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The School for Good and Evil #2
A World Without Princes
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Middle Grade & Children's (2014)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. When Agatha secretly wishes she'd chosen a different happy ending with Prince Tedros, the gates to the School for Good and Evil open once again. But Good and Evil are no longer enemies and Princes and Princesses may not be what they seem, as new bonds form and old ones shatter.
433 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2014
About the author
Soman Chainani
35 books6,776 followersSoman Chainani’s debut series, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, has sold more than 3.5 million copies, been translated into 31 languages across 6 continents, and will be a major motion picture from Netflix in 2022.
Each of the six books in the series — THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES, THE LAST EVER AFTER, QUESTS FOR GLORY, A CRYSTAL OF TIME, and ONE TRUE KING — have debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. Together the books have been on the print and extended lists for 41 weeks.
A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University’s MFA Film Program, Soman began his career as a screenwriter and director, with his films playing at over 150 film festivals around the world. He has been nominated for the Waterstone Prize for Children’s Literature, been named to the Out100, and also received the $100,000 Shasha Grant and the Sun Valley Writer’s Fellowship, both for debut writers.
Soman’s latest book, BEASTS & BEAUTY, is an instant New York Times Bestseller and will soon be published in 10 languages. It is his seventh New York Times bestseller in a row.
Each of the six books in the series — THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES, THE LAST EVER AFTER, QUESTS FOR GLORY, A CRYSTAL OF TIME, and ONE TRUE KING — have debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. Together the books have been on the print and extended lists for 41 weeks.
A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University’s MFA Film Program, Soman began his career as a screenwriter and director, with his films playing at over 150 film festivals around the world. He has been nominated for the Waterstone Prize for Children’s Literature, been named to the Out100, and also received the $100,000 Shasha Grant and the Sun Valley Writer’s Fellowship, both for debut writers.
Soman’s latest book, BEASTS & BEAUTY, is an instant New York Times Bestseller and will soon be published in 10 languages. It is his seventh New York Times bestseller in a row.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,078 reviews
May 8, 2019
This is the weirdest, worst reverse-sexism bullsh*t I have ever read in my life.
I have decided that I do not want to write a lot about this book, because 1) it’s been many months since I read it and 2) I do not care to think about it. So I will attempt to convey the synopsis, and I will attempt to convey the breadth of my disappointment.
At the end of the last book, BFFs Agatha and Sophie chose each other over princes and went off to live happily ever after by themselves. It’s the feminist fairytale ending we all deserve.
This book immediately takes all of that and throws it right out the goddamn window.
Agatha spends the first chunk of this book resenting Sophie for not being the conventionally attractive prince she has taken it upon herself to fall in love with (you know, as we all did at the ripe old age of 12). Then she wishes she chose him instead of Sophie (you know, normal best friend stuff, I say sarcastically because what the f*ck already this is thematically off the rails), and the two of them are flung off back to Storybook Village Academy for Future Royalty and Uggos, Respectively or whatever it’s called.
Here is where things get, pardon the French, irrevocably f*cking sh*tty.
Once Sophie and Agatha arrive, it turns out the whole school has been turned into boys versus girls rather than good versus evil. And that, like, boys are now an oppressed population. And girls are evil for saying they don’t need boys.
The actual, no joke, theme and conclusion of this book is that girls need boys and it’s evil to say they don’t.
This book is 433 pages of that theme being driven home over. And over. And over again.
I had a lot of issues with the first book, not least of which was just how goddamn weird it was to have the main characters be TWELVE YEARS OLD. But I was excited to continue with the series, because I love fairytales and I love feminism and I love friendship.
All three of those things were not only not a part of this book, it contained their opposites. This story is about the end of fairytales. It indicates that, for all intents and purposes, the baseline feminist thing of women not needing men (which is a simple fact and not all that radical) is not just untrue, but morally wrong. It’s teeming with gender roles and portrays the moments at which characters subvert gender roles as a bad thing. And Sophie and Agatha’s friendship comes at a far, far second to Agatha’s relationship with some random guy she doesn’t even know that well.
Bottom line: This book sucks.
I will not be continuing with this series.
-------------
pre-review
update: what I thought was happening was happening.
review to come
-------------
me @ the overall message of this book:
I have decided that I do not want to write a lot about this book, because 1) it’s been many months since I read it and 2) I do not care to think about it. So I will attempt to convey the synopsis, and I will attempt to convey the breadth of my disappointment.
At the end of the last book, BFFs Agatha and Sophie chose each other over princes and went off to live happily ever after by themselves. It’s the feminist fairytale ending we all deserve.
This book immediately takes all of that and throws it right out the goddamn window.
Agatha spends the first chunk of this book resenting Sophie for not being the conventionally attractive prince she has taken it upon herself to fall in love with (you know, as we all did at the ripe old age of 12). Then she wishes she chose him instead of Sophie (you know, normal best friend stuff, I say sarcastically because what the f*ck already this is thematically off the rails), and the two of them are flung off back to Storybook Village Academy for Future Royalty and Uggos, Respectively or whatever it’s called.
Here is where things get, pardon the French, irrevocably f*cking sh*tty.
Once Sophie and Agatha arrive, it turns out the whole school has been turned into boys versus girls rather than good versus evil. And that, like, boys are now an oppressed population. And girls are evil for saying they don’t need boys.
The actual, no joke, theme and conclusion of this book is that girls need boys and it’s evil to say they don’t.
This book is 433 pages of that theme being driven home over. And over. And over again.
I had a lot of issues with the first book, not least of which was just how goddamn weird it was to have the main characters be TWELVE YEARS OLD. But I was excited to continue with the series, because I love fairytales and I love feminism and I love friendship.
All three of those things were not only not a part of this book, it contained their opposites. This story is about the end of fairytales. It indicates that, for all intents and purposes, the baseline feminist thing of women not needing men (which is a simple fact and not all that radical) is not just untrue, but morally wrong. It’s teeming with gender roles and portrays the moments at which characters subvert gender roles as a bad thing. And Sophie and Agatha’s friendship comes at a far, far second to Agatha’s relationship with some random guy she doesn’t even know that well.
Bottom line: This book sucks.
I will not be continuing with this series.
-------------
pre-review
update: what I thought was happening was happening.
review to come
-------------
me @ the overall message of this book:
December 18, 2016
2.75
Torn on this, I feel like it presented a lot of very interesting things about gender but did not follow through -- which can make it problematic. But I also feel like it might be resolved in the next book? So rating is low for now until I continue on.
Torn on this, I feel like it presented a lot of very interesting things about gender but did not follow through -- which can make it problematic. But I also feel like it might be resolved in the next book? So rating is low for now until I continue on.
July 19, 2014
Well, this series went off the deep end really fast.
For those who don’t know, the first book in this series, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, was about two girls who are not quite what they seem surviving in a duo of fairy tale schools which had simplistic ideas the nature of good and evil and simplistic ideas about gender roles. I would have ventured to call the first book progressive … Agatha and Sophie learn that they don’t need a fairy tale prince to be happy and that relationships with other girls can be just as important as relationships with boys.
However, second installment, A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES, is virulently anti-feminist and reverses the themes and messages of the first book in many ways. IN AWWP, the fairy tale schools which had previously been split into Good and Evil are now split into male and female. The school for girls is now run by a straw feminist, Dean Sader who apparently hates all men because she was kicked out of the school ten years ago for being sadistic and incompetent and later replaced by her brother who the book tells us repeatedly was much, much more competent. Dead Sader, like most straw feminists, wants to enslave all men. She also tells the girls to do whatever makes them happy which leads to some of them shaving their heads and eating chocolate. We are supposed to believe that girls doing whatever makes them happy is evil. But of course, we later find out that Dean Sader was doing all this because she wanted to get a guy. I am not making this stuff up.
Meanwhile, the school for boys is a hotbed of misogyny and most of the boys seem to want to literally kill the girls – Sophie and Agatha in particular. Tedros, the male hero who is splashed prominently across the cover of the book, spends most of the novel literally trying to murder Sophie and Agatha. The narrative seems to want us to believe that if only Sophie and Agatha had been a little nicer to poor Tedros then he wouldn’t have gone down this dark path. The responsibility for Tedros’s morality is placed almost entirely upon the girls rather than on Tedros himself. But the only wrong that Agatha and Sophie seem to have done to Tedros (or at least the one he keeps complaining about) was rejecting him as a romantic interest. The narrative keeps justifying Tedros’s violent fantasies by telling us how bad it felt for him to be rejected. In many ways, this is much scarier than the straw feminist crap of the girls’ school. At least we can recognize “enslave all boys” as a ridiculous fantasy that has no place in the real world. But when some men are rejected romantically they often DO become violent towards women. Sometimes they kill them. This is a real life situation and the author’s attempts at justifying it by placing the blame on the girls is sickening. The fact that the target audience for this book is pre-teen girls makes the book’s attitudes towards women all the more disturbing.
The central conflict in terms of interpersonal relationships is that Agatha has to “choose” between Sophie and Tedros. There is no real reason why Agatha should have to choose between having a best friend and having a boyfriend other than … oh yeah, the book is really freaking sexist. I think what the author WANTS to do is to present Agatha, Sophie, and Tedros as being in a bisexual love triangle where Agatha has to choose between Sophie and Tedros (and Sophie also has to choose between Agatha and Tedros … and Tedros has to choose between Agatha and Sophie). But since this is a Middle Grade novel, the author is too scared to actually DO this. There are two same-sex kisses in this series and yet the book can’t quite bring itself to suggest that the love that Agatha and Sophie feel for one another could be romantic.
The book goes on for far too long and there is a lot of magic school stuff that Harry Potter frankly does a lot better (this was the case in the first book as well). After awhile, there is some gender bending which I found to be one of the more compelling aspects of the book. I know it may seem like I’ve focused overly much on the gender relations in this review, but this stuff is what the story is all about. You can’t read a page of this book without running into some sexist claptrap. I don’t know whether or not the author even intends to be sexist – I just think that he’s one of those writers who doesn’t always have a great handle on what his work is saying thematically (there were hints of this in the first book as well).
There are some good points about the book – the characterization tends to be decent, especially the characterization of Sophie in my opinion. The world building is pretty good and there are a lot of cute little ideas about the magic schools. There’s an exciting story somewhere in here if you can somehow get past the inherent sexism of the storyline. It’s a real shame that the story went the way it did, because a novel about the girls and boys being separated into warring schools could have been so good if handled correctly.
I was going to give the novel two stars despite its considerable problems because there are some promising aspects of it. But then I got to the end. The ending makes no sense. It also completely reverses the themes and messages of the first book. The ending was what made me bump this book down to one star.
For those who don’t know, the first book in this series, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, was about two girls who are not quite what they seem surviving in a duo of fairy tale schools which had simplistic ideas the nature of good and evil and simplistic ideas about gender roles. I would have ventured to call the first book progressive … Agatha and Sophie learn that they don’t need a fairy tale prince to be happy and that relationships with other girls can be just as important as relationships with boys.
However, second installment, A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES, is virulently anti-feminist and reverses the themes and messages of the first book in many ways. IN AWWP, the fairy tale schools which had previously been split into Good and Evil are now split into male and female. The school for girls is now run by a straw feminist, Dean Sader who apparently hates all men because she was kicked out of the school ten years ago for being sadistic and incompetent and later replaced by her brother who the book tells us repeatedly was much, much more competent. Dead Sader, like most straw feminists, wants to enslave all men. She also tells the girls to do whatever makes them happy which leads to some of them shaving their heads and eating chocolate. We are supposed to believe that girls doing whatever makes them happy is evil. But of course, we later find out that Dean Sader was doing all this because she wanted to get a guy. I am not making this stuff up.
Meanwhile, the school for boys is a hotbed of misogyny and most of the boys seem to want to literally kill the girls – Sophie and Agatha in particular. Tedros, the male hero who is splashed prominently across the cover of the book, spends most of the novel literally trying to murder Sophie and Agatha. The narrative seems to want us to believe that if only Sophie and Agatha had been a little nicer to poor Tedros then he wouldn’t have gone down this dark path. The responsibility for Tedros’s morality is placed almost entirely upon the girls rather than on Tedros himself. But the only wrong that Agatha and Sophie seem to have done to Tedros (or at least the one he keeps complaining about) was rejecting him as a romantic interest. The narrative keeps justifying Tedros’s violent fantasies by telling us how bad it felt for him to be rejected. In many ways, this is much scarier than the straw feminist crap of the girls’ school. At least we can recognize “enslave all boys” as a ridiculous fantasy that has no place in the real world. But when some men are rejected romantically they often DO become violent towards women. Sometimes they kill them. This is a real life situation and the author’s attempts at justifying it by placing the blame on the girls is sickening. The fact that the target audience for this book is pre-teen girls makes the book’s attitudes towards women all the more disturbing.
The central conflict in terms of interpersonal relationships is that Agatha has to “choose” between Sophie and Tedros. There is no real reason why Agatha should have to choose between having a best friend and having a boyfriend other than … oh yeah, the book is really freaking sexist. I think what the author WANTS to do is to present Agatha, Sophie, and Tedros as being in a bisexual love triangle where Agatha has to choose between Sophie and Tedros (and Sophie also has to choose between Agatha and Tedros … and Tedros has to choose between Agatha and Sophie). But since this is a Middle Grade novel, the author is too scared to actually DO this. There are two same-sex kisses in this series and yet the book can’t quite bring itself to suggest that the love that Agatha and Sophie feel for one another could be romantic.
The book goes on for far too long and there is a lot of magic school stuff that Harry Potter frankly does a lot better (this was the case in the first book as well). After awhile, there is some gender bending which I found to be one of the more compelling aspects of the book. I know it may seem like I’ve focused overly much on the gender relations in this review, but this stuff is what the story is all about. You can’t read a page of this book without running into some sexist claptrap. I don’t know whether or not the author even intends to be sexist – I just think that he’s one of those writers who doesn’t always have a great handle on what his work is saying thematically (there were hints of this in the first book as well).
There are some good points about the book – the characterization tends to be decent, especially the characterization of Sophie in my opinion. The world building is pretty good and there are a lot of cute little ideas about the magic schools. There’s an exciting story somewhere in here if you can somehow get past the inherent sexism of the storyline. It’s a real shame that the story went the way it did, because a novel about the girls and boys being separated into warring schools could have been so good if handled correctly.
I was going to give the novel two stars despite its considerable problems because there are some promising aspects of it. But then I got to the end. The ending makes no sense. It also completely reverses the themes and messages of the first book. The ending was what made me bump this book down to one star.
May 29, 2014
Final Rating: 4.5 stars (rounded to 5 on GR)
Disclaimer: There may be minor spoilers of book 1 in this review. Consider yourselves warned if you haven't read the first book.
When I first read The School for Good and Evil sometime last year, I appreciated so much how it portrayed very dark themes in a seemingly light, humorous, and fluffy tone. I enjoyed how it mocked the many tropes and worn-out clichés that are present in many of the stories we read in our childhood ( like princesses having to learn how to communicate with animals, princes having classes on heroism, the "evil ones" needing some uglification, etc. etc). And most of all, I loved how on the surface, it IS about fairy tales and it IS about fairy tale characters, but underneath it all are deep, dark and real issues that we tackle even in our day-to-day lives.
In short, The School for Good and Evil was intense. Yeah, it seemed fluffy and light-hearted, but seriously? Don't let that silly and vibrant cover fool you. I was a raging, emotional wreck when I finished it. It was so intense that I doubted the succeeding books would be able to topple it.
Obviously, I was being naive. I was not only a raging, emotional wreck - I was a raging and ugly emotional wreck. I didn't think it would get any more darker and complex after the first book, but I was proven wrong, and if I had it my way, I'd just write "intense" over and over in this review so you guys can get the idea (if you haven't already).
First, a recap. When we think of fairy tales, we oftentimes expect a world of happily-ever-afters, of rainbows and butterflies and fairies, of witches and wizards and ogres getting their asses whooped by a Prince Charming. Apparently, that is also true in the world Chainani created, but before these characters live out their stories, they go to a special school and learn how to act like their characters first. Princess and princes versus ogres, witches, and hunchbacks. Good versus Evil. Beautification versus Uglification. Every four years, this school kidnaps two girls from our realm to become characters in their own fairy tales, and that's how two girls, Sophie and Agatha, found themselves whisked away to this mysterious place. This has always been Sophie's dream, so she was ecstatic, but Agatha wanted nothing more than to go back to their normal lives. Unfortunately, the blonde and lively Sophie found herself placed in the Evil school, and the pessimistic brunette, Agatha, in Good's. Thinking it was a bad misunderstanding and a mistake, the former was determined to make things "right". And that's where things get really... chaotic.
In A World Without Princes, Agatha and Sophie continue their normal lives outside the magical realm, a happily-ever-after they thought they wanted, but alas, doubts and regrets abound. Having experienced acceptance aside from her best friend, Agatha starts to question if this life with Sophie really was the ending she wanted, if she really made the right choice in choosing her best friend. Sophie, on the other hand, couldn't be any happier. She had thought she needed other people to feel special, but she realized she only needed to be the best for that one person who mattered the most to her: Agatha. And that's why when they find themselves back in the magical realm because of Agatha's yearning to be with Tedros, Sophie becomes determined to not let anyone else get her best friend. To her, they only needed each other.
Sophie
In the first book, I loathed Sophie. She was hateful, selfish, and conceited. She only thought of herself and would do dangerous things at the expense of other people. But despite this apparent greed and selfishness, underneath was a complex individual who simply wanted to be loved and admired. Not exactly a bad thing to wish for - all of us have felt this at least once or twice in their lives. Sophie's mistake was her narrow-minded thinking that there was only one way of achieving what she wanted. That's why despite her being an infuriating little nitwit, I thought she was the most complex character in the first book. Her development from bad to worse and then to her gradual awareness and realization may have been a wild ride, but it was one that shook me to the very core.
Here, we still see a bit of her selfish side. That can't be helped, of course; Sophie is still Sophie, after all. She craves for attention, she wants people to adore her, but these are all secondary now as long as she has Agatha by her side. In the end, her only wish is the same - to not be alone. And it is because of this wish that things become haywire again, and it's like the first book all over again where she does things for the name of love, but she does them misguidedly. But at the same time, while she did do and say things that were highly questionable, you'll find yourself not having the heart to blame her for it. It's like, you can really see and understand how desperate she truly was. She's so scared of being alone that it pushes her to think and act irrationally. She doesn't do them for the heck of it, but because for her it made sense and she thought they were the only ways of keeping what was important to her. That doesn't mean I don't think they were selfish at all - they were. They really, really were. They were done because she was scared for her own well-being. But if our desperation clouds our judgement, can we really say we think straight?
On the topic of villains...
That's why I see her as more of an anti-heroine than an antagonist. She's absolutely complex and three-dimensional, that I hate her and love her at the same time. She's the kind of "villain" (not the quote, unquote) I prefer to see in literature - the kind who don't see the world in a simple black and white, the type of people who have deeper reasons for doing the things they do. She reminds me of many people in society today who aren't inherently evil or malicious, but because of desperation, they resort to doing bad things. Examples are the kind who'd steal from a food stall to feed their children who haven't eaten anything for 3 days straight; who'd rob a rich person to pay for their parents' medical bills, and; who'd sell their bodies against their own wills just to send their children to school. I'm not saying these should be tolerated just because the person doing it has a sad backstory... in the end, it's the action that matters, not the intention; however, the point I'm trying to make here is as a reader, we have more awareness than the characters in a book, and it is this "knowing" that there is a deeper reason in the actions they do that other characters don't see/know that makes individuals like Sophie highly interesting to read.
How about Agatha?
I liked Agatha in the first book. She was a really cool person who was sarcastic and witty, who discreetly mocked the frilly things fairy tale princesses were known for. She may have been belittled for her allegedly sad appearance, but she was highly intelligent and she wasn't afraid to show it. She questioned the school, she questioned the authorities, and she did everything she could to get her and Sophie back to the real world. That's why I was a bit disappointed to see her kind of lifeless and dull here. While I was reading the book, I kept on wondering what the heck happened to the Agatha I loved in A School for Good and Evil? There were times she was so out of character that I was left wondering if her love for Tedros changed her personality altogether. I also didn't like the flip-flopping she would sometimes do. Tedros or Sophie? Sophie or Tedros? It was kind of infuriating to see her become a little wishy-washy...in addition to that some of her intelligence that was very apparent in the first book slowly ebbed away, so it was like adding insult to injury.
As for Tedros...
He was kinda a pathetic prince in the first book (even though I shipped him and Agatha so hard), but he kinda grew balls of steel here. There were times I got really frustrated with him, though. For such a supposedly high-profile prince, he was easily manipulated by other forces, and because of this I questioned his love for our brunette princess. If you really do love her, then why do you distrust her so much to the point of wanting to do bodily harm? His resolve in the middle of the book seemed so far-fetched to me that it was just undoubtedly ridiculous and silly. Still, he was given more exposure and substance here, and he's cool overall. We get more of his backstory here regarding his and his parents' past (King Arthur and Queen Guinevere!), so that was cool.
And so...
Nevertheless, the issues I had in this book were very minor in comparison to the intense feels it gave me. Despite Agatha's, erm, character devolvement, and Tedros' exaggerated resolve, Sophie's complexity made this book awesome for me. She's really the star of the series here, and all the frustration, anger, and sadness one undergoes with regards to her are all worth it. She's outstanding in a sense her character opens a lot of discussion and discourse. Just be wary that this is darker than it seems. If you're looking for a light read, this ain't your book unfortunately. But please don't let that stop you! This one is truly a great book and should not be missed.
[rating-report]
Disclaimer: There may be minor spoilers of book 1 in this review. Consider yourselves warned if you haven't read the first book.
And Sophie and Agatha lived happily ever after, for girls don't need princes for love to call.
No, they don't need princes in their fairy tales at all.
When I first read The School for Good and Evil sometime last year, I appreciated so much how it portrayed very dark themes in a seemingly light, humorous, and fluffy tone. I enjoyed how it mocked the many tropes and worn-out clichés that are present in many of the stories we read in our childhood ( like princesses having to learn how to communicate with animals, princes having classes on heroism, the "evil ones" needing some uglification, etc. etc). And most of all, I loved how on the surface, it IS about fairy tales and it IS about fairy tale characters, but underneath it all are deep, dark and real issues that we tackle even in our day-to-day lives.
In short, The School for Good and Evil was intense. Yeah, it seemed fluffy and light-hearted, but seriously? Don't let that silly and vibrant cover fool you. I was a raging, emotional wreck when I finished it. It was so intense that I doubted the succeeding books would be able to topple it.
Obviously, I was being naive. I was not only a raging, emotional wreck - I was a raging and ugly emotional wreck. I didn't think it would get any more darker and complex after the first book, but I was proven wrong, and if I had it my way, I'd just write "intense" over and over in this review so you guys can get the idea (if you haven't already).
First, a recap. When we think of fairy tales, we oftentimes expect a world of happily-ever-afters, of rainbows and butterflies and fairies, of witches and wizards and ogres getting their asses whooped by a Prince Charming. Apparently, that is also true in the world Chainani created, but before these characters live out their stories, they go to a special school and learn how to act like their characters first. Princess and princes versus ogres, witches, and hunchbacks. Good versus Evil. Beautification versus Uglification. Every four years, this school kidnaps two girls from our realm to become characters in their own fairy tales, and that's how two girls, Sophie and Agatha, found themselves whisked away to this mysterious place. This has always been Sophie's dream, so she was ecstatic, but Agatha wanted nothing more than to go back to their normal lives. Unfortunately, the blonde and lively Sophie found herself placed in the Evil school, and the pessimistic brunette, Agatha, in Good's. Thinking it was a bad misunderstanding and a mistake, the former was determined to make things "right". And that's where things get really... chaotic.
In A World Without Princes, Agatha and Sophie continue their normal lives outside the magical realm, a happily-ever-after they thought they wanted, but alas, doubts and regrets abound. Having experienced acceptance aside from her best friend, Agatha starts to question if this life with Sophie really was the ending she wanted, if she really made the right choice in choosing her best friend. Sophie, on the other hand, couldn't be any happier. She had thought she needed other people to feel special, but she realized she only needed to be the best for that one person who mattered the most to her: Agatha. And that's why when they find themselves back in the magical realm because of Agatha's yearning to be with Tedros, Sophie becomes determined to not let anyone else get her best friend. To her, they only needed each other.
Sophie
In the first book, I loathed Sophie. She was hateful, selfish, and conceited. She only thought of herself and would do dangerous things at the expense of other people. But despite this apparent greed and selfishness, underneath was a complex individual who simply wanted to be loved and admired. Not exactly a bad thing to wish for - all of us have felt this at least once or twice in their lives. Sophie's mistake was her narrow-minded thinking that there was only one way of achieving what she wanted. That's why despite her being an infuriating little nitwit, I thought she was the most complex character in the first book. Her development from bad to worse and then to her gradual awareness and realization may have been a wild ride, but it was one that shook me to the very core.
Here, we still see a bit of her selfish side. That can't be helped, of course; Sophie is still Sophie, after all. She craves for attention, she wants people to adore her, but these are all secondary now as long as she has Agatha by her side. In the end, her only wish is the same - to not be alone. And it is because of this wish that things become haywire again, and it's like the first book all over again where she does things for the name of love, but she does them misguidedly. But at the same time, while she did do and say things that were highly questionable, you'll find yourself not having the heart to blame her for it. It's like, you can really see and understand how desperate she truly was. She's so scared of being alone that it pushes her to think and act irrationally. She doesn't do them for the heck of it, but because for her it made sense and she thought they were the only ways of keeping what was important to her. That doesn't mean I don't think they were selfish at all - they were. They really, really were. They were done because she was scared for her own well-being. But if our desperation clouds our judgement, can we really say we think straight?
On the topic of villains...
That's why I see her as more of an anti-heroine than an antagonist. She's absolutely complex and three-dimensional, that I hate her and love her at the same time. She's the kind of "villain" (not the quote, unquote) I prefer to see in literature - the kind who don't see the world in a simple black and white, the type of people who have deeper reasons for doing the things they do. She reminds me of many people in society today who aren't inherently evil or malicious, but because of desperation, they resort to doing bad things. Examples are the kind who'd steal from a food stall to feed their children who haven't eaten anything for 3 days straight; who'd rob a rich person to pay for their parents' medical bills, and; who'd sell their bodies against their own wills just to send their children to school. I'm not saying these should be tolerated just because the person doing it has a sad backstory... in the end, it's the action that matters, not the intention; however, the point I'm trying to make here is as a reader, we have more awareness than the characters in a book, and it is this "knowing" that there is a deeper reason in the actions they do that other characters don't see/know that makes individuals like Sophie highly interesting to read.
How about Agatha?
I liked Agatha in the first book. She was a really cool person who was sarcastic and witty, who discreetly mocked the frilly things fairy tale princesses were known for. She may have been belittled for her allegedly sad appearance, but she was highly intelligent and she wasn't afraid to show it. She questioned the school, she questioned the authorities, and she did everything she could to get her and Sophie back to the real world. That's why I was a bit disappointed to see her kind of lifeless and dull here. While I was reading the book, I kept on wondering what the heck happened to the Agatha I loved in A School for Good and Evil? There were times she was so out of character that I was left wondering if her love for Tedros changed her personality altogether. I also didn't like the flip-flopping she would sometimes do. Tedros or Sophie? Sophie or Tedros? It was kind of infuriating to see her become a little wishy-washy...in addition to that some of her intelligence that was very apparent in the first book slowly ebbed away, so it was like adding insult to injury.
As for Tedros...
He was kinda a pathetic prince in the first book (even though I shipped him and Agatha so hard), but he kinda grew balls of steel here. There were times I got really frustrated with him, though. For such a supposedly high-profile prince, he was easily manipulated by other forces, and because of this I questioned his love for our brunette princess. If you really do love her, then why do you distrust her so much to the point of wanting to do bodily harm? His resolve in the middle of the book seemed so far-fetched to me that it was just undoubtedly ridiculous and silly. Still, he was given more exposure and substance here, and he's cool overall. We get more of his backstory here regarding his and his parents' past (King Arthur and Queen Guinevere!), so that was cool.
And so...
Nevertheless, the issues I had in this book were very minor in comparison to the intense feels it gave me. Despite Agatha's, erm, character devolvement, and Tedros' exaggerated resolve, Sophie's complexity made this book awesome for me. She's really the star of the series here, and all the frustration, anger, and sadness one undergoes with regards to her are all worth it. She's outstanding in a sense her character opens a lot of discussion and discourse. Just be wary that this is darker than it seems. If you're looking for a light read, this ain't your book unfortunately. But please don't let that stop you! This one is truly a great book and should not be missed.
[rating-report]
April 15, 2016
Minor spoilers for book one
If you know me, you'll know that I very rarely give books five stars. Even if I really love it, I normally mark it as a 4.5 and call it a day. Which is why it came as such a surprise that I slapped a 5-star on A World Without Princes right off the bat. I went in with sky-high expectations, considering how much I loved The School for Good and Evil, and it broke every single one of them.
A World Without Princes picks up a couple months after the events of the first book. Sophie and Agatha are back home living their happily ever after. But one ill-fated wish later, the girls find themselves back at The School For Good & Evil, except it's not as they remember.
The title is fitting indeed. As a result of Sophie and Agatha's happy ending last time, the other girls learned that they don't don't need a prince to save them—they can save themselves. The princes and Neverboys have been kicked out and The School For Good & Evil is now the School for Girls.
They've taken feminism to a tyrannical level by teaching the students that boys are the scum of the earth and should be enslaved while girls rule. Masculine traits, such as destroying things, are discouraged. From now on, it's all girl all the time.
What I love about this series is that it isn't afraid to tackle big subjects, but does so in a fun and humorous way. The School for Girls is what the world would look like if extreme feminist Nazis took over. There's no equality. Boys and girls are as different as Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus and must be enemies.
I completely agree with Hester. I hate the sexist, misogynist world we live in, but I don't think swinging the spectrum the other way would be a good idea either. It's all about balance.
This book also questions what it entails to be a boy and vice versa.
Society loves to force the mentality that men are from Mars and women are from Venus on us, and this books just laughs at those stereotypes, which is fantastic. Pink doesn't have to be for girls and blue doesn't have to be for boys. I like wearing dresses and wearing my hair long, but I also love reading Shounen manga and playing video games. There isn't supposed to be a line!
God bless the parents who raised this child.
Plus, I love, love, love the fact that Chainani never mentions the words "lesbian" or "gay" even though it's such a huge part of the narrative. Love is love, we shouldn't have to differentiate between them.
Speaking of the romance, I don't even know who to ship anymore.
This is an real love triangle. It's not just two boys fighting over a girl, it's three-way.
As for the characters, they're as wonderful as I remembered them.
Sophie, my darling, darling Sophie. She continues to make a lot of bad decisions here, partially because of selfishness, but nowhere near the level in the first book. She's grown so much and I can understand her motives even when she does Evil.
Tedros gets a lot more screen time here and as a result, his character is far more rounded out than in the first book. He's not just a dense pretty boy anymore. Like Sophie, he makes a lot of bad choices, but I can get where he's coming from. He just wants the same thing Sophie wants and, well, now you see my dilemma in the romance department.
If you haven't picked up this series yet, run to your nearest book store immediately. It will dazzle you and leave you with a book hangover, but you won't even care because an overdose of awesome is always welcome.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just be here waiting for the next book to come out.
My review of The School For Good & Evil
My review of The Last Ever After
If you know me, you'll know that I very rarely give books five stars. Even if I really love it, I normally mark it as a 4.5 and call it a day. Which is why it came as such a surprise that I slapped a 5-star on A World Without Princes right off the bat. I went in with sky-high expectations, considering how much I loved The School for Good and Evil, and it broke every single one of them.
A World Without Princes picks up a couple months after the events of the first book. Sophie and Agatha are back home living their happily ever after. But one ill-fated wish later, the girls find themselves back at The School For Good & Evil, except it's not as they remember.
As the girls chased their elegant sliver-haired bun through Valir's princely blue arches and murals, they gawked at the once virile visions of princes destroying demons and helpless princesses, now flaunting different endings: Snow White smashing out of her glass coffin with her fists, Red Riding Hood slitting the wolf's throat, Sleeping Beauty setting her spindle on fire.
The title is fitting indeed. As a result of Sophie and Agatha's happy ending last time, the other girls learned that they don't don't need a prince to save them—they can save themselves. The princes and Neverboys have been kicked out and The School For Good & Evil is now the School for Girls.
They've taken feminism to a tyrannical level by teaching the students that boys are the scum of the earth and should be enslaved while girls rule. Masculine traits, such as destroying things, are discouraged. From now on, it's all girl all the time.
What I love about this series is that it isn't afraid to tackle big subjects, but does so in a fun and humorous way. The School for Girls is what the world would look like if extreme feminist Nazis took over. There's no equality. Boys and girls are as different as Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus and must be enemies.
"Everything in this school is about being a girl!" Hester screeched. "Do you know how hard I've tried to prove I'm more than a girl and now I have to live in a castle full of them! You can't have a school without boys! Even we know that and we'd rather kill ourselves than touch one!"
I completely agree with Hester. I hate the sexist, misogynist world we live in, but I don't think swinging the spectrum the other way would be a good idea either. It's all about balance.
This book also questions what it entails to be a boy and vice versa.
"Boys never have real feelings. At least not ones that they don't toss or hide."
Society loves to force the mentality that men are from Mars and women are from Venus on us, and this books just laughs at those stereotypes, which is fantastic. Pink doesn't have to be for girls and blue doesn't have to be for boys. I like wearing dresses and wearing my hair long, but I also love reading Shounen manga and playing video games. There isn't supposed to be a line!
God bless the parents who raised this child.
Plus, I love, love, love the fact that Chainani never mentions the words "lesbian" or "gay" even though it's such a huge part of the narrative. Love is love, we shouldn't have to differentiate between them.
Speaking of the romance, I don't even know who to ship anymore.
This is an real love triangle. It's not just two boys fighting over a girl, it's three-way.
As for the characters, they're as wonderful as I remembered them.
Sophie, my darling, darling Sophie. She continues to make a lot of bad decisions here, partially because of selfishness, but nowhere near the level in the first book. She's grown so much and I can understand her motives even when she does Evil.
Tedros gets a lot more screen time here and as a result, his character is far more rounded out than in the first book. He's not just a dense pretty boy anymore. Like Sophie, he makes a lot of bad choices, but I can get where he's coming from. He just wants the same thing Sophie wants and, well, now you see my dilemma in the romance department.
If you haven't picked up this series yet, run to your nearest book store immediately. It will dazzle you and leave you with a book hangover, but you won't even care because an overdose of awesome is always welcome.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just be here waiting for the next book to come out.
My review of The School For Good & Evil
My review of The Last Ever After
October 1, 2022
Honestly, I’m really not into a man writing a book where the metaphor is that feminism sometimes goes to far and that the boys just naturally respond violently. Not great. Did the first book need a sequel? No. But I get it, it’s publishing and they built quite the empire from this series with a slew of books and now a feature film. But did they have to retcon the best moment of the first book by ensuring that, no, Sophie and Agatha aren’t romantically attracted to each other and then launch into some very heteronormative reinforcing where a big portion of the character’s development and sense of self is based on if they can secure the affection of the man they fancy. The whole novel actually begins because Agatha regrets the ending of the first book, wishing she'd stayed with the insufferably dull but apparently sexy prince instead of have a well-adjusted and supporting friendship with Sophie. Who IS GREAT, Agatha!
While, sure, I did like the aspect that often good ideas get co-opted by those with evil motives in order to achieve their personal wishes at the expense of destroying the ideals, but so much was all muddled up in some pretty problematic depictions of women’s empowerment and scapegoated all of that for the benefit of the ‘boys will be boys’ toxic characters and yeeesh. Also, boys looking hot without a shirt on gets them way too much leeway from the two main girls who shrug off major red flags. Which like, realistic I guess, but also Tedros is so beyond irritating and flagrantly dull that no amount of oiled-up chiseled abs could ever make up for it. We have Agatha more or less abandoning her personality because she can be the cute girl that gets the hot guy and it's rather eye rolling when this is presented as character growth instead of something to overcome. Top that off with the whole reverse sexism thing and ughhhhh.
What a disappointment after a rather fun and exciting first book, and there is fun to be had here but a lot of it is a rehash of what made the first book so engaging (a repeat of the Trials occurs, but with higher stakes). It falls pretty flat in the pile of uninspired sequels that becomes simply a bridge to get to a bigger third volume where at least there are fresh ideas. The problem with that direction, however, is that it defaces a lot of what was so charming about Sophie and Agatha in the first book, especially Agatha who went from snarky and strong-willed to very wishy-washy and meek. Have I mentioned Tedros sucks? God he sucks.
Read the first one, but pretend it ends there.
While, sure, I did like the aspect that often good ideas get co-opted by those with evil motives in order to achieve their personal wishes at the expense of destroying the ideals, but so much was all muddled up in some pretty problematic depictions of women’s empowerment and scapegoated all of that for the benefit of the ‘boys will be boys’ toxic characters and yeeesh. Also, boys looking hot without a shirt on gets them way too much leeway from the two main girls who shrug off major red flags. Which like, realistic I guess, but also Tedros is so beyond irritating and flagrantly dull that no amount of oiled-up chiseled abs could ever make up for it. We have Agatha more or less abandoning her personality because she can be the cute girl that gets the hot guy and it's rather eye rolling when this is presented as character growth instead of something to overcome. Top that off with the whole reverse sexism thing and ughhhhh.
What a disappointment after a rather fun and exciting first book, and there is fun to be had here but a lot of it is a rehash of what made the first book so engaging (a repeat of the Trials occurs, but with higher stakes). It falls pretty flat in the pile of uninspired sequels that becomes simply a bridge to get to a bigger third volume where at least there are fresh ideas. The problem with that direction, however, is that it defaces a lot of what was so charming about Sophie and Agatha in the first book, especially Agatha who went from snarky and strong-willed to very wishy-washy and meek. Have I mentioned Tedros sucks? God he sucks.
Read the first one, but pretend it ends there.
![Profile Image for Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1646942374i/66224803._UX200_CR0,46,200,200_.jpg)
February 25, 2018
ATTENTION: spoilers for book one!
“Nothing in this world was ever certain. Princes could become as frightening as ogres.
Princesses could become villains.
Best friends could become enemies.”
Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
„And Sophie and Agatha lived happily ever after, for girls don't need princes for love to call...
No, they don't need princes in their fairy tales at all”
Finally Agatha and Sophie have a happy end together. They’re back in their home town living their old life.
They don’t need princes to have a happy end.
But is that really the truth? Agatha misses Tedros so much, a wish so strong forms in her heart, that it has the power to bring them back to the school of good and evil.
But the school changed - now they’re not separated into good and evil, no, now they’re is a school for the girls and one for the boys.
Princesses don’t need princes for their happy end - that’s why chaos is reigning in the fairy tales and there’s a war forming between boys and girls.
This was so much fun! I loved the first book, especially the world in it, but the second book is even better.
I can’t wait for the movie adaptation! I’m so excited.
There was love, friendship, betrayal, magic, enemies and so much action! I loved it!
And the ending was soooo heartbreaking. 💔
Characters ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The characters are a little bit flat and plain but still very lovable. Agatha and Sophie are the main characters - next to Tedros who plays a big role.
Agatha is still my favorite - she is smart, kindhearted and brave.
Whereas Sophie is really egoistic, she is really brave and loyal to her friend now.
At least she tries to.
She tries to be good, to keep the bad witch in herself at bay, but you can’t erase the evil in yourself...
And Tedros... I don’t like him. He is such a child, I mean they all are, but he is the most childish. He is stubborn, a little stupid, but at least he’s brave.
All in all I liked some characters, especially Agatha and her three witches, they are the best.
World ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I loved the world in the first book and I fell even more in love with it in the second book.
The school, the teachers, the students. It was just so enjoyable, exciting and funny.
In this book they’re not only the schools, but the whole magical fairy tale world is mixed and chaos is reigning.
Princesses kill/ evict their princes, because now they can have an own happy ending.
The schools are now separated into boys and girls and they’re enemies.
The schools are different, the boys are supported by outcast princes and the girls are taught that they do not need a prince to be happy. That witches and princesses can be friends, partners and change the world.
The world building in the whole series is really exceptional with magical details and a whole imagined world ♥️
Relationships ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The friendship between Agatha and Sophie is strong. But every strong friendship has their weaknesses, faults and mistakes.
We see Agatha torn between Sophie and Tedros - torn between friendship and love.
It was really cute, but you can see that this is a middle grade book with a touch of YA.
„When you're young, you think your best friend is everything.
But once you find real love... it changes.
Your friendship can never be the same after that.
Because no matter how much you try to keep both, your loyalty can only lie with one.”
Writing style ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a really simple writing, but it is funny and really really enjoyable.
I had so much fun reading it.
Bonus: they’re also letters, schedules and magical book entries. So cool!
„It's the problem with fairy tales.
From far away, they seem so perfect.
But up close, they're just as complicated as real life.”
“Nothing in this world was ever certain. Princes could become as frightening as ogres.
Princesses could become villains.
Best friends could become enemies.”
Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
„And Sophie and Agatha lived happily ever after, for girls don't need princes for love to call...
No, they don't need princes in their fairy tales at all”
Finally Agatha and Sophie have a happy end together. They’re back in their home town living their old life.
They don’t need princes to have a happy end.
But is that really the truth? Agatha misses Tedros so much, a wish so strong forms in her heart, that it has the power to bring them back to the school of good and evil.
But the school changed - now they’re not separated into good and evil, no, now they’re is a school for the girls and one for the boys.
Princesses don’t need princes for their happy end - that’s why chaos is reigning in the fairy tales and there’s a war forming between boys and girls.
This was so much fun! I loved the first book, especially the world in it, but the second book is even better.
I can’t wait for the movie adaptation! I’m so excited.
There was love, friendship, betrayal, magic, enemies and so much action! I loved it!
And the ending was soooo heartbreaking. 💔
Characters ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The characters are a little bit flat and plain but still very lovable. Agatha and Sophie are the main characters - next to Tedros who plays a big role.
Agatha is still my favorite - she is smart, kindhearted and brave.
Whereas Sophie is really egoistic, she is really brave and loyal to her friend now.
At least she tries to.
She tries to be good, to keep the bad witch in herself at bay, but you can’t erase the evil in yourself...
And Tedros... I don’t like him. He is such a child, I mean they all are, but he is the most childish. He is stubborn, a little stupid, but at least he’s brave.
All in all I liked some characters, especially Agatha and her three witches, they are the best.
World ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I loved the world in the first book and I fell even more in love with it in the second book.
The school, the teachers, the students. It was just so enjoyable, exciting and funny.
In this book they’re not only the schools, but the whole magical fairy tale world is mixed and chaos is reigning.
Princesses kill/ evict their princes, because now they can have an own happy ending.
The schools are now separated into boys and girls and they’re enemies.
The schools are different, the boys are supported by outcast princes and the girls are taught that they do not need a prince to be happy. That witches and princesses can be friends, partners and change the world.
The world building in the whole series is really exceptional with magical details and a whole imagined world ♥️
Relationships ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The friendship between Agatha and Sophie is strong. But every strong friendship has their weaknesses, faults and mistakes.
We see Agatha torn between Sophie and Tedros - torn between friendship and love.
It was really cute, but you can see that this is a middle grade book with a touch of YA.
„When you're young, you think your best friend is everything.
But once you find real love... it changes.
Your friendship can never be the same after that.
Because no matter how much you try to keep both, your loyalty can only lie with one.”
Writing style ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a really simple writing, but it is funny and really really enjoyable.
I had so much fun reading it.
Bonus: they’re also letters, schedules and magical book entries. So cool!
„It's the problem with fairy tales.
From far away, they seem so perfect.
But up close, they're just as complicated as real life.”
June 7, 2014
Whyyyyyy??
What happened to youuuuu??
Book. Book, I had such high hopes for you. You ended so magnificently before ... you gave me hope that there was a book out there, where girls can be friends! Where girls can put other girls before boys! Where love isn't always about the type that makes your body parts tingle and swell, but also about fighting for each other and making sacrifices for friends.
You gave me hope that somewhere out there was a book, geared for younger readers, where black isn't always black, and white isn't always white.
See, one thing I loved about The School for Good and Evil is that it absolutely defied stereotypes. It taught us that we can be more than what society expects of us. We are more than what others label us, or what others think of us.
One of its many empowering messages was that we should look beyond appearances, and that we can be who we set out to be despite what little others think of us.
A World Without Princes completely blew those messages away; tore out the book to pieces, wiped its ass with its mangled pages, and flushed it down the toilet.
Sophie and Agatha, both having made a wish, find themselves back in the School. This time, both houses have reassembled itself into a School for Girls vs a School for Boys, and both at the brink of war.
It is up to them to fix their "happily every after" and prevent an all-out massacre; but how can they do that when Agatha secretly longs for Tedros - now leader of the School for Boys, whilst Sophie secretly sabotages every possibility her friend has of reuniting with her lost prince?
From the beginning we are smacked full of an absurdly cartoonish backdrop. The School for Girls has evolved so much that it blurs the lines between feminism and misandry -- for sure bound to muddle younger readers' concept of the former.
It's a pity because there were many values there that should be taken more seriously: girls can choose to dress as they please, wear make-up for their own enjoyment (rather than to attract the boys) or do without it at all, they are taught how to be strong and self-sufficient (rather than dependent on their knights in shining armor) ...... all very empowering and interesting stuff; but it is then shoved under a carcass of other, more extreme, ideas: all men are evil and should be exterminated; men prevent women from reaching their own happily-ever-afters; women have been unwitting slaves to men and their wiles.
Mashed together like that and without any distinction in the narrative as to the merits vs absurdities of each "rule", I fear younger readers will inevitably brush ALL of them aside as outlandish, laughable concepts -- including, unfortunately, the rather logical and worthy ideas that has popped up in the School for Girls.
Or even worse. Associate feminism with the inherent hatred of men.
But no matter. At that point, I was giving A World Without Princes the benefit of the doubt. I just knew that ... hey, this is the "plot twist". In the end, they'll see the misandry for what it is, and fix it. Right?
They'll end up with a better, balanced, and still pro-feminist school that incorporates boys as well as girls ... right?
Strike one.
Maybe a knock off one star for that failure alone. Alright, two stars. That was a pretty big blunder, after all. But what made me knock off another star was how it all turned out in the end.
Poor Sophie. Poor, poor, poor Sophie. She tried so hard to be good, and she didn't even actively do anything deserving the title of a "villain". Sure, she was selfish, she sabotaged ... all under the name of love and fear; but these are all mistakes one makes at a young age. We act on our selfish whims. That's what we do, and how we learn.
But in the end, it's as if all of Sophie's attempts of being "good" and shedding off her "evil" title was all in vain. She was pretty much shoved into her position. What happened to shades of grey? What happened to no absolute blacks and whites?
What happened to Agatha? To the loving, forgiving, always-there-for-her-friend Aggie whom I came to root for? At the very end, she pulled a stunt I would never have expected from her.
This book ... the ending ... it has exactly the opposite message of its predecessor. While The School for Good and Evil worked under the premise of "there are no absolutes", it seems that in A World Without Princes, there is nothing but absolutes.
You can only have a relationship with a person of the opposite sex.
You can only have your best friend or a boy/girl friend.
You can only be good, or evil.
***
>My review of The School for Good and Evil #1
You can also read reviews over at my blog
What happened to youuuuu??
Book. Book, I had such high hopes for you. You ended so magnificently before ... you gave me hope that there was a book out there, where girls can be friends! Where girls can put other girls before boys! Where love isn't always about the type that makes your body parts tingle and swell, but also about fighting for each other and making sacrifices for friends.
You gave me hope that somewhere out there was a book, geared for younger readers, where black isn't always black, and white isn't always white.
See, one thing I loved about The School for Good and Evil is that it absolutely defied stereotypes. It taught us that we can be more than what society expects of us. We are more than what others label us, or what others think of us.
One of its many empowering messages was that we should look beyond appearances, and that we can be who we set out to be despite what little others think of us.
A World Without Princes completely blew those messages away; tore out the book to pieces, wiped its ass with its mangled pages, and flushed it down the toilet.
Sophie and Agatha, both having made a wish, find themselves back in the School. This time, both houses have reassembled itself into a School for Girls vs a School for Boys, and both at the brink of war.
It is up to them to fix their "happily every after" and prevent an all-out massacre; but how can they do that when Agatha secretly longs for Tedros - now leader of the School for Boys, whilst Sophie secretly sabotages every possibility her friend has of reuniting with her lost prince?
From the beginning we are smacked full of an absurdly cartoonish backdrop. The School for Girls has evolved so much that it blurs the lines between feminism and misandry -- for sure bound to muddle younger readers' concept of the former.
It's a pity because there were many values there that should be taken more seriously: girls can choose to dress as they please, wear make-up for their own enjoyment (rather than to attract the boys) or do without it at all, they are taught how to be strong and self-sufficient (rather than dependent on their knights in shining armor) ...... all very empowering and interesting stuff; but it is then shoved under a carcass of other, more extreme, ideas: all men are evil and should be exterminated; men prevent women from reaching their own happily-ever-afters; women have been unwitting slaves to men and their wiles.
Mashed together like that and without any distinction in the narrative as to the merits vs absurdities of each "rule", I fear younger readers will inevitably brush ALL of them aside as outlandish, laughable concepts -- including, unfortunately, the rather logical and worthy ideas that has popped up in the School for Girls.
Or even worse. Associate feminism with the inherent hatred of men.
But no matter. At that point, I was giving A World Without Princes the benefit of the doubt. I just knew that ... hey, this is the "plot twist". In the end, they'll see the misandry for what it is, and fix it. Right?
They'll end up with a better, balanced, and still pro-feminist school that incorporates boys as well as girls ... right?
Strike one.
Maybe a knock off one star for that failure alone. Alright, two stars. That was a pretty big blunder, after all. But what made me knock off another star was how it all turned out in the end.
Poor Sophie. Poor, poor, poor Sophie. She tried so hard to be good, and she didn't even actively do anything deserving the title of a "villain". Sure, she was selfish, she sabotaged ... all under the name of love and fear; but these are all mistakes one makes at a young age. We act on our selfish whims. That's what we do, and how we learn.
But in the end, it's as if all of Sophie's attempts of being "good" and shedding off her "evil" title was all in vain. She was pretty much shoved into her position. What happened to shades of grey? What happened to no absolute blacks and whites?
What happened to Agatha? To the loving, forgiving, always-there-for-her-friend Aggie whom I came to root for? At the very end, she pulled a stunt I would never have expected from her.
This book ... the ending ... it has exactly the opposite message of its predecessor. While The School for Good and Evil worked under the premise of "there are no absolutes", it seems that in A World Without Princes, there is nothing but absolutes.
You can only have a relationship with a person of the opposite sex.
You can only have your best friend or a boy/girl friend.
You can only be good, or evil.
***
>My review of The School for Good and Evil #1
You can also read reviews over at my blog
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December 31, 2022
THIS BOOK WAS A SEXISM BULLSHIT!
Neither Sophie nor Agatha had time to process this cataclysm, because they were goggling at something more alarming— “Your hair!” Sophie cried. “No boys means no need to look like stupid princesses,” Beatrix said, rubbing her shaved head proudly. “Think about how much time I wasted last year on Tedros and Balls and beautifying all day. And for what? Now I read, I study, I learned to speak Elf … I finally know what’s going on in our world!” “But what about Beautification?” Sophie fretted. “That’s long gone. There is no beauty or ugliness at the School for Girls!” said Reena, who, Sophie saw with horror, wasn’t wearing a shred of makeup. “We wear pants, we don’t do our nails … we even eat cheese!”
Excuse me Soman Chainani but WHAT?!
YOU THINK WE ALL GIRLS WEAR MAKE-UP FOR BOYS?!
SORRY SIR WE DO IT BECAUSE WE LOVE IT.
YOU THINK WHEN THERE ARE NO BOYS WE ALWAYS LOOK UGLY?
YOU THINK WHEN WE ARE ON A DIET IT’S BECAUSE OF BOYS?
BROO WE DO IT BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE HEALTHY.
(If for men then I'd do these only for my book boyfriends Jacks, Aaron Warner and Cardan Greenbriar 🤭🤫)
Guys this book was first of all a reverse sexim bullshit and it was boring too 💆♀️. Only the last pages were exciting but the whole book was just 🥴
I'm going to read the other books because of my sister. I don't know why she loves this series. (She said the other books are better) Hopefully it is. I mean the first book was actually very good.
This is all my own opinion so please don't judge me 😊
Neither Sophie nor Agatha had time to process this cataclysm, because they were goggling at something more alarming— “Your hair!” Sophie cried. “No boys means no need to look like stupid princesses,” Beatrix said, rubbing her shaved head proudly. “Think about how much time I wasted last year on Tedros and Balls and beautifying all day. And for what? Now I read, I study, I learned to speak Elf … I finally know what’s going on in our world!” “But what about Beautification?” Sophie fretted. “That’s long gone. There is no beauty or ugliness at the School for Girls!” said Reena, who, Sophie saw with horror, wasn’t wearing a shred of makeup. “We wear pants, we don’t do our nails … we even eat cheese!”
Excuse me Soman Chainani but WHAT?!
YOU THINK WE ALL GIRLS WEAR MAKE-UP FOR BOYS?!
SORRY SIR WE DO IT BECAUSE WE LOVE IT.
YOU THINK WHEN THERE ARE NO BOYS WE ALWAYS LOOK UGLY?
YOU THINK WHEN WE ARE ON A DIET IT’S BECAUSE OF BOYS?
BROO WE DO IT BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE HEALTHY.
(If for men then I'd do these only for my book boyfriends Jacks, Aaron Warner and Cardan Greenbriar 🤭🤫)
Guys this book was first of all a reverse sexim bullshit and it was boring too 💆♀️. Only the last pages were exciting but the whole book was just 🥴
I'm going to read the other books because of my sister. I don't know why she loves this series. (She said the other books are better) Hopefully it is. I mean the first book was actually very good.
This is all my own opinion so please don't judge me 😊
April 30, 2021
I NEED THIS BOOK NOW, LIKE IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY, AND I REALLY NEED AGATHA AND TEDROS TO BE TOGETHER AND I LOVE THIS SERIES BECAUSE IT MAKES ME LAUGH BUT CRY, LIKE I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL APRIL NEXT YEAR.
August 21, 2022
4.5 Golden Stars
I couldn't put this book down!
same world & rules as first one but also different.
Awesome!
the way the characters changed & made decisions & reacted, this is what i call character development.
what an Ending!
-
Plot: ★★★★★/5
Characters: ★★★★★/5
Writing Style: ★★★★★/5
World building: ★★★★★/5
concept: ★★★★/5
I couldn't put this book down!
same world & rules as first one but also different.
Awesome!
the way the characters changed & made decisions & reacted, this is what i call character development.
what an Ending!
-
Plot: ★★★★★/5
Characters: ★★★★★/5
Writing Style: ★★★★★/5
World building: ★★★★★/5
concept: ★★★★/5
Want to read
March 11, 2017OMG I JUST READ THE TOP COMMUNITY REVIEWS AND I HAVE TO SAY THAT YELLING ABOUT THIS BOOK IS THE BEST WAY TO PORTRAY YOUR FEELINGS REALLY WE SHOULD ALL YELL ALL THE TIME AND WHO NEEDS PUNCTUATION MARKS AMIRITE EXCEPT FOR EXCLAMATION POINTS BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY OF THOSE AMIRITE!!!1!!
May 9, 2014
*sighs deeply* This one’s gonna be a rant, guys. It makes me sad, because this series had so much promise and the audiobooks are wonderful. The School for Good and Evil had some worrisome themes, but I was hoping they would be cleared up in A World Without Princes. Actually, though, the messages of the series have only gotten more upsetting with time. Though I did still really enjoy listening to the book, and Lee’s narration is totally on point, I can no longer ignore the rage-inducing aspects.
Read the full review at A Reader of Fictions.
Read the full review at A Reader of Fictions.
February 9, 2017
Not as gripping as the first book, but a fun and easy read nonetheless.
June 7, 2019
I am still debating on whether or not this was an improvement or not from the first book. I also have no idea what I rate the first one, and I'm way too lazy to look it up, so I'm just gonna go with 3 stars on this one.
A World Without Princes was an eh, okay book. I felt like nothing really happened in this and there was little character development. Sophie just annoyed me and sometimes so did Agatha but eh, I didn't really expect Sophie to change that my opinion on her. Besides annoying me, I just feel like none of these character can make a decision and just stick with it. It was a bit annoying and I couldn't even tell you the amount of times I rolled my eyes while listening to this one.
I did, however, like the villain in this one - even if it was freaking obvious. Whenever I dive into the next book, I hope it will get better - or at the least the characters. I'm glad that I dove into it but at the same time I just kind of feel meh too.
A World Without Princes was an eh, okay book. I felt like nothing really happened in this and there was little character development. Sophie just annoyed me and sometimes so did Agatha but eh, I didn't really expect Sophie to change that my opinion on her. Besides annoying me, I just feel like none of these character can make a decision and just stick with it. It was a bit annoying and I couldn't even tell you the amount of times I rolled my eyes while listening to this one.
I did, however, like the villain in this one - even if it was freaking obvious. Whenever I dive into the next book, I hope it will get better - or at the least the characters. I'm glad that I dove into it but at the same time I just kind of feel meh too.
August 13, 2020
Re-read 8/11/20
Basically there isn't much to say other than:
1. Hester, Anadil and Dot, needs recognition for not only providing us with humourous one liners, but also being the glue that kept everything together. I can't imagine the book without them. 💅👑 The real queens this series.
2. I love Agatha and Sophie needs therapy.
3. Tedros is so stupid. He does grow on you after a while, but that boy is so easily influenced by others.
4. This book is probably my least favorite book in the series for some aspects that I didn't like as much, but I still enjoyed it.
⚠️Spoilers ahead⚠️
R.I.P. Tristan- our unproblematic king
R.I.P. - Tedros+Sophie's common sense
Basically there isn't much to say other than:
1. Hester, Anadil and Dot, needs recognition for not only providing us with humourous one liners, but also being the glue that kept everything together. I can't imagine the book without them. 💅👑 The real queens this series.
2. I love Agatha and Sophie needs therapy.
3. Tedros is so stupid. He does grow on you after a while, but that boy is so easily influenced by others.
4. This book is probably my least favorite book in the series for some aspects that I didn't like as much, but I still enjoyed it.
⚠️Spoilers ahead⚠️
R.I.P. Tristan- our unproblematic king
R.I.P. - Tedros+Sophie's common sense
August 6, 2015
Okay.
Agatha has gotten fairly stupider after book 1.
(yes Aggie, we know you like trusting people and not jumping to conclusions- but maybe, sometimes you should....)
Tedros again has been really unnecessary.
(not that I'm complaining)
Yes we get it. All the women in your life are backstabbing witches. Accept it and get over it.
Now.
Sophie.
The character that instilled in me a plethora of feelings.
poor,misunderstood,irritating,loyal,shallow,confused etc. (you get it) Sophie.
No one truly loves her and she doesn't think before making life changing decisions
(you would've thought she'd have learnt her lesson by now...)
The ending was fine.
Although, I am dying to find out what happens next.
Agatha has gotten fairly stupider after book 1.
(yes Aggie, we know you like trusting people and not jumping to conclusions- but maybe, sometimes you should....)
Tedros again has been really unnecessary.
(not that I'm complaining)
Yes we get it. All the women in your life are backstabbing witches. Accept it and get over it.
Now.
Sophie.
The character that instilled in me a plethora of feelings.
poor,misunderstood,irritating,loyal,shallow,confused etc. (you get it) Sophie.
No one truly loves her and she doesn't think before making life changing decisions
(you would've thought she'd have learnt her lesson by now...)
The ending was fine.
Although, I am dying to find out what happens next.
April 29, 2014
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOOOOD! so many plot twists!
oh, and THAT END
oh, and THAT END
December 22, 2016
danm it now i have to get the third one too
September 13, 2022
dosłownie każdy w tej jebanej książce:
January 4, 2018
ER.MAH.GERD. Thee cutest fairytale I have read in a long time!
Synopsis:
Good Reads Description
This year, 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.
But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they 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 amongst 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 & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.
Doesn't that sound amazing? Well it is. This book provided me with such an adventure during a hard time. I was recently struggling with a lot of personal things and ended up finding this book at the library. I picked it up and read it in two days. This book showed me true friendship and gave a whole new light to fairytales.
I felt the same way I did when reading through the Harry Potter series. I love when school life is done right in books. The creativity throughout this novel was so charming. From the way each shool functions, to their food, spells, and the characters, I fell in love.
Enough rambling... let's get down to it.
To avoid spoilers, scroll down to The Verdict for a brief summary.
----
World Building
Chailin created a world within many with this series. We are so used to hearing about different kingdoms within each fairytale we all know and love, but I never expected the author to connect them in such a way to make them flow so well together. The idea of two schools training the chosen children to live in new fairytales, was brilliant. I felt as though Gavaldon was a very weak civilization. Considering every else other kingdom already knows of the schools and wishes for their children to be chosen for greatness, made Gavaldon seem a bit.. out of the loop? They are merely referred to as readers and to me belittles the children from there.
The author's description of the schools and his creativity in making the two school completely different but work together, was so well done, I couldn't get enough of the two schools. The School Masters Tower was such a neat concept to me, having the one who controlls the storian (the cute little pen who writes the fairytales) looking over both schools was really intriguing and the entire time I wanted to know more.
The forest surrounding the school preventing anyone from entering the school grounds was extremely creepy (IN A GOOD WAY). There are so many fairytale creatures dwelling within it's depths that I kept wondering what would be the next thing to show up. The world felt so new yet nostalgic and I don't think anyone could have written it better.
The Characters
Agatha and Sophie are the books main focus. I found the two girls, being so different, also flowed together well. I think we've all felt what it's like to be alone and having that one friend who is always there through everything is something we all want to keep in tact forever. Seeing the determination within the two girls was extremely heart warming.
I found the transformation between Sophie and Agatha to be fitting. Sophie eventually turned into the thing she dreaded and Agatha ended up being the last thing she ever expected. The complete opposite of eachother.
I really enjoyed most of the side characters but felt like Tedros, Beatrix and all the Evers were a bit flat for me. I felt like they didn't really stand out. They had no originality and I honestly questioned why Agatha chose Tedros to fall for Tedros in the first place. She deserves a lot better....
Now, onto the School Master.... this was a very odd character for me. Considering he was one of the brothers of Good and Evil who started it all, I found his mind to be completely corrupted by so much anger. Why the frig was he running a school full of children, let alone wanting Sophie to be with him? Weird.
Plot
This was such an interesting take on Fairy Tales. The fact all of them have to go to a school first before being chosen for their own Fairy Tale? I dig it. But the school wasn't the thing to bring me to love the book. It was the fact the two girls were opposite by appearance but both believed their appearance determined their personalities too. The fact Sophie thought she was a princess while dressed in the pinkest of dresses and Agatha thought she was a witch due to her living situation and black dresses, came to be the opposite of who they actually were! MIND BLOWING STUFFFFFFFFFFF
It's like the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover." (I do everytime... oops) BUT IT APPLIES TO THESE GIRLS TOO. This book was so well written and beautifully told. It felt more like an adventure than just some story. I give this book at LEAST five stars. It not only helped me get my mind clear from the stressful things going on in life, but also gave me the nostalgia of a good fairy tale.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO THOSE WHO ENJOY FAIRY TALES!
-Grimm
Synopsis:
Good Reads Description
This year, 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.
But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they 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 amongst 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 & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.
Doesn't that sound amazing? Well it is. This book provided me with such an adventure during a hard time. I was recently struggling with a lot of personal things and ended up finding this book at the library. I picked it up and read it in two days. This book showed me true friendship and gave a whole new light to fairytales.
I felt the same way I did when reading through the Harry Potter series. I love when school life is done right in books. The creativity throughout this novel was so charming. From the way each shool functions, to their food, spells, and the characters, I fell in love.
Enough rambling... let's get down to it.
To avoid spoilers, scroll down to The Verdict for a brief summary.
----
World Building
Chailin created a world within many with this series. We are so used to hearing about different kingdoms within each fairytale we all know and love, but I never expected the author to connect them in such a way to make them flow so well together. The idea of two schools training the chosen children to live in new fairytales, was brilliant. I felt as though Gavaldon was a very weak civilization. Considering every else other kingdom already knows of the schools and wishes for their children to be chosen for greatness, made Gavaldon seem a bit.. out of the loop? They are merely referred to as readers and to me belittles the children from there.
The author's description of the schools and his creativity in making the two school completely different but work together, was so well done, I couldn't get enough of the two schools. The School Masters Tower was such a neat concept to me, having the one who controlls the storian (the cute little pen who writes the fairytales) looking over both schools was really intriguing and the entire time I wanted to know more.
The forest surrounding the school preventing anyone from entering the school grounds was extremely creepy (IN A GOOD WAY). There are so many fairytale creatures dwelling within it's depths that I kept wondering what would be the next thing to show up. The world felt so new yet nostalgic and I don't think anyone could have written it better.
The Characters
Agatha and Sophie are the books main focus. I found the two girls, being so different, also flowed together well. I think we've all felt what it's like to be alone and having that one friend who is always there through everything is something we all want to keep in tact forever. Seeing the determination within the two girls was extremely heart warming.
I found the transformation between Sophie and Agatha to be fitting. Sophie eventually turned into the thing she dreaded and Agatha ended up being the last thing she ever expected. The complete opposite of eachother.
I really enjoyed most of the side characters but felt like Tedros, Beatrix and all the Evers were a bit flat for me. I felt like they didn't really stand out. They had no originality and I honestly questioned why Agatha chose Tedros to fall for Tedros in the first place. She deserves a lot better....
Now, onto the School Master.... this was a very odd character for me. Considering he was one of the brothers of Good and Evil who started it all, I found his mind to be completely corrupted by so much anger. Why the frig was he running a school full of children, let alone wanting Sophie to be with him? Weird.
Plot
This was such an interesting take on Fairy Tales. The fact all of them have to go to a school first before being chosen for their own Fairy Tale? I dig it. But the school wasn't the thing to bring me to love the book. It was the fact the two girls were opposite by appearance but both believed their appearance determined their personalities too. The fact Sophie thought she was a princess while dressed in the pinkest of dresses and Agatha thought she was a witch due to her living situation and black dresses, came to be the opposite of who they actually were! MIND BLOWING STUFFFFFFFFFFF
It's like the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover." (I do everytime... oops) BUT IT APPLIES TO THESE GIRLS TOO. This book was so well written and beautifully told. It felt more like an adventure than just some story. I give this book at LEAST five stars. It not only helped me get my mind clear from the stressful things going on in life, but also gave me the nostalgia of a good fairy tale.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO THOSE WHO ENJOY FAIRY TALES!
-Grimm
Want to read
July 23, 2016That beautiful cover...
And that prince is even more beautifuller (is this even a word?).
The ending of the last book was more or less a cliff-hanger. And, well,
And that prince is even more beautifuller (is this even a word?).
The ending of the last book was more or less a cliff-hanger. And, well,
May 24, 2022
حالا جلدای بعد رو هم «اگه باز مفتکی به دستم رسید» می خونم ولی...
این جلد رو دوست نداشتم.
کاش با همون جلد قبلی، تک جلدی می موند یا اگه بنا به ادامه یافتن بود، با ایده دیگه ای ادامه پیدا می کرد.
حالا تا ببینیم باقیش چی میشه...
این جلد رو دوست نداشتم.
کاش با همون جلد قبلی، تک جلدی می موند یا اگه بنا به ادامه یافتن بود، با ایده دیگه ای ادامه پیدا می کرد.
حالا تا ببینیم باقیش چی میشه...
May 12, 2014
It's not a world without princes, this book is more aptly named "The School for Misandrist and Misogynist". While I'm not certain whether I am reading the same book as everyone does since I'm still undecided about the entire series and most seem to love it but this book really did embellish what I hate about the last book.
I realize that it was the rigid world structure that strangled my general enjoyment. I can't understand why you can't be a bit more flexible with this book. Why can't these fictitious characters exist normally as a person with in-between characteristics that they somehow defile the idea of each groups that one need to shame them or brain wash those they see different. Why does everyone still need to be at war with those and everyone different than they are.
Why does a person need to create a world where one can't have a choice to be who they are and how they're basically forced to conform with someone's idea of being someone but at the same time seem to actively endorse this kind of qualities. Why can't we as a readers get the feel that there are something positive with the flow of the writing and basically hopeful that the characters' circumstances would be different. Instead we had those who are different or in between being forced to accept their fate "either being evil or forever being a sidekick" and anyone who doesn't accept their destined fate will be treated very badly.
While I am certain the author is trying to say something positive or have a meaningful point somewhere but I think this is the first book I read in this recent years where I learn more about hating boys and hating girls that it have to be repeated all the time. I get that the series' world was based on the idea of dualism but I do think it was just a rewriting of the first book.
One of the things I sort of like about the last book was the fact that the school was clearly psychopathic twisted version of fairy tales Hogwarts based on stories that are twisted to begin with. But I think somewhere around the time when this book began to alter Agatha's characterizations and retaining Sophie's attitude is that it forget about the child abuse and child murders going on in the background. Now, I felt like I didn't have anything to make myself invested with the story as some of that mythos was lost in between the drama. The sequel now seem to be invested in pitting the characters against one another again for the choices they made in the last book which revolve around an emo boy and another session of insecure girls.
Although the first book did try to spin the idea that girls don't need boys to have a happily ever after but now everything changed in this book. We get a reboot of sorts. Everything as just an alternate version of the world they left prior to this book. Where something change but everything remain the same. The school system still exist in a deus ex machina of sorts. There's unresolved issues from the last book (ehem, a cursed kid got beheaded last time.. remember).
I'm not sure what sort of empowering message this book trying to sell. Being a character who stand up for herself and her love is wrong. You still have to choose one over another and not both. Being a strong female character is IMPOSSIBLE because the male characters will lose their masculinity and fret about their hate on girls that they have this mob mentality again and very homicidal on the other sex and so on.
Seeing that there's no middle ground between these school that allowed the idea that one can have more than two gender identity, I do feel that the entire story structure is crumpling down trying to reason out these inconsistencies. What even weirder, then there's even a magical option to change your sex just to sneak into the other side because they can't stand being in the other side. I don't know about you but that was halfhearted for an author to attempt to discuss gender identity issues.
I am a feminist myself but it was clear that someone think being misandrist was a requirement to be empowered as a female. I am secure with my gender and accept individual expectations and potential but superficial complete hate of another just because they have differing sex chromosome was ridiculous. Yes, there are men who completely hate anything about female or the idea of being female and having a brain or being self-empowered above theirs. They do exist and these sort of thinking is a chronic disease we face everywhere. We're living in a patriarchal society and that is factual. I accepted this type of quality in some men and prayed that they might change their mind but I don't agree that we need a reverse form of misogyny to portray this degree of dualism. Sometimes this is what made this book abhorrent to me. What is it with the persisting idea that princess can only be empowered by completely annihilating the prince or men and the call to render them useless and defeated and emasculated as a form of social justice. Really?
The book could have been better but I do think this book is destructive to young readers. I mean really, girls insisting they're better off without boys is fine but girls wishing all boys dead. Boys wanting to kill girls for no other reason except they blame someone for ruining their structure of the world. The idea of Queen Guinevere so abhorrent (btw, spoilers, Gwen did take over Camelot in Merlin) Superficial characters, simplified world-building around troublesome complex issues done in a confusing way. I suppose I like the idea that the hero becoming anti-hero but I felt Agatha in this book was a pale version of the one in the first book and Sophie was genuinely repetitive and predictable and changeable. This whole book was a plain disappointment and the plot just scattered in the wind somewhere. I wish I have enough enthusiasm for the next book, I guess we should just wait for it then.
I realize that it was the rigid world structure that strangled my general enjoyment. I can't understand why you can't be a bit more flexible with this book. Why can't these fictitious characters exist normally as a person with in-between characteristics that they somehow defile the idea of each groups that one need to shame them or brain wash those they see different. Why does everyone still need to be at war with those and everyone different than they are.
Why does a person need to create a world where one can't have a choice to be who they are and how they're basically forced to conform with someone's idea of being someone but at the same time seem to actively endorse this kind of qualities. Why can't we as a readers get the feel that there are something positive with the flow of the writing and basically hopeful that the characters' circumstances would be different. Instead we had those who are different or in between being forced to accept their fate "either being evil or forever being a sidekick" and anyone who doesn't accept their destined fate will be treated very badly.
While I am certain the author is trying to say something positive or have a meaningful point somewhere but I think this is the first book I read in this recent years where I learn more about hating boys and hating girls that it have to be repeated all the time. I get that the series' world was based on the idea of dualism but I do think it was just a rewriting of the first book.
One of the things I sort of like about the last book was the fact that the school was clearly psychopathic twisted version of fairy tales Hogwarts based on stories that are twisted to begin with. But I think somewhere around the time when this book began to alter Agatha's characterizations and retaining Sophie's attitude is that it forget about the child abuse and child murders going on in the background. Now, I felt like I didn't have anything to make myself invested with the story as some of that mythos was lost in between the drama. The sequel now seem to be invested in pitting the characters against one another again for the choices they made in the last book which revolve around an emo boy and another session of insecure girls.
Although the first book did try to spin the idea that girls don't need boys to have a happily ever after but now everything changed in this book. We get a reboot of sorts. Everything as just an alternate version of the world they left prior to this book. Where something change but everything remain the same. The school system still exist in a deus ex machina of sorts. There's unresolved issues from the last book (ehem, a cursed kid got beheaded last time.. remember).
I'm not sure what sort of empowering message this book trying to sell. Being a character who stand up for herself and her love is wrong. You still have to choose one over another and not both. Being a strong female character is IMPOSSIBLE because the male characters will lose their masculinity and fret about their hate on girls that they have this mob mentality again and very homicidal on the other sex and so on.
Seeing that there's no middle ground between these school that allowed the idea that one can have more than two gender identity, I do feel that the entire story structure is crumpling down trying to reason out these inconsistencies. What even weirder, then there's even a magical option to change your sex just to sneak into the other side because they can't stand being in the other side. I don't know about you but that was halfhearted for an author to attempt to discuss gender identity issues.
I am a feminist myself but it was clear that someone think being misandrist was a requirement to be empowered as a female. I am secure with my gender and accept individual expectations and potential but superficial complete hate of another just because they have differing sex chromosome was ridiculous. Yes, there are men who completely hate anything about female or the idea of being female and having a brain or being self-empowered above theirs. They do exist and these sort of thinking is a chronic disease we face everywhere. We're living in a patriarchal society and that is factual. I accepted this type of quality in some men and prayed that they might change their mind but I don't agree that we need a reverse form of misogyny to portray this degree of dualism. Sometimes this is what made this book abhorrent to me. What is it with the persisting idea that princess can only be empowered by completely annihilating the prince or men and the call to render them useless and defeated and emasculated as a form of social justice. Really?
The book could have been better but I do think this book is destructive to young readers. I mean really, girls insisting they're better off without boys is fine but girls wishing all boys dead. Boys wanting to kill girls for no other reason except they blame someone for ruining their structure of the world. The idea of Queen Guinevere so abhorrent (btw, spoilers, Gwen did take over Camelot in Merlin) Superficial characters, simplified world-building around troublesome complex issues done in a confusing way. I suppose I like the idea that the hero becoming anti-hero but I felt Agatha in this book was a pale version of the one in the first book and Sophie was genuinely repetitive and predictable and changeable. This whole book was a plain disappointment and the plot just scattered in the wind somewhere. I wish I have enough enthusiasm for the next book, I guess we should just wait for it then.
January 5, 2017
You know and I know, that we aren't in the least bit surprised by my ratings of this one. Saying I loved it is understating the feeling and emotions that I felt while reading this one.
Every character, esp. Sophie I adore and just could not get enough of. I want more and I'm so glad that I have the third book to jump right into.
Me after finishing this one:
March 29, 2021
Actual rating --> 3.75 stars
So... don't get me wrong, I loved the book. It was interesting, and complex, and I finished it in a day! 😌
But there were some things that were problematic, and I just couldn't justify giving it 4 stars. So... here goes. I've tried to make this review as spoiler-free as possible :)
First of all, Agatha.
She's just so one-dimensional and meh, and I don't care even a little bit about her, She could go die in a gutter and I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Maybe I'm being harsh, but what is her personality except "I want Sophie, no, I want Tedros"? She's been Good from the first page of the first book, and she still is. I can't take her anymore-
Something I hated with my whole soul was the objectifying of girls and boys.
Throughout the whole book, there were multiple times when girls judged boys and boys judged girls. I can't get behind the whole "boys should be slaves" thing. Like, what the fuck?
It is not okay to say that. Yes, princesses don't need princes, I'm happy they realized. But slavery- nope. And I know the basic concept was that you should not be judged for your gender, but the ending was so rushed that the meaning didn't really get enforced.
And the fact that even in the end, they don't tell us whether the two sides found equality is so. goddy. irritating. I don’t even understand what happened to the war at the end.
And when the author kept telling instead of showing that Hester is great-
I mean, I love Hester. She's cool. But if you want to show us she's competent, give some examples?? Instead, it's stated like five times. All of a sudden, everyone reminds us that Hester’s the best, even though she was just a background character for most of the book.
If there was one person who could be trusted to accomplish a mission quickly, it was Hester.
Then take her help on your missions?
Why, no, Hester’s competent, but we shall do all the crazy missions on our own, because we have a death wish!
Sophie brightened with relief. “See? Hester will get the pen! Hester wins everything-”
But we haven’t actually seen her win anything in any book until now. But this was mentioned because… what, convenience?
“-a feat no Evergirl or Nevergirl has ever managed at this school.” He eyed Hester confidently. “But the truly exceptional student will succeed.”
And the teachers join in too! Let’s all champion Hester, and not let the readers know anything she has done, but believe that she’s amazing at everything anyway!
I'm sure there’s more, but I’m too lazy to find other examples, so... moving on. Positive aspects!
I loved the writing style! The third-person narrative is great. The way Sophie's struggles to do the right thing are shown - pure perfection. Sophie is, hands down, the best character in the book. Her indecision, trying to be a good friend, wanting to be happy, the moral greyness here is AMAZING.
Also, Tedros's character was really well-developed in this book, showing his mother abandoning him, his father's death as a drunkard... the way he fell to his knees in front of Filip during their fight because he didn't even want to try anymore- that scene is what made me love his character. His grimness was just portrayed so well.
🚨🚨🚨🚨SPOILERS AHEAD, BEWARE!!!!🚨🚨🚨🚨
This may be obvious after reading all the things I've said till now, but Filip x Tedros is THE superior ship of the book, no arguments. The way they slowly opened up to each other, Filip blocked the whip by coming in front of Tedros, they talked about their moms... I love them. 🥺🥺💯
🚨🚨🚨🚨END OF SPOILERS🚨🚨🚨🚨
To sum it up, this book was really, really nice. There were just a few parts where it felt like the author was trying too hard, and there were some characters I didn’t like * cough * Agatha * cough *
Anyone who loves Agatha, please don’t kill me-
I just realized that though I rated it 3.75, this whole review was mostly negative, oops-
I’m outta here… bye!
June 28, 2022
نمرهی من: ۴.۵⭐️
حرفهای خیلی زیادی دارم درموردش بزنم، ولی خلاصه میکنم
این دومین باریه که این کتابو میخونم، نمیدونم چرا بخش اعظمی ازش رو یادم نبود🚶🏻♀️ ولی فکر کنم دفعه پیش بیشتر دوستش داشتم! در واقع الان عاشقش نشدم اونجوری، میتونم بگم به معنای واقعی کلمه لذت بردم و بهم چسبید، از جنبههای متفاوت، اما کتاب موردعلاقهم نیست الان! خیلی میتونست بهتر از این باشه
روند داستان وااااقعععععاااااا جذاب و پرکشش بود. و سرعت بسیار مناسبی داشت که این سرعت آخرای کتاب دیوانهوار شد🚶🏻♀️
جهانسازیو خیلی دوست دارم، گرچه جای کار بیشتر هم داره. شخصیتپردازیها عالی بودن، به نظرم به همشون به اندازه کافی پرداخته بود. گرچه میشد یکم عمیقتر هم باشن.
حین خوندن کتاب ضربان قلبت میره بالا، اشک میریزی، لبخند میزنی، منتظر میمونی، حرررصصص میخوری و دلت میخواد سر شخصیتا داد بزنی بگی اه چشمای کورتونو باز کنین و انقدر احمق نباشین، و خلاصه نویسنده، با مهارت تمام دستتو میگیره میبره وسط دنیاش و کاری میکنه که وقتی کتاب تموم شد، چند لحظه خیره بمونی به روبرو، و بگی واااایییی نمیشه یه بخشاییشو یه بار دیگه بخونم؟😂😭
قسمتهایی که فلشبک به زمان گذشته بود جذاب بودن برام. این که توی هر دو جلد، معماها و بخشهای کشفنشدهای هست که شخصیتا دنبالش میگردن و تو میتونی زودتر از اونا جوابو حدس بزنی برام جذابه
فصلهای آخر یهویی سومن چینانی رگباری میزنه! کلیی اتفاق به سرعت نور میوفتن، جواب همه سوالا رو سرت آوار میشن، و یه حجم عظیمی از اطلاعات به سمتت هجوم میارن و پرده ا�� روی یه سری رازها برداشته میشه.
ایرادی که میشه بهش گرفت، بخش رومنس و عاشقانهی داستانه که یکم سطحیه. یکم بیشتر از یکم یعنی! خیلی بیشتر از یکم😂
خیلی دوست دارم بیشتر درموردش حرف بزنم و بخشای بیشتری ازش رو توضیح بدم و تحلیل کنم. و دوست دارم از ایراداتی که داره و اگه نبودن کتاب خیلی بهتر میشد حرف بزنم، اما نمیخوام ریویو زیادی طولانی بشه...
پس چندتا نکتهی مهم میگم و مرخص میشم
●اگه عاشق سبک فانتزی و تخیلی هستی، با رومنسهایی که خیلی عمیق و خاص نیستن مشکلی نداری، دلت کتابی میخواد که نتونی زمین بذاری و هیجانی و احساسی باشه، این کتاب برای شماست!
●این مجموعه به شدت سلیقهایه، ازون کتاباییه که یه سریا عاشقشن و یه سریا ازش متنفرن! پس به ریویوی من، یا هرکس دیگری بسنده نکن و حتما بیشتر درموردش بخون تا بفهمی برای تو هست یا نه.
●اگه از کسایی هستی که عاشق کتاب شدی، اولا با کسی که ازش بدش میاد حرف نزن درموردش🙂 چون ممکنه مثل من بخوره تو ذوقت و از میزان لذت بردنت ازش کم بشه... و خجالت نکش که دوستش داری! و اگه کسیو دیدی که این کتابو دوست نداشت، سعی نکن متقاعدش کنی! این سلیقهی اون آدمه و بسیار هم محترمه.
●اگه از افرادی هستی که کتابو دوست نداشتی، اشکالی نداره من به سلیقهت احترام میذارم، تو بدسلیقه نیستی! فقط جان من سعی نکن انرژی منفیای که گرفتی رو منتقل کنی🙂 اگه دیدی یه نفر دوستش داره و ذوق کرده، نزن تو ذوقش و سعی نکن دلایل اینکه باید از کتاب بدش بیادو براش لیست کنی... این سلیقهی اونه
☆اصلا نه فقط درمورد این کتاب، به طور کلی بیاید سعی کنیم به سلایق هم احترام بزاریم، تا وقتی که به کسی آسیبی نمیزنه... اگر هم به خودش آسیب میزنه، یه صحبت ملایمانه و تذکر مهربانانه کافیه...☆
همین، ممنونم اگه تا اینجا خوندی🌕🤍
حرفهای خیلی زیادی دارم درموردش بزنم، ولی خلاصه میکنم
این دومین باریه که این کتابو میخونم، نمیدونم چرا بخش اعظمی ازش رو یادم نبود🚶🏻♀️ ولی فکر کنم دفعه پیش بیشتر دوستش داشتم! در واقع الان عاشقش نشدم اونجوری، میتونم بگم به معنای واقعی کلمه لذت بردم و بهم چسبید، از جنبههای متفاوت، اما کتاب موردعلاقهم نیست الان! خیلی میتونست بهتر از این باشه
روند داستان وااااقعععععاااااا جذاب و پرکشش بود. و سرعت بسیار مناسبی داشت که این سرعت آخرای کتاب دیوانهوار شد🚶🏻♀️
جهانسازیو خیلی دوست دارم، گرچه جای کار بیشتر هم داره. شخصیتپردازیها عالی بودن، به نظرم به همشون به اندازه کافی پرداخته بود. گرچه میشد یکم عمیقتر هم باشن.
حین خوندن کتاب ضربان قلبت میره بالا، اشک میریزی، لبخند میزنی، منتظر میمونی، حرررصصص میخوری و دلت میخواد سر شخصیتا داد بزنی بگی اه چشمای کورتونو باز کنین و انقدر احمق نباشین، و خلاصه نویسنده، با مهارت تمام دستتو میگیره میبره وسط دنیاش و کاری میکنه که وقتی کتاب تموم شد، چند لحظه خیره بمونی به روبرو، و بگی واااایییی نمیشه یه بخشاییشو یه بار دیگه بخونم؟😂😭
قسمتهایی که فلشبک به زمان گذشته بود جذاب بودن برام. این که توی هر دو جلد، معماها و بخشهای کشفنشدهای هست که شخصیتا دنبالش میگردن و تو میتونی زودتر از اونا جوابو حدس بزنی برام جذابه
فصلهای آخر یهویی سومن چینانی رگباری میزنه! کلیی اتفاق به سرعت نور میوفتن، جواب همه سوالا رو سرت آوار میشن، و یه حجم عظیمی از اطلاعات به سمتت هجوم میارن و پرده ا�� روی یه سری رازها برداشته میشه.
ایرادی که میشه بهش گرفت، بخش رومنس و عاشقانهی داستانه که یکم سطحیه. یکم بیشتر از یکم یعنی! خیلی بیشتر از یکم😂
خیلی دوست دارم بیشتر درموردش حرف بزنم و بخشای بیشتری ازش رو توضیح بدم و تحلیل کنم. و دوست دارم از ایراداتی که داره و اگه نبودن کتاب خیلی بهتر میشد حرف بزنم، اما نمیخوام ریویو زیادی طولانی بشه...
پس چندتا نکتهی مهم میگم و مرخص میشم
●اگه عاشق سبک فانتزی و تخیلی هستی، با رومنسهایی که خیلی عمیق و خاص نیستن مشکلی نداری، دلت کتابی میخواد که نتونی زمین بذاری و هیجانی و احساسی باشه، این کتاب برای شماست!
●این مجموعه به شدت سلیقهایه، ازون کتاباییه که یه سریا عاشقشن و یه سریا ازش متنفرن! پس به ریویوی من، یا هرکس دیگری بسنده نکن و حتما بیشتر درموردش بخون تا بفهمی برای تو هست یا نه.
●اگه از کسایی هستی که عاشق کتاب شدی، اولا با کسی که ازش بدش میاد حرف نزن درموردش🙂 چون ممکنه مثل من بخوره تو ذوقت و از میزان لذت بردنت ازش کم بشه... و خجالت نکش که دوستش داری! و اگه کسیو دیدی که این کتابو دوست نداشت، سعی نکن متقاعدش کنی! این سلیقهی اون آدمه و بسیار هم محترمه.
●اگه از افرادی هستی که کتابو دوست نداشتی، اشکالی نداره من به سلیقهت احترام میذارم، تو بدسلیقه نیستی! فقط جان من سعی نکن انرژی منفیای که گرفتی رو منتقل کنی🙂 اگه دیدی یه نفر دوستش داره و ذوق کرده، نزن تو ذوقش و سعی نکن دلایل اینکه باید از کتاب بدش بیادو براش لیست کنی... این سلیقهی اونه
☆اصلا نه فقط درمورد این کتاب، به طور کلی بیاید سعی کنیم به سلایق هم احترام بزاریم، تا وقتی که به کسی آسیبی نمیزنه... اگر هم به خودش آسیب میزنه، یه صحبت ملایمانه و تذکر مهربانانه کافیه...☆
همین، ممنونم اگه تا اینجا خوندی🌕🤍
March 10, 2016
I never had the time to write a review, so I'm just gonna say it was a great and amazing book. so unique and different as well, and there were crazy twists which I had never expected. totally loved this.
December 23, 2022
Though I really enjoyed this book, I can say that this is a lot like the first book but told in a different way. It wasn't all that bad, just felt like I read this before and got a little long and slightly boring there. It only really picked up at the last 150 pages are so.
It was really hard to read the friendship of Sophie and Agatha. What reads as "loyalty," reads unhealthy codependency of one another.
Though I understand that Sophie does has some issues concerning abandonment, it doesn't really excuse her behavior. So, I am interested on how the author will develop this story since it was left on a cliffhanger.
Just like the second book, Prince Tedros can't seem to make up his mind about who he is and what he stands on.
BLOG ⟫ INSTAGRAM ⟫ FACEBOOK
It was really hard to read the friendship of Sophie and Agatha. What reads as "loyalty," reads unhealthy codependency of one another.
Though I understand that Sophie does has some issues concerning abandonment, it doesn't really excuse her behavior. So, I am interested on how the author will develop this story since it was left on a cliffhanger.
Just like the second book, Prince Tedros can't seem to make up his mind about who he is and what he stands on.
BLOG ⟫ INSTAGRAM ⟫ FACEBOOK
May 13, 2014
Its true. Sequels suck. Disappoint. Whatever.
And the ARC didn't have pictures. T_T
And butterflies- lol.
AND NEW GUY IS SEXY.
And belly dancing~!
Review in a line- Fantastical school segregated by sex;kids getting unwanted sex-chages. UGH.
So, boys vs. girls, and then some.
PRE-READ
In the stunning sequel to Soman Chainani's New York Times bestselling debut, The School for Good and Evil, Sophie and Agatha leave their Happily Ever After and return to school-but everything has changed in a way no one could have predicted.
Best friends Sophie and Agatha are back in Gavaldon, living out their Happily Ever After. But all is not as happy as it seems.
After Agatha-in a moment of weakness-wishes she'd chosen a different Happy Ending, the gates to the School for Good and Evil reopen and the girls return, finding the fairy tale world different than they left it. Witches and princesses unite against a new adversary. And what about the boys, led by Tedros, camped inEvil's old towers?
A war is brewing but can Agatha and Sophie restore the peace? Will Tedros make Agatha's wish for a different Happy Ending come true-and at what cost? And whose heart does Agatha's belong to-her best friend or her prince?
Readers are anxiously awaiting this… and until april 2014, they are internally screaming.
EDIT:3.5 stars...I just completed the book. not as good as the predecessor.
"Its the danger of fairy tales. Sometimes, one story opens another."
A World Without Princes picks up the story begun in The School for Good and Evil. It offers a fresh take on fairy tale devices and cliches, upending the expectations most readers have about princesses and villains. A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES finds best friends Sophie and Agatha back at home, seemingly with all their problems from the first volume of The School for Good and Evil solved. But when Agatha inadvertently wishes for a happy ending with Tedros, her handsome prince, she and Sophie find themselves whisked back to the School -- only everything about it seems to have been changed. Now the boys and the girls are separated into two institutions, without regard to who's evil and who's not. As a war between the sexes brews, Agatha and Sophie must decide whether their friendship is worth saving ahead of true love.
A World Without Princes finds a new wrinkle on the premise presented in the trilogy's first volume. By switching up everything up so that the main conflict is now between the Boys and the Girls, author Soman Chainani finds more opportunities for epic confrontations, underhanded scheming, and some satirical observations about the nature of fairy tales.
Unfortunately, the plot sometimes seems as if it's merely marking time until the climactic battle. Complications arise in every chapter, but they can be only minor variations on a theme. And Chainani's prose is much sloppier this time around. He never misses an opportunity to use a synonym when "said" will suffice, and he frequently makes odd verb choices. A World Without Princes has its moments of fun and excitement, but the narrative often feels rushed and repetitive.
A World Without Princes explicitly plays with the conventions of familiar fairy tales and urges readers to challenge the assumptions they bring to the material, especially in regard to gender roles. Readers will recognize versions of favorite characters from folklore, but with a fresh twist.The characters in A World Without Princes spend much of their time worrying about whether they're working for Good or Evil. But the story demonstrates that people are not simply good or evil; they are human and contain a little of each(GODAMMIT YOU GUYS MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!). The important thing is to strike a balance and be true to yourself and the ones you love, without obsessing about how your behavior might be rewarded.
Although she turned into a witch during her last visit to the School. Sophie struggles to be good throughout A World without Princes. Agatha remains loyal to her friend but feels attracted to Tedros at the same time. But telling the difference between Good and Evil is more difficult than anyone believes. Even in a world run by fairy tale magic, there are a lot of gray areas. And Teddy dear, indecisiveness is a fairly unattractive trait in a man, ESPECIALLY A BOY. Morons.
AND THE VIOLENCE. GAG. YOU CALL THAT VIOLENCE, WHICH I CALL A BAG OF HORSE POOP. I know its middle-grade but STILL!As with traditional folktales and fairy tales, A World Without Princes contains its fair share of violence. For much of the book, the mayhem is implied rather than shown, and when there's a violent encounter, it tends be be cartoonish rather than realistic. Exceptions in this volume include some scenes in which Tedros is tortured and the climactic battle, in which a sympathetic supporting character is killed and Evil seems to triumph.
And again, you guys, make up your minds. My head hurts. T_T
BUT I STILL WANT TO KNOW HOW THE FAIRY TALE ENDS!
Even if you don't read this, WATCH THIS. And tell me, boys or girls? Good or evil?(That's another thing I love. Its titled good and evil, not good and bad. Its amazing.)
And the ARC didn't have pictures. T_T
And butterflies- lol.
AND NEW GUY IS SEXY.
And belly dancing~!
Review in a line- Fantastical school segregated by sex;kids getting unwanted sex-chages. UGH.
So, boys vs. girls, and then some.
PRE-READ
In the stunning sequel to Soman Chainani's New York Times bestselling debut, The School for Good and Evil, Sophie and Agatha leave their Happily Ever After and return to school-but everything has changed in a way no one could have predicted.
Best friends Sophie and Agatha are back in Gavaldon, living out their Happily Ever After. But all is not as happy as it seems.
After Agatha-in a moment of weakness-wishes she'd chosen a different Happy Ending, the gates to the School for Good and Evil reopen and the girls return, finding the fairy tale world different than they left it. Witches and princesses unite against a new adversary. And what about the boys, led by Tedros, camped inEvil's old towers?
A war is brewing but can Agatha and Sophie restore the peace? Will Tedros make Agatha's wish for a different Happy Ending come true-and at what cost? And whose heart does Agatha's belong to-her best friend or her prince?
Readers are anxiously awaiting this… and until april 2014, they are internally screaming.
EDIT:3.5 stars...I just completed the book. not as good as the predecessor.
"Its the danger of fairy tales. Sometimes, one story opens another."
A World Without Princes picks up the story begun in The School for Good and Evil. It offers a fresh take on fairy tale devices and cliches, upending the expectations most readers have about princesses and villains. A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES finds best friends Sophie and Agatha back at home, seemingly with all their problems from the first volume of The School for Good and Evil solved. But when Agatha inadvertently wishes for a happy ending with Tedros, her handsome prince, she and Sophie find themselves whisked back to the School -- only everything about it seems to have been changed. Now the boys and the girls are separated into two institutions, without regard to who's evil and who's not. As a war between the sexes brews, Agatha and Sophie must decide whether their friendship is worth saving ahead of true love.
A World Without Princes finds a new wrinkle on the premise presented in the trilogy's first volume. By switching up everything up so that the main conflict is now between the Boys and the Girls, author Soman Chainani finds more opportunities for epic confrontations, underhanded scheming, and some satirical observations about the nature of fairy tales.
Unfortunately, the plot sometimes seems as if it's merely marking time until the climactic battle. Complications arise in every chapter, but they can be only minor variations on a theme. And Chainani's prose is much sloppier this time around. He never misses an opportunity to use a synonym when "said" will suffice, and he frequently makes odd verb choices. A World Without Princes has its moments of fun and excitement, but the narrative often feels rushed and repetitive.
A World Without Princes explicitly plays with the conventions of familiar fairy tales and urges readers to challenge the assumptions they bring to the material, especially in regard to gender roles. Readers will recognize versions of favorite characters from folklore, but with a fresh twist.The characters in A World Without Princes spend much of their time worrying about whether they're working for Good or Evil. But the story demonstrates that people are not simply good or evil; they are human and contain a little of each(GODAMMIT YOU GUYS MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!). The important thing is to strike a balance and be true to yourself and the ones you love, without obsessing about how your behavior might be rewarded.
Although she turned into a witch during her last visit to the School. Sophie struggles to be good throughout A World without Princes. Agatha remains loyal to her friend but feels attracted to Tedros at the same time. But telling the difference between Good and Evil is more difficult than anyone believes. Even in a world run by fairy tale magic, there are a lot of gray areas. And Teddy dear, indecisiveness is a fairly unattractive trait in a man, ESPECIALLY A BOY. Morons.
AND THE VIOLENCE. GAG. YOU CALL THAT VIOLENCE, WHICH I CALL A BAG OF HORSE POOP. I know its middle-grade but STILL!As with traditional folktales and fairy tales, A World Without Princes contains its fair share of violence. For much of the book, the mayhem is implied rather than shown, and when there's a violent encounter, it tends be be cartoonish rather than realistic. Exceptions in this volume include some scenes in which Tedros is tortured and the climactic battle, in which a sympathetic supporting character is killed and Evil seems to triumph.
And again, you guys, make up your minds. My head hurts. T_T
BUT I STILL WANT TO KNOW HOW THE FAIRY TALE ENDS!
Even if you don't read this, WATCH THIS. And tell me, boys or girls? Good or evil?(That's another thing I love. Its titled good and evil, not good and bad. Its amazing.)
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