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    A World Without Princes
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    A World Without Princes
    Unavailable
    A World Without Princes
    Audiobook13 hours

    A World Without Princes

    Written by Soman Chainani

    Narrated by Polly Lee

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL is now a major motion picture from Netflix, starring Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, and many more! 

    It’s all happy ever after at the School for Good and Evil… or is it? The second title in the bestselling series.

    After saving themselves and their fellow students from a life pitched against one another, Sophie and Agatha are back home again, living out their Happily Ever After. But life isn't quite the fairytale they expected…

    Witches and princesses reside at the School for Girls, where they've been inspired to live a life without princes, while Tedros and the boys are camping in Evil's old towers. A war is brewing between the schools, but can Agatha and Sophie restore the peace? Can Sophie stay good with Tedros on the hunt? And whose heart does Agatha's belong to – her best friend or her prince?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 8, 2014
    ISBN9780007593118
    Unavailable
    A World Without Princes
    Author

    Soman Chainani

    Soman Chainani's six novels in the School for Good and Evil series each debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. The series has sold over 4.2 million copies, has been translated into 35 languages, and has been adapted into a film by Netflix that debuted at #1 in over 80 countries. His collection of retold fairy tales, Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales, was also an instant New York Times bestseller and is in development to be a television series from Sony 3000. Soman is a graduate of Harvard University and received his MFA in film from Columbia University. Every year, he visits schools around the world to speak to kids and share his secret: that reading is the path to a better life.

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    Reviews for A World Without Princes

    4/5

    72 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was an interesting twist in Sophie and Agatha's fairytale. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one but it was still a very fun read. I was not expecting the twist at the end, I'm now waiting impatiently for the 3rd book in the series. Thank you, Julie, from Pages and Pens for reviewing this series I wouldn't have found it if you hadn't talked about it on your channel.
    • 3/5
      I hate cliff hangers. I can't give this four stars until I read the last book.
    • 2/5
      It's not a world without princes, this book is more aptly named "The School for Misandrist and Misogynist". While I'm not certain whether I am reading the same book as everyone does since I'm still undecided about the entire series and most seem to love it but this book really did embellish what I hate about the last book.

      I realize that it was the rigid world structure that strangled my general enjoyment. I can't understand why you can't be a bit more flexible with this book. Why can't these fictitious characters exist normally as a person with in-between characteristics that they somehow defile the idea of each groups that one need to shame them or brain wash those they see different. Why does everyone still need to be at war with those and everyone different than they are.

      Why does a person need to create a world where one can't have a choice to be who they are and how they're basically forced to conform with someone's idea of being someone but at the same time seem to actively endorse this kind of qualities. Why can't we as a readers get the feel that there are something positive with the flow of the writing and basically hopeful that the characters' circumstances would be different. Instead we had those who are different or in between being forced to accept their fate "either being evil or forever being a sidekick" and anyone who doesn't accept their destined fate will be treated very badly.

      While I am certain the author is trying to say something positive or have a meaningful point somewhere but I think this is the first book I read in this recent years where I learn more about hating boys and hating girls that it have to be repeated all the time. I get that the series' world was based on the idea of dualism but I do think it was just a rewriting of the first book.

      One of the things I sort of like about the last book was the fact that the school was clearly psychopathic twisted version of fairy tales Hogwarts based on stories that are twisted to begin with. But I think somewhere around the time when this book began to alter Agatha's characterizations and retaining Sophie's attitude is that it forget about the child abuse and child murders going on in the background. Now, I felt like I didn't have anything to make myself invested with the story as some of that mythos was lost in between the drama. The sequel now seem to be invested in pitting the characters against one another again for the choices they made in the last book which revolve around an emo boy and another session of insecure girls.

      Although the first book did try to spin the idea that girls don't need boys to have a happily ever after but now everything changed in this book. We get a reboot of sorts. Everything as just an alternate version of the world they left prior to this book. Where something change but everything remain the same. The school system still exist in a deus ex machina of sorts. There's unresolved issues from the last book (ehem, a cursed kid got beheaded last time.. remember).

      I'm not sure what sort of empowering message this book trying to sell. Being a character who stand up for herself and her love is wrong. You still have to choose one over another and not both. Being a strong female character is IMPOSSIBLE because the male characters will lose their masculinity and fret about their hate on girls that they have this mob mentality again and very homicidal on the other sex and so on.

      Seeing that there's no middle ground between these school that allowed the idea that one can have more than two gender identity, I do feel that the entire story structure is crumpling down trying to reason out these inconsistencies. What even weirder, then there's even a magical option to change your sex just to sneak into the other side because they can't stand being in the other side. I don't know about you but that was halfhearted for an author to attempt to discuss gender identity issues.

      I am a feminist myself but it was clear that someone think being misandrist was a requirement to be empowered as a female. I am secure with my gender and accept individual expectations and potential but superficial complete hate of another just because they have differing sex chromosome was ridiculous. Yes, there are men who completely hate anything about female or the idea of being female and having a brain or being self-empowered above theirs. They do exist and these sort of thinking is a chronic disease we face everywhere. We're living in a patriarchal society and that is factual. I accepted this type of quality in some men and prayed that they might change their mind but I don't agree that we need a reverse form of misogyny to portray this degree of dualism. Sometimes this is what made this book abhorrent to me. What is it with the persisting idea that princess can only be empowered by completely annihilating the prince or men and the call to render them useless and defeated and emasculated as a form of social justice. Really?

      The book could have been better but I do think this book is destructive to young readers. I mean really, girls insisting they're better off without boys is fine but girls wishing all boys dead. Boys wanting to kill girls for no other reason except they blame someone for ruining their structure of the world. The idea of Queen Guinevere so abhorrent (btw, spoilers, Gwen did take over Camelot in Merlin) Superficial characters, simplified world-building around troublesome complex issues done in a confusing way. I suppose I like the idea that the hero becoming anti-hero but I felt Agatha in this book was a pale version of the one in the first book and Sophie was genuinely repetitive and predictable and changeable. This whole book was a plain disappointment and the plot just scattered in the wind somewhere. I wish I have enough enthusiasm for the next book, I guess we should just wait for it then.
    • 3/5
      I actually think I liked this more than I liked the first book. It was more succinct and the story moved along at a better pace. I'm actually looking forward to reading the next one.
    • 3/5
      This isn't quite as good as the first book in this series. However, it's even more gay, if that's even possible. I mean, in the first book, Agatha and Sophie were totally hot for each other. In this book, Sophie becomes a prince, with the help of a nifty spell. And, of course, as a boy, she ends up making out with another boy. As you do.

      This book is the story of boys vs. girls, instead of good vs. evil. At the beginning, it seems that Agatha and Sophie aren't completely happy with their fairy tale lesbian lifestyle. Each of them still long for something else. Agatha longs for the love of her prince, and Sophie wishes to be reunited with her long-dead mother.

      Because of these wishes, their fairy tale is undone, and they are whisked back to their school which has been divided into a school for boys, and a school for girls. And each side is at war with each other. There is a bounty out for the heads of both Agatha and Sophie.

      To me, this book seemed like it was forced. It was like the author couldn't think of a follow-up book, so someone suggested this stupid idea of boys vs. girls, and he just forced it into being. Which really sucks, because the first book was awesome. It was so good, I can kind of understand the frustration in coming up with anything that would do it justice.

      I really wish the author would have just left the first book alone. Just kept it a stand-alone novel, instead of forcing it into a series. But we can't all have what we want, can we? Fuck no. So I don't get a perfect lesbo fairy tale follow-up book. Big fucking deal.

      It's still kind of cool and funny watching the prince fall in love with boy-Sophie. When Agatha caught them kissing, the prince went all "It was an accident! I swear! I'm totally not gay, babe. Seriously. Any guy would have made the same mistake. I mean, look at this guy. He's so hot, right? He's nearly a girl, I swear. It's totally not gay..." And on and on. Methinks he protests too much.
    • 1/5
      The one star out of five is simply for the world building. The rest of this book is just mindblowing reductive in terms of gender roles. Did you know that girls relying on themselves equates to getting rid of boys with the goal of making them slaves? Did you know that boys, without the civilizing effect of girls or adults, turn into rampant, disgusting pigs who feel the need to pee on everything? Did you know that feminism isn't a dismantling of patriarchal structures that trap both men and women, but rather women who despise, ridicule, and exploit men? Did you know that, no matter what, doing something like a girl is an insult? Did you know that you can't have both friends and romantic interests - only one or the other? What a shitty messages to put in a book geared towards pre-teens. There are parts of this book that read like they came straight from a MRA forum.I am angry I wasted my time on this. I am angry that pretty much on every page I had to rewrite what was happening so I could read it to my six year old. This book had so much potential and squandered it all so we could have a standard tale of damsels in distress, feminazis, and needing men to save the day.
    • 4/5
      Continuing saga of Sophie and Agatha, whose happily ever after is tested and found lacking. Wishes made bring them back to the School for Good and Evil, where they must once again decide on their happily ever after.
    • 3/5
      This second book perfectly followed along the tale of Agatha and Sophie. There seemed to be a love it or hate it reaction to this sequel, but I thought it was just fine. More than anything, it set up the third installment so well I can't wait for June!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed the sequel to The School for Good and Evil, and felt that it continued to innovative tone and complex themes of the initial novel. The story begins with Sophie and Agatha in their village again, a few months after their dramatic return at the end of the first novel. The author smartly passes over the villager's reaction to their miraculous return, as this is not a focus of the plot and could absorb a lot of narrative space, instead just explaining it in exposition and dialogue between the girls. By the time the story opens, the villager's are used to their presence and have moved on, despite Sophie's attempts to cling to her small moment of fame. Part of her driving motivation is the upcoming wedding between her father and Honoraria, which she adamantly opposes. When her nightmares start to return, and Sophie fears her evil side emerging, she decides to be good, no matter what the cost. She even pretends happiness at the marriage. Her only anchor in all of this emotional turmoil is Agatha, and Sophie embraces her friend with the emotional loyalty that Agatha once displayed for her. Agatha, however, is struggling though her own conflicted feelings.
    • 4/5
      Sophie and Agatha are back at the School for Good and Evil, but the events when they last departed have divided the schools by gender: the School for Girls is run by the vaguely menacing Dean Sadar; Evers and Nevers are no longer enemies so long as they're the same gender; and the School for Boys is more or less anarchy personified. Once again, Agatha and Sophie are torn between their love for each other and pretty much every other aspect of their lives: boys, school, family, friends, etc. I'm still enjoying the series, but I do become quite reflective about what it says about gender roles and sexuality. In some ways it seems to be awkwardly heteronormative but then again, perhaps not? I'm curious to see if this series is going anywhere in particular. This book, much like the last one, has both a definitive ending and a slight cliffhanger. It's like, "yes, I know this chapter is over, and that's fine, but what happens next?" Which I suppose is what you want in a series, so long as the last book doesn't end that way.
    • 3/5
      Agatha and Sophie thought they had their happy ending but not quite. Now they learn what happened at the end of their fairy tale and they have to try to put things right. Like the first in the series, this second entry is an entertaining adventure with a somewhat convoluted plot. Also the author skates around the concept of love between same sexes but persists in the idea that a truly happy ending can only happen when a girl forsakes her friend for a boy. One can only hope that the next book finally acknowledges the value of true friendship and love and puts the fairy tale crap to rest.
    • 3/5
      This is the second book in The School for Good and Evil series. This series is a planned trilogy with the third book releasing in June of 2015 and titled The Last Ever After. I was honestly a bit disappointed in this book. It is an interesting concept but I was very disappointed in how it stereotyped things like feminism and separation of love/friendship. When Agatha secretly wishes for a different Happily Ever After Agatha and Sophie find themselves back at the School for Good and Evil. However things have drastically changed. When Agatha chose her friendship with Sophie over her Prince she rendered Princes obsolete. Now Princes are no longer needed. The schools have turned into the School for Girls and the School for Boys. Agatha and Sophie have to figure out how to get their story to End and get back home before the two schools end up at war.I loved the first book in this series, it was such a fun idea. I also enjoyed the idea of Sophie and Agatha’s choice in the first book causing drastic changes to the world of Ever After in this book. However I was disappointed by a lot of things in this book.While the idea of schools switching from Good vs Evil to Girls vs Boys is an interesting one, it wasn’t executed very well. Keep in mind this is a middle grade book. This book will be introducing a lot of young readers to the concept of feminism. While I enjoyed that the School for Girls encouraged the Girls to find their own paths there were a lot of things I didn’t enjoy. Feminism is blatantly portrayed as hatred of men. In order for the Girls to fit in in their school they must hate the boys, they cannot find their own way and still like the boys. In fact any of the girls who choose to be girly are ridiculed. This is a bad introduction to feminism and really not done well.On the opposite coin all of the boys are portrayed as vicious and dirty. Apparently all boys without girls around are dirty and mean. Again huge stereotype. Added to this is the strange idea that you can have either a best friend or a boyfriend but not both. Seriously, it is assumed throughout the story that there is absolutely no way either of the girls can get their prince and still be best friends.Then there was the degradation of our characters. I really enjoyed Agatha in the first book. In this book she is like a different character. Agatha is easily swayed, she is gullible, and even a bit cruel. She acts more like your typical damsel in distress than the sweet smart girl she was in the first book. What happened?Then there is poor Sophie. She is still a bit of a brat, but she is trying to be Good. She is trying to put others’ needs before her own. However, the way things turn out she doesn’t have a hope of influencing things in the story.In the end I was left feeling a bit confused. Is this a story about fate or about being able to choose what you want? Things are awfully black and white with very little grey. I ended not enjoying this book as much as the first one.Overall not as good as the first book in this series. There are two many ideas here that are misrepresented or just presented poorly. I didn’t like any of the characters and I didn’t like the direction the plot took. I wouldn’t recommend this series, it started out fairly creative but has gone down hill. I won’t be reading any more books in it.
    • 4/5
      Once upon a time, two girls kidnapped from the sleepy town of Gavaldon by the mysterious Schoolmaster. One was perfect and beautiful, thought to be destined for the School of Good, while the other was an oddball and an outcast from birth, sure to have been a shoo-in for the School of Evil. But pretty Sophie with her flawless features and dreams of princes and pink dresses ended up being dumped in Evil, while strange, frumpy Agatha landed in Good! Together, the two friends discovered the truth behind this apparent mix-up, and learned more about each other and themselves along the way. They worked to escape the clutches of the sinister Schoolmaster and made it back home to Gavaldon, but the adventure is far from over.As you can probably tell, there were a couple of really heartwarming messages in the first book of The School for Good and Evil series, as befitting a novel more suitably aimed at Middle Grade readers. “Beauty is only skin deep” and “Believe in yourself” are only a couple examples, woven into a unique and magical fairy-tale style story.This sequel, however, is a bit more complicated and a little more twisted. Once again, Sophie and Agatha find themselves back in the land of princesses and witches, princes and henchmen. But gone are the Schools for both Good and Evil, and in their places are the School for Girls and School for Boys. Some major changes have taken place since the two girls left; new alliances have formed while old bonds have broken, and now boys and girls are locked in a bitter war. The fate of the schools and this world rest on Agatha and Sophie and whether or not they can find their Happily Ever After.So A World Without Princes was a fun read, but I also can’t deny that this sequel has lost some of the magic that made me fall in love with the first book. Story-wise, it was a little rough around the edges, with a plot that seemed to meander needlessly in several places. Friction and misunderstandings and between the two main characters feel forced, prolonging the conflict without adding anything new. Unlike its predecessor, this second book didn’t read like it had a clear direction or a main theme it was drawing from, and the storytelling was very uneven with long stretches that felt monotonous in some places and plot developments that felt like they came out of nowhere in others.A World Without Princes is also much darker in tone compared to The School for Good and Evil. I’d hand the first book to a Middle Grader without a second thought, since it was at once ridiculous and full of heart, cute with just the right amount of wickedness to enchant readers of all ages. On the other hand, the second book would probably give me pause. The more mature themes and violence in this would likely not bother Adult and Young Adult readers, and it’s certainly not a negative to me personally as I was reading this, but it’s still enough that I’d hesitate to give this book to a 8 to 12-year-old, which I think is the age range most publishers are traditionally using for MG guidelines these days. There’s mild torture, descriptions of images that involve a mother drowning her child, scenes of boys and girls talking about and relishing the idea of killing each other, just to name a few examples of things that that might be disturbing to younger readers. As they say, reader discretion is advised, in the end use your own judgment to decide.In spite of it all, I love the characters, I love the premise of these books, and I still enjoyed myself a lot. Agatha and Sophie are precious, and I just can’t get enough of them, their shenanigans in this novel notwithstanding. There are still many moments of whimsy and humor that author Soman Chainani does so well, and plenty of scenes brought smiles to my face. Ultimately, I really want to find out what will happen to these two friends, and the repercussions from the climax and shocking conclusion to this book are sure to be significant. “Happily Ever After” hasn’t come yet, and I’m definitely not going to give up on this series until “The End”.
    • 4/5
      Oh my god... what was that... wow, that was brilliant
    • 2/5
      It certainly felt like kind of a filler-y middle book. The first part was a bit of a struggle to get through but it picked up the pace a little bit at the end.
    • 3/5
      After the first one, which felt interesting and well-imagined, this middle installment was...middling. There's a lot of investment in a binary choice of best friend or boyfriend. There's no fairy tale ending in which both can be a true love. Whereas the first book was fresh, this one felt trite and reductive. Heard the third is better, but I'm just not sure I want to invest any more time in these characters. Nice illustrations though.
    • 3/5
      After liking first book I'm sad to say this book was a bit disappointing. It was almost as if Agatha and Sophie changed places and personalities in this installment. I was expecting more from Tedros but sadly he was just as lame as he was in first book.
      The end was a bit abrupt, kind of a cliffhanger but not one of those that leave you dying to get your hands on next installment, at least it wasn't for me. I'm not sure if I'll read next book, I think I'll wait to read some reviews before deciding.
    • 5/5
      Chainani's take on fairy tales and the ways they divide people is so fresh and lovely. I can't wait for book 3!