Unwieldy as ever cast-wise, but the visual format suits the violent, dramatic storylines.
Rising tensions culminate in a savage battle even as Tigerstar’s bid for dominance over all the forest Clans fulfills the prophecy that “Lion and tiger will meet in battle…and blood will rule the forest.”
In this graphic novel, which adapts the events of the fifth and sixth novels in the Prophecies Begin series, Fireheart becomes Firestar, leader of ThunderClan, after Bluestar is killed while fighting off a pack of wild dogs. He then goes on to unite the Clans against threats from both within and without. The switch in format doesn’t help readers much in keeping track of the teeming cast; there’s no visual key, and so many of the cats differ so slightly in individual markings that even confirmed series fans may struggle to keep track of who’s who. Name changes are another issue: Following an attack in which she has an eye torn out, Brightpaw is renamed Lostface, and finally Brightheart, and she spends much of the tale with medicinal leaves covering the healing wound, which at least makes her easy to identify. The art allows wordless montages to speed the plot along and also gives the artists license to depict tender moments of head bumping and anthropomorphic smiles and other expressions—not to mention lots of hideously vicious claws and teeth, and savage fights. Concept and character sketches at the end offer insights into the artists’ process.
Unwieldy as ever cast-wise, but the visual format suits the violent, dramatic storylines. (Graphic animal fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780063203938
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and...
Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.
Broadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. Hook to various evil stepmothers to take stabs (literally) at changing the ends of their stories. Meanwhile, amid a general slaughter of dwarves and billy goats, Agatha and her rigid but educable true love, Tedros, flee for protection to the League of Thirteen. This turns out to be a company of geriatric versions of characters, from Hansel and Gretel (in wheelchairs) to fat and shrewish Cinderella, led by an enigmatic Merlin. As the tale moves slowly toward climactic battles and choices, Chainani further lightens the load by stuffing it with memes ranging from a magic ring that must be destroyed and a “maleficent” gown for Sophie to this oddly familiar line: “Of all the tales in all the kingdoms in all the Woods, you had to walk into mine.” Rafal’s plan turns out to be an attempt to prove that love can be twisted into an instrument of Evil. Though the proposition eventually founders on the twin rocks of true friendship and family ties, talk of “balance” in the aftermath at least promises to give Evil a fighting chance in future fairy tales. Bruno’s polished vignettes at each chapter’s head and elsewhere add sophisticated visual notes.
Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and flashes of hilarity. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-210495-3
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2015
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