At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish). This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school.

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. 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.

Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales.

A carefully wrought fable, entwining disparate elements from unicorns to particle physics, this will be enjoyed for its suspense and humor as well as its other levels of meaning.Ĭhainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.Įvery 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. Her reiterated descriptions-baboons clapping at dawn, the brilliance of the singing stars-lend a mythic timelessness to the setting. Noah was before Babel L'Engle's universal 'Old Language' is spare, direct, without colloquialisms. The boys, 15, become compassionate participants in preflood events, helping where they can (they reconcile Noah with his father) but always aware that they're 'not supposed to change the story.' Poignantly, they realize that the flood failed in the long term human nature is the same. Old customs are flouted even Noah has quarreled with his father, and young women are wedding nephilim, biblical 'giants in the earth,' drawn here as fallen angels who change from man to beast at will. Her ancient world of desert and oasis are stark in their simplicity, yet the evils precipitating the Flood mirror today's. With a Finn grounding in Genesis, this is the kind of intricate tale with complex characters and relationships that L'Engle's readers have come to expect. Sandy and Dennys, twins and middle children in the Newbery-winning A Wrinkle in Time, are transported to the time just before the Flood.

Prelude by Madeleine L'Engle