The School for Good and Evil/ A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani

Original title: The School for Good and Evil Pages: 544  
Edition Language: Russian
Series: The School for Good and Evil #1 Format: e-book 
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Goodreads

Original title: A World Without Princes  Pages: 576  
Edition Language: Russian  
Series: The School for Good and Evil #2 Format: e-book 
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy   

Goodreads

  Blurb:   
      Best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.
   After saving themselves and their fellow students from a life pitched against one another, Sophie and Agatha are back home again, living happily ever after. But life isn't exactly a fairytale.

    My thoughts: 
    I was eyeing the first book for a long time: I liked the name, cover and concept. The only issue was the book was for children, so when Middle March happened, I had a valid excuse to read the book. I enjoyed it and thought it was quite a funny, entertaining twist in fairy land. I feel that not all ends meet in the story, but overall it was a good journey.
     My only complain is about body shaming concept. As all canon witches are ugly, Sophie started to become ugly when she was close to become a witch. I would rather read about the witch which is still beautiful and shiny but with the dark soul, to make the message - there can be evil under a nice cover and pure gold behind the ordinary outer - more powerful and noticeable.
     In the book the main topic is friendship that can withstand all temptation and difficulties. It is obvious that true friendship is not an easy thing, but a relationship which demands mutual concessions and even sacrifices.  
     The sequel book is about the world where girls do not wait for princes to save the, but take live in their own hands. Agata is some kind of symbol of female independence, and now girls can take care of themselves. Which is kind of cool, but in reality the idea is twisted so badly, that this lead to the war between both sexes as princes are now out of work and since they are not needed they going to fight girls.
      This book seems like a parody of the world, where extreme feminist ideas prevail and males are thrown over boat of society. It was a funny metaphor, but I did not liked the book itself. It is meant to be a nice story about female friendship and started to be strangely complicated without purpose and it lost its appeal to me. I actually struggled to the end of the book and decided not to continue with the series. It might have been better if the first book was a stand alone novel.

Rating: 

    2,5/5