Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!
What books are you most excited for this week?
Title: The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1)
Author: Soman Chainani
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Rating: ★★★★★
The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.
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.
Two hundred years ago, a tradition began with two children being taken from the town of Gavaldon and brought to The School for Good and Evil. At The School for Good and Evil, children are sent to either the Good side to train to become the heroes of fairy tales, or the Evil side where they become fairy tale villains. Sophie is a beautiful girl who dreams of being sent to The School of Good. Her friend, Agatha, lives in a graveyard and seems like she is destined to go to The School of Evil. When Sophie and Agatha are chosen to go to The School, Sophie is sent to the Evil side and Agatha is sent to the Good side. They have to figure out how to switch to their correct schools.
This is a great twist on the fairy tale story. The students at The School for Good and Evil are trained to become fairy tale characters. Most of the students are descendants of fairy tale characters, like Tedros, the son of King Arthur. Sophie and Agatha stand out because they aren’t from fairy tale families and they can’t predict what their tale will become.
This story explored the meaning of good versus evil. Good is usually portrayed as beautiful and kind, while evil is usually ugly and gross. Since Sophie is beautiful she assumed she would go into the Good side, but she was sent to the Evil side to become a fairy tale villain. Agatha isn’t as pretty and wears black, so she is surprised when she’s sent to become a fairy tale hero. Throughout the story, they discover that good versus evil, or hero versus villain, can’t be determined by outward appearances.
I really enjoyed this story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Have you read The School for Good and Evil? What did you think of it?
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
This weekend I finished The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.
I’m currently reading Master of One by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett.
Next I will be reading Clean Getaway by Nic Stone.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
These are the books I read in October with their ratings and links to my reviews:
I read 28 books. My favourites were Dear Justyce, Welcome to the New World, and The Lost Wonderland Diaries.
What was your favourite book of October?
Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:
I did 9 weekly blogging memes:
How was your week? What did you guys read?
The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.
This Sunday I’m reading The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1) by Woman Chainani.
The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.
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.
What book are you in bed with today?
This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.
This week’s prompt is Books From My Childhood. Here’s my list:
(All book covers from Goodreads)
Did you make a Six for Sunday list?
Title: Hallowe’en Party
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: William Morrow
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 3, 2001
Rating: ★★★
A teenage murder witness is drowned in a tub of apples… At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce—a hostile thirteen-year-old—boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer…
At a children’s Halloween party, 12-year-old Joyce brags about once seeing a murder. Later in the evening, she was found drowned in an apple bobbing barrel. Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate her murder, which leads him to solve the murder that Joyce witnessed.
This was a complicated murder mystery. I thought it would have more of a Halloween theme, since the title is Halloween Party. After the initial scene of the party where Joyce is murdered, the Halloween theme disappeared from the story.
Before Poirot could solve Joyce’s murder, he had to solve the possible murders that Joyce could have witnessed. On the surface, these murders didn’t seem connected to each other or to Joyce. These incidents were complicated and distracted from the main mystery of Joyce’s murder.
The ending of this mystery made sense, but it was a complicated journey to the answer. This wasn’t one of my favourite Agatha Christie mysteries.
Have you read Hallowe’en Party? What did you think of it?
This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Vampires. Here’s my list:
(All book covers from Goodreads)
If you’d like to do this list too, consider yourself tagged!
Did you make a Top 5 Saturday list?
Title: Mexican Gothic
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Publisher: Random House
Source: Purchased
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Rating: ★★★
An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . .
From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes a novel set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find – her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
Noemí is a socialite who lives with her father in Mexico in the 1950s. Her father receives a letter from her cousin one day, which sounds frantic. Her cousin, Catalina, recently married a mysterious man, and she sounds mentally unwell in this letter. Noemí travels to the isolated town where Catalina lives to get some help for her cousin. However, there are strange things happening in Catalina’s home. The extended family who lives there has strict rules, and a dark history, that Noemí has to discover to save her cousin.
This was a unique story. I’ve seen mixed reviews of this book, with people either loving or hating it. Unfortunately, this story didn’t work for me. I was expecting a twisted horror story, but the suspenseful horror wasn’t consistent throughout the book.
It’s difficult to talk about this book without spoiling it. There were strange familial relationships that influenced the horror scenes. There were also some disturbing scenes of sexual assaults. The beginning of the story didn’t introduce what was going to happen. The first chapter started some interesting storylines about Noemí’s character, but the story followed her cousin’s new married life, rather than Noemí’s life.
This was a strange book that didn’t work for me, but other readers have enjoyed it.
Have you read Mexican Gothic? What did you think of it?
Jill's Book Blog 