My Shelf Confessions

Pabkin’s One Liner: Prepare for a breaking of the heart, twisting of the spirit and warping of any illusions you have about Good and Evil!

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ?

The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

The School for Good and Evil, it sounds like a light breezy read doesn’t it? What it really is *flabbergasted for the right word* is well, downright MAGNIFICENT!  I haven’t loved a book so much in a very long time, and I devour books like a maniac.  It literally went above and beyond any expectation I could have conceived for it.  I picked it up thinking: “This will be quite the fluffy fairytale,” but was blown away because it was nothing of the kind.

Lets begin with the description: I love that it tells you exactly what The School for Good and Evil is about without giving even an inkling of just how this tale is going to be delivered.  This is a book that can definitely be enjoyed by fairy tale lovers of all ages.  Especially if you don’t mind your fairy tales having a bit of a dark side. Not too dark mind you but just the right amount.  Yes JUST RIGHT!!

There are wonderful comic moments, that I couldn’t help but smirk at.  I felt like the author was making fun of so many things and it tickled me pink to no end. However, there are some moments that tightened my chest and throat.  You know what I’m talking about, that’s right when you are biting back the tears.  I’m not normally a crier…I’m a laugh-er.  So I don’t think I can explain well enough why this book touched me so much. Also, it is full of illustrations! At least one for the start of each chapter.  These added the perfect storybook touch.

What surprised and absolutely delighted me was how much I loved all of the characters.  I grew attached to all of them!  From main, to sidekicks, to little supplemental characters.  They were all given realism and depth of character that made each unique and memorable.  My favorite is Hort…you’ll hear me gush about him again.  *smirk*

I was captured immediately by the wry sense of humor one of the main characters Agatha possessed. She looks like your typical fairy tale witch but somehow ends up in the School for Good!  As you can see from the quote below.  She is a snappy girl and I couldn’t help but love her.

“Graveyards have their benefits,” Agatha said. “No nosy neighbors. No drop-in salesmen. No fishy ‘friends’ bearing face masks and diet cookies, telling you you’re going to Evil School in Magic Fairy Land.”

Soman Chainani writes characters that we can see reflected back in ourselves.  These are the children that we once were, or hey for those young readers, perhaps who they still are.  I think he was delving deep trying to get his readers to challenge those childhood tropes of Good and Evil. Are you beautiful with flawless skin and impeccable clothes? Are you ugly with warts and foul body odor? Does eating lots of sweets really lead you down a road of sin and temptation? Well shucks folks, I MUST be Evil because I’m a total greedy gobbler!

Prepare yourself for the “Evers” and the “Nevers” – that’s what these kids call themselves, for that’s how their stories go.  But onto my favorite character Hort, of course he is a “Never,”  attending the School for Evil. He was such a sad pathetic looking little guy, but he was excitable and friendly and hey he was Evil right?  This quote is when I first met him – and the little girl in me that loves the underdog had high hopes for him.

He looked like a sinister little weasel.

“The bird ate my shirt,” he said. “Can I touch your hair?” Sophie backed up.

“They don’t usually make villains with princess hair,” he said, dog-paddling towards her.”

Then in unexpected moments my heart would break…and frequently it was Hort that would do this to me.

“Dad told me villains can’t love. That it’s unnatural and disgusting.”
…
“So I definitely can’t love,” Hort said.
…
“But if I could love, I’d love you.”

If that isn’t sad…unrequited love, then blast I don’t know what is!

Agatha sums up the best element of this tale for me and precisely how I feel about villains!  They are a major part of what makes a story worth reading.  Often I feel like some authors treat them just as a way to make the good guy look better or “grow” into that strong character that the reader wants to love.  But me? I’m usually secretly rooting for the bad guy.

“She had always found villains more exciting than heroes. They had ambition, passion. They made the stories happen. Villains didn’t fear death. No, they wrapped themselves in death like suits of armor! As she inhaled the school’s graveyard smell, Agatha felt her blood rush. For like all villains, death didn’t scare her. It made her feel alive.” ​​

The School for Good and Evil captures the true spirit of the human heart in so many ways that I was laughing, cringing, weeping and just dying to get to the end to know how this fairy tale would end.  And now?…now I’m so sad that it’s over.​ I know this book will become a hearthstone in my library, one that I will read my own child when he gets older and that I will return to time and again.

So consider this readers…

What’s the one thing Evil can never have…and the one thing Good can never do without?

P.S. There is already a film being planned for 2015! *squees in utter joy and runs off before I keep up with the spewings of love*

Watch the AWESOME freaking book trailer!!

The Playlist I made on Spotify to go with the book!!

The School for Good and Evil

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