Will satisfy readers who appreciate the lore of the world of the Descendants franchise.
This stand-alone prequel in the Descendants series follows citizens of the kingdoms who are “fated to meet a great destiny” as they meet at a school for magic.
New students have gathered at the enchanted but dilapidated castle where Merlin Academy is located, deep within the Forest Sauvage. There’s privileged but washed-up Hook, who recently lost a hand; loving orphaned Ella, who yearns for more than the servitude her stepfamily has forced her into; sea witch Uliana, who’s struggling to control her powers in the face of her sister Ursula’s derision; hopeful Bridget, the future Queen of Hearts; Hades, the leather jacket–clad god of the Underworld; eager, self-taught Morgie, son of Morgana le Fay; and the justifiably intimidating Maleficent. Chosen for their potential, each student has their own agenda and need to prove their worth. Initially divided by magical pranks, the students reluctantly unite when headmaster Merlin goes missing. Hades and Maleficent feel peripheral to the story, and Uliana appears way too powerful to need to attend a magic school, but this work that’s set in the world of the popular franchise extends readers’ perspectives on classic characters and satisfies expectations with its frequent references to Disney films and over-the-top characters’ kooky antics and social foibles. Amid the shifting motivations, the magic is all about the spectacle. Subtle cues to racial diversity seem to follow the movie casting.
Will satisfy readers who appreciate the lore of the world of the Descendants franchise. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781368081467
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Disney/Random House
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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