Book Review: Flunked

Flunked by Jen Calonita
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publication Date: March 3, 2015
Source: Netgalley review copy

Full of regret, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Flora, has founded the Fairy Tale Reform School with the mission of turning the wicked and criminally mischievous into upstanding members of Enchantasia.

Impish, sassy 12-year-old Gilly has a history of petty theft and she's not too sorry about it. When she lifts a hair clip, she gets tossed in reform school-for at least three months. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its sweet mission. There's a battle brewing and she starts to wonder: can a villain really change?

This wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. As someone who really loves fairy tales, I was expecting to like this a lot more than I did. I think it had a lot of potential, but for me it just failed to deliver. I wish the fairy tale world had been used more, but it felt like mostly it was just name-dropping of fairy tale characters. Overall just not what I was hoping for. Younger readers might like it more than I did, but I've read better middle grade books.