Wednesday, September 16, 2015

A World Without Princes

by Soman Chainani

Story summary: I didn't make my own summary for the first book, so I don't think I should have to here either. And laziness wins again!
Beware the SPOILERS for the first book!
"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."
Sequel to The School for Good and Evil.

Why You Will Like This Book:
  • A passionate friendship is at the heart of this book.
  • Explores dichotomies like Good & Evil, Male & Female.

And Why You Might Not:
  • There were a lot of issues caused by a simple lack of communication. I find this really annoying, personally. Why don't people just talk to each other and be straight forward? It's prevented any number of problems in my life.
  • The relationships kept switching back and forth and there was sort of a love triangle and just in general too much focus on that aspect of things.



Thoughts: I liked this a lot less than the first one. Although it was still entertaining, and I still bought the third one on my Kindle so I could read it as soon as possible, there were some really frustrating aspects for me. The primary one was the communication issues. Why couldn't they just listen to each other for three seconds? And it really would have taken only that long. I know they're young and foolish and all that, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating to read about. Basically every single problem they come across here could have been solved like that if they'd communicated a bit.

The second main frustrating aspect was the twists in the relationships. It's hard to get invested in any relationships when they keep switching around all the time. If it were just this book, it might have been ok. But there was some switching in the first book too, and then the third book (which I've already started) has even more. It's annoying. Just... settle things.

Despite these, it was still entertaining. I'm glad I read it. There's a lot of fun to be had, especially with the secondary characters.

Grade: 2 1/2 stars

No comments: