The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

Sophie always dreamed of being a princess in a story. In the small town of Gavaldon, two people are kidnapped every four years. One would turn out to be good, and the other would be evil. The children would be taken to the School for Good and Evil, to learn either to be a hero with an Everafter, or a villan with a Nevermore. These two were the highest honours awarded. This year, Sophie beleived she would be chosen for good, as she was pretty, and looked like a princess. Her best friend Agatha was the complete opposite, and everyone believed that she would go to evil. Sure enough, the school master came for them, to take than to their school. But then the tables turned. Agatha was dropped into the school for good, while Sophie into the school for evil. They both thought it was a mistake, and kept trying to swap places, but they gradually realized, they were in the right schools after all.

The Land of Stories, book one: The Wishing Spell

The Wishing Spell is a book by Chris Colfer. Alex and Conner Bailey were twins, but they couldn’t have been more different. Alex was a smart, studious girl, while her brother could be lazy, and yet had a sense of humor which sometimes got him into trouble. After their dad’s death when they were eleven, their lives changed drastically. They had to move to a smaller house, and they could rarely see their mom, who was always at work. But they had a small ray of light: their grandmother. On their twelveth birthday, she gave them a book about fairy tales, which magically teleported them to the Land of Stories. More surprisingly, all the famous fairy tale heroes were alive. Cinderella was even pregnant, and Goldilocks was an outcast. But they couldn’t stay in that land, they had to find a way back to their world. A kind frog man told them of a Wishing Spell, which could fulfill any wish. They just had to get the materials for the spell. Though there was a catch. The Wishing Spell could be done only twice, and it was used once before, so there was only one wish left. Worse, Snow White’s Evil stepmother had escaped from the dungeons, and was looking for the spell too! So now it was a race, and the Bailey twins had to finish the spell before the Evil Queen, or they would be stuck in the land of stories. This book was really enjoyable. I was impresed at Alex’s knowledge, and Conners humour and wry remarks made me laugh.

Conceal, Don’t Feel

Conceal, don’t feel is a book by Jen Calonita. Almost everyone has heard of the movie Frozen, which young fans enjoyed watching on the big screen. Not to mention Frozen 2, released around 2019. This book is an alternate version of the beloved movie. Imagine if Anna and Elsa didn’t know each other. How will their story turn out? What would change, and what would stay the same? Elsa, the future queen of Arendelle, holds a lot of responsibility and expectations over her head. Yet, she always felt that a crucial part of her was missing. And when her parents died unexpectedly, lost in sea, Elsa’s powers started appearing. Not only that, but she started getting flashbacks, memories which she couldn’t remember happening, and all of them, included a red-headed girl. Olaf was formed, still remembering Anna, and Elsa desperately started searching for answers. Anna, on the other hand, lived in a town called Harmon, with her adopted parents in a bakery. She couldn’t remember a chunk of her life, and yet, she always felt that Arendelle was calling her, reaching out towards her. After a disastrous coronation, when the folk of Arendelle found about Elsa’s, power, Elsa ran to the mountains, acting her famous ‘Let it go’ scene, just no singing this time. And Anna, after hearing what happened in Arendelle, started getting her memory back, piece by piece. Companied with a talkng snow man, a reindeer called Sven, and Kristof, she set out to find the truth. This book was amazing. The author changed the events, but still managed to keep it true to his original form. Even though a lot of things changed, some parts didn’t. For example, Anna was still chasing after Elsa, winter still surrounded Arendelle, the Duke of Weselton (weasel town) was still overbearing, and Hans was still a snake (metaphorically speaking of course). And the famous ‘Anna punching Hans’ scene still made me smile.

Click’d

Click’d is a book by Tamara Ireland Stone. A girl called Allie Navarro was chosen to enter an app contest, with the app she made: Click’d. Click’d is a friendship game, everyone has a leaderboard, which shows people who they have closest in common with, so they can make friends fast. But the leaderboard doesn’t show the people straight away. When someone starts the game, it’s empty, and they have to find the people. If someone is close, the screen lights up green, and there is a bloop sound. Is that person is even more close, it lights up yellow, and there are two bloops. And if it’s in a range of 50 meters, it turns red and there are three bloops. Then the games shows a hint of the person their finding, by sending a picture from that person’s instagram. When this game spreads through the school, it was a hit, and Allie was confident she would win the contest, and also beat her archenemy, Nathan, whose game was also chosen. But then things started going wrong, and she finds a glitch. She has to fix this glitch before the contest, which is only in a few days! This book was very interesting and exciting, there is also a sequel: Swap’d.

A Series of Unfortunate events (ASOUE)

I have finally finished reading this series, and I decided to write a review about it. In this review, I will write briefly about all 13 books. Series by Lemony Snicket.

ASOUE starts in the book ‘A Bad Beginning’ where the Baudelaire’s, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, learn their parents died, and their new guardian is Count Olaf, a vile man distantly related to the Baudelaires. This evil man will stop at nothing to get the Baudelaires fortune, which they inherited from their parents. In all the books, he comes after them, with his evil henchmen, trying to get his hands on the fortune.

In book 2, ‘The Reptile Room’ the Baudelaires are handed to Uncle Monty, who, unlike Count Olaf, seemed like a nice man. He took care of the Baudelaire orphans. But it didn’t last, as Olaf showed up again.

‘The Wide Window’ is next. The Baudelaires were looked after their Aunt Josephine, who was scared of everything, and loved Grammer. But she was shadowed by a loss of Ilk, her husband. She didn’t last long either.

In ‘The Miserable Mill’ the Baudelaires are handed to a mill to work, and the workers could protect them from Olaf. They had to eat gum as a meal. Needless to say, they did not enjoy their stay.

‘The Austere Acadamy’ was when The Baudelaires were sent to boarding school for protection. They had to deal with annoying Principal Nero, who mocked them at every opportunity, and a horrid girl, Carmelita spats, who always called them ‘cakesniffers’. Not all was bad, they met the Quagmire Triplets, though there were only 2 of them. They to were orphans with a fortune. That’s why they were kidnapped In the end of the book.

Book 6, ‘The Ersatz Elevator’ they went to Jerome and Esmé, a fancy couple. Esmé was always with what’s ‘In’ , while Jerome was timid. They were not the best couple, as will be understood at the end of this book.

‘The Vile Village’, a terrible village filled with crows, where the Baudelaire’s had to do a lot of work everyday. They met a kind handyman, who took care of them, and showed them a secret he was working on.

‘The Hostile Hospital’, a terrible half finished hospital, where the Baudelaires worked incognito. Then Violet, the oldest, was taken, and Sunny and Klaus had to get her back.

In ‘The Carnivorous Carnival’, the Baudelaires were stuck in the boot of Olaf’s car, not that he knew. They followed him to a strange carnival, with a strange fortune woman.

The Slippery Slope. Sunny was taken by Olaf, and Violet and Klaus had to climb a slippery mountain slope to the top. They also met up with someone totally unexpected.

‘The Grim Grotto’ was when the Baudelaires met up with the Queequeg crew, and join together to find the mysterious suger bowl.

Book 12, ‘the Penultimate Peril’, Kit Snicket brings them to a hotel, with two brothers, Frank and Ernest. Frank is a volunteer, while Ernest is an enemy. But they both look so alike the Baudelaires can’t tell who is who.

The last Book, ‘The End’, The Baudelaires and Count Olaf were trapped in a boat and landed on a mysterious island, led by a man called Ishmael.

This series was very interesting and mysterious, filled with twists, turns, and villans.