, the balance would be disrupted. The pen sent Aladdin to the wrong school as a test for our brotherly love".
I'm chalking this up to a blunder (as most .5 books usually are) because I've already borrowed the next book in the confidence that fantasy would never let me down no matter what.
Well it did.
1.5 stars
What I was expecting: an all-out war pitting Good against Evil, maybe even throw in a school of morally grey, resulting in a centennial of smoldering rivalries and boiling animosity, with forces of Evil ultimately crushing Good and upturning any semblance of fairytale endings we grew up with, in the process crushing the dreams any little girls had in becoming a princess that summons birds and squirrels
What I got: interminable endless torture with an unrelenting migraine like the sort you get from a hangover
Suffice to say I was disappointed. The plot was in shambles because it was ending yet not ending and ending and still not ending. We started off simple with a tale of the two brothers and Aladdin before it spun off into an entire Dune’s worth of developments with sibling betrayal (the most anticlimactic kind) introducing other random players like Hook and Marialena or what’s-its-name and Fala and a whole bunch of people.
The three main characters blossomed into a whole cast just jostling for the limelight that it got really confusing and dreary to read because there were five different POVs scrambling to update me on what I missed while I journeyed with Rafal to the bottom of the ocean, or watched Aladdin become some lovestruck hero sidling up to his girlfriend like no other. That's right, Aladdin had devolved from his debonair thieving ways to become some wish version of a Ken doll. He's besotted with a goody-two-shoes princess who I've never heard of before and was the gayest Disney character there ever was in the first fifty pages. Meanwhile, James Hook is a sniveling coward who tries to be a pirate but fails superbly.
We're occasionally reminded of the Storian with nifty summaries thrown in at the beginning of chapters like "The pen maintains the balance between Good and Evil. Without love, the balance would be disrupted. The pen sent Aladdin to the wrong school as a test for our brotherly love".
I'm chalking this up to a blunder (as most .5 books usually are) because I've already borrowed the next book in the confidence that fantasy would never let me down no matter what.
Well it did.
1.5 stars
starry2013's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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
3.5